Restoredrill automates PostgreSQL backup verification for compliance
The open-source tool uses ephemeral Docker containers to prove database restores work, generating auditor-ready evidence for SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
Ahmad Piran has released Restoredrill (v0.1.0), an open-source utility designed to eliminate the risk of "silent failures" in PostgreSQL backup pipelines. The tool automates the process of verifying backups by restoring them into ephemeral Docker containers and running a series of validation checks.
Restoredrill functions as a CI-native tool that fetches PostgreSQL backups—supporting both plain SQL dumps and pg_dump -Fc archives from local sources or S3—and restores them to a throwaway container. Once restored, the tool executes user-defined SQL checks and generates timestamped JSON reports. These reports use a specific 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS UTC' date format, a design choice intended to allow teams to easily copy-paste evidence into spreadsheets for auditors.
A tiered approach to validation
To ensure a comprehensive recovery test, Restoredrill organizes its verification into four distinct tiers. It begins with "Prechecks" to verify file integrity and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO). It then moves to "Structural" checks to ensure tables and sequences are synchronized, followed by "Read-path" validations that use row counts and SQL assertions to confirm data accuracy. Finally, the tool captures "RTO evidence" by recording the total duration of the restore process.
Solving the restore gap
While many organizations maintain strict backup policies, few regularly test their restores due to the lack of safe, isolated environments and the manual effort required to spin up test databases. This gap creates a significant operational risk; as Piran noted on GitHub, "Untested backups aren't backups."
Restoredrill is positioned as a narrow, focused utility. Its primary goal is to integrate into existing CI/CD pipelines to provide machine-generated proof of recovery. This makes it particularly useful for engineering teams needing to meet the rigorous evidence requirements of SOC 2, ISO 27001, and AWS Foundational Technical Reviews.
Industry implications
By lowering the friction of restore testing to a "one-command habit," the tool addresses a common pain point for DevOps and SRE teams. The ability to automate the generation of auditor-ready reports reduces the manual burden of compliance gathering while simultaneously increasing system reliability. The utility's focus on ephemeral infrastructure ensures that testing does not interfere with production environments or leave behind orphaned data.
What's next
As an early-stage release, Restoredrill provides a foundation for automated recovery testing. Future adoption will likely depend on how well it integrates with various cloud-native backup workflows and whether additional database engines are supported beyond PostgreSQL. For now, it serves as a specialized bridge between technical backup execution and regulatory compliance reporting.