Concept
Recovery Validation And Evidence
The AsureDense suite: checksum validation, boot and mount evidence after backup, interactive boot sessions, and operator attestations.
Overview
Recovery validation in Sendense is delivered by the AsureDense suite: AsureDense checksum validation proves stored backup data is intact, boot and mount evidence show a recovery point can be attached, read, and started, interactive boot sessions let operators watch a recovery point boot live, and Clean Room validates whole application groups in isolation.
Sendense can automatically collect validation evidence after a backup completes. A single evidence run collects two kinds of evidence: mount evidence, where the recovery point's filesystems are inspected read-only, and boot evidence, where the recovery point is booted in an isolated temporary VM.
Validation evidence is enabled per protection pattern (off by default) and can be overridden per VM. Evidence collection never modifies the recovery point, and an evidence failure or skip never fails the backup itself.
Evidence collection flow
Policy decides
Backup Completes
If validation evidence is enabled for the VM, an evidence run is due immediately or on its configured cadence.
Read-only inspection
Mount Evidence
Filesystems are inspected without modification: filesystem types, sizes, file counts, detected OS family, UEFI boot files.
Isolated temporary VM
Boot Evidence
The recovery point boots from a disposable copy in an isolated VM. A console screenshot, boot timing, firmware type, and guest signals are recorded.
90 days by default
Recorded And Retained
Evidence and the screenshot are viewable per VM, feed the Restore Readiness report, and are cleaned up automatically after the retention period.
What Evidence Shows
Mount evidence shows that the recovery point's filesystems can be attached and read. Boot evidence shows that the recovery point can be attached to a VM and started, with a screenshot captured as evidence.
Evidence, not acceptance testing
Validation evidence helps show a recovery point is usable. It is not a guarantee of full guest operating system health or application function, and it does not replace application acceptance testing.
Guest Tools Make Evidence Richer
If guest tools respond inside the booted VM, Sendense also records guest-reported IP addresses and tools readiness. Without guest tools, evidence is limited to the console screenshot and any network-observed IP address.
Boot Sessions And Attestations
Operators can start an on-demand interactive boot session for any completed recovery point, with a live browser console. Sessions stop automatically after 20 minutes or when the console is closed.
Operators can mark a session result as passed or failed with optional notes. Attestations are stored with the operator identity and timestamp and shown alongside the VM's evidence.
Cadence And Limits
- Run evidence immediately in the backup pipeline, or defer it to background dispatch.
- Run every N backups, with a minimum spacing between runs and optional staggering across VMs.
- A concurrency limit caps simultaneous evidence VMs, and each run has an execution timeout.
- Evidence runs are skipped, not failed, when the VM is busy with conflicting operations.
AsureDense Checksum Validation
AsureDense checksum validation is the automatic backup-integrity feature of the suite. In the protection pattern wizard it is the "AsureDense Validation" switch (checksum verification) in the Validation panel.
- When enabled, Sendense verifies recovery point checksums automatically after each backup.
- Validation progress appears in Active Jobs.
- Corrupt chains are isolated: a recovery point that fails validation can be quarantined so it is not used for recovery or as the base of further backups.
- The result controls whether a recovery point may serve as the parent of the next incremental, protecting the chain going forward.
- Recovery point views show the outcome: Validated, Pending, Retrying, Failed, or Quarantined.
Two different questions
Checksum validation proves the stored backup data is intact. Boot and mount evidence separately show the recovery point can be attached, read, and started. A complete recovery posture uses both.
Where Evidence Appears
- Per VM: the Validation tab shows the latest boot and mount evidence, the screenshot, session controls, and attestations.
- Recovery point views show validation state such as Validated, Pending, Retrying, Failed, or Quarantined, plus a Bootable indicator.
- The Restore Readiness report buckets VMs as Fresh, Stale, Unverified, or Never tested, with CSV export.
- The Pipeline Runs report shows validation and evidence results for each backup run.
Related Docs