Glossary A–ZLetter R
Restore
Restore means recovering data or a working system from a backup after a loss or failure.
It is the actual purpose of every backup.
In a screen network, this mainly concerns the management software: the database with playlists, schedules, users and devices, plus the media storage. If the server fails, it is rebuilt and populated from the backup; the players then register again with their device ID and fetch their current state. A restore can also be small, such as recovering an accidentally deleted playlist.
Two targets help with planning: how much data loss is acceptable at most, meaning the interval between two backups, and how long the restore may take. In technical terms they are called RPO (recovery point objective) and RTO (recovery time objective). Both should be measured in a test, not estimated. Recovering individual parts, such as a single folder, is often harder than restoring everything. Anyone going back to an older state also reverses all later changes.