No matter what you use, you test it.
You can't just back stuff up like a demon, and sit there with a smug look on your face.
I can give an example. At work, there was a hotshot entry level manager. One day he tells us "the backup software for our new OS is finished". Now, to me "finished" means certain things, as I expect it would mean to our customers.
OK, so the tape library is filling up with tapes. The server goes down. Senior manager says "time to get a restore going on that new backup software". OK, fire up the software and "boom", restore failure. Says the hotshot manager "oh, we didn't test restore because we didn't have the equipment for it".
And this is the hotshot manager, not one of the more regular, conservative managers... grrr.
So don't be that guy, OK ?
*Always* prove to your own satisfaction, that the product everyone else is using, does something useful for you.When I dialed in my backup software, my first images were done with "dd", because... I knew that worked, and even if the whizzy software did not work, I had a plan for how to restore the production environment to a working state. Sure, "dd" is slow, but it's like a bank account. Practice with it enough, and you'll trust it.
My purpose saying that, is not to promote "dd". It's to promote the concept of "working from an established base of trust". Yes, I'm doing an experiment with the new stuff, but I also have materials handy if things go very very wrong. It doesn't matter what the reliable materials are, as long as they work for you.
Dialing in backup software, can benefit from having a couple empty hard drives handy, for the experiments. You can't do these things on a shoestring. The spare hard drives are also sitting there in the box, for when the regular hard drive croaks.
Paul