backup-verification · shipping · also backup integrity verification

Backup verification

Backup verification checks stored backup material against specified integrity and completeness rules.

A passing result describes the checks performed, not proven application recovery. PostgreSQL 18 pg_verifybackup checks a manifest, files and required WAL; WAL parsing is version-specific and supported for plain-format backups, not tar backups. Record any --no-parse-wal, --skip-checksums or --ignore options. It deliberately ignores postgresql.auto.conf, standby.signal and recovery.signal, so success does not validate recovery configuration.

Relations

related

backup-manifest, restore-test, incremental-backup, immutability-storage, data-scrubbing

Advantages

• Can identify missing or altered files before recovery is attempted. [1]

Limitations

• Does not replace a restore test. [1]
• A result is conditional on a trustworthy manifest. [2]

Citations

1. PostgreSQL 18: pg_verifybackup, checks and exclusions (accessed 2026-10-13)
2. PostgreSQL 18: pg_basebackup, manifest checksums and trust (accessed 2026-10-13)
3. Hesela: Backup verification is not a restore test (accessed 2026-10-13)

JSON: /data/terms/backup-verification.json