# Align encrypted backups with the 10-day operating policy

**Published:** 29 October 2026  
**Status:** Timer configuration changed and live state verified. The next scheduled backup has not yet run.

## Finding

The production backup timer was active, but its systemd drop-in set <code>OnUnitInactiveSec=3d</code>, which did not match the project's recorded requirement for a backup every 10 days. A full encrypted backup completed successfully on 28 October 2026: upload succeeded, the remote ciphertext SHA-256 matched the locally computed hash, and temporary plaintext work was cleaned up.

## Change applied

The timer drop-in now sets <code>OnUnitInactiveSec=10d</code> and retains a 15-minute randomized delay. The timer was reloaded and restarted, then read back from systemd. It is active and reports the next run as **7 November 2026 at 08:25:17 UTC**. The backup service itself was not triggered by this configuration change and remains inactive between scheduled runs. A local copy of the previous timer override was preserved for rollback.

## Evidence recorded

- Previous effective interval: 3 days.
- New effective interval: 10 days after the backup service becomes inactive.
- Last recorded full backup: started 28 October 2026 at 08:00:13 UTC and finished at 08:24:51 UTC.
- Last backup result: success; remote upload and content-hash comparison passed.
- Last encrypted object size: 19,831,381,381 bytes.
- Live timer: active after <code>systemctl daemon-reload</code> and restart.
- Next run shown by <code>systemctl list-timers</code>: 2026-11-07 08:25:17 UTC.

## Limits

This release verifies the schedule configuration, not the outcome of a future run. The next backup still needs to complete and pass remote hash verification. No restore drill was performed as part of this change, so recoverability from a restored environment remains unverified. The application, production data and model weights were not changed.