Restore a File
Restore files from a snapshot created through IBM Spectrum Protect Plus Backup jobs. Files can be restored to their original or alternate location.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
- Review the File Indexing and Restore Requirements. See File Indexing and Restore Requirements.
- Run a Backup job with Catalog file metadata enabled. Note that credentials must be established for the associated virtual machine as well as the alternate virtual machine destination through the Guest OS Username and Guest OS Password option within the backup job definition. Ensure the virtual machine can be accessed from the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance either through DNS or host-name. In a Windows environment, the default security policy uses the Windows NTLM protocol, and the user identity follows the default domain\Name format if the Hyper-V virtual machine is attached to a domain. The format <local administrator> is used if the user is a local administrator.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS:
- Encrypted Windows file systems are not supported for file indexing or file restore.
- For a file restore to complete successfully, ensure that the user on the target machine has the necessary ownership permissions of the file being restored. If a file was created by a user that differs from the user restoring the file based on their Windows security credentials, the file restore will fail.
- File indexing and file restore are not supported from restore points that were offloaded to IBM Spectrum Protect storage.
- When restoring files in a Resilient File System (ReFS) environment, restores from newer versions of Windows Server to earlier versions are not supported. For example, restoring a file from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2012 R2.
-
Use an NTP server to synchronize the time zones across IBM Spectrum Protect Plus resources in your environment, such as the IBM Spectrum Protect Plus appliance, storage arrays, hypervisors and application servers . If the clocks on the various systems are significantly out of sync, you may experience errors during application registration, metadata cataloging, Inventory, Backup, or Restore/File Restore jobs. For more information about identifying and resolving timer drift, see the following VMware knowledge base article: Time in virtual machine drifts due to hardware timer drift.
HYPER-V CONSIDERATIONS:
- Only volumes on SCSI disks are eligible for file cataloging and file restore.
LINUX CONSIDERATIONS:
- If data resides on LVM volumes, the lvm2-lvmetad service must be disabled as it can interfere with IBM Spectrum Protect Plus's ability to mount and resignature volume group snapshots/clones. To disable:
systemctl stop lvm2-lvmetad
systemctl disable lvm2-lvmetad
- Edit the file /etc/lvm/lvm.conf and set
use_lvmetad = 0
- If data resides on XFS file systems and the version of xfsprogs is between 3.2.0 and 4.1.9, the file restore can fail due to a known issue in xfsprogs that causes corruption of a clone/snapshot file system when its UUID is modified. To resolve this issue, update xfsprogs to version 4.2.0 or above. For more information, see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=782012.
To restore a file:
- From the navigation menu, expand Jobs and Operations, then click File Restore.
- Enter a search string to search for a file by name, then click Search
. See Search Guidelines.
- Optionally, use filters to fine-tune your search across specific virtual machines, date range in which the file was protected, and virtual machine operating system types. Searches can also be limited to a specific folder through the Folder path filter. The Folder path field supports wildcards. Position wildcards at the beginning, middle, or end of a string. For example, enter
*Downloads
to search within the Downloads folder without entering the preceding path. - Click Search
to perform the search with selected filters.
- To restore the file using default options, click Restore. The file is restored to its original location.
- To edit options before restoring the file, click Options. Set the file restore options.
- Overwrite existing files/folder
- Select to replace the existing file or folder with the restored file or folder.
- Destination
- Restore the file to its original location by selecting Restore files to original location. Select Restore files to alternative location to restore to a local destination different from the original location, then select the alternate location from available resources through the navigation tree or through the search function.
- Note: If restoring to an alternate location, credentials must be established for the alternate virtual machine through the Guest OS Username and Guest OS Password option within the backup job definition.
- Enter the VM folder path on the alternate destination in the Destination Folder field. Note that the directory will be created if it does not exist.
- Click Save to save the options.
- To restore the file using defined options, click Restore.
- Enter a character string to find objects with a name that exactly matches the character string. Searching for the term string.txt will return the exact match, string.txt.
- Apply wildcards as needed.
- Regular Expression search entries are supported. For more information see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/scripting/search-text-with-regular-expressions.
A wildcard is a character that you can substitute for zero or more unspecified characters when searching text. Position wildcards at the beginning, middle, or end of a string, and combine them within a string.
- Match a character string with an asterisk, which represents a variable string of zero or more characters:
- string* searches for terms like string, strings, or stringency
- str*ing searches for terms like string, straying, or straightening
- *string searches for terms like string or shoestring
- Match a single character with a question mark:
- string? searches for terms like strings, stringy, or string1
- st??ring searches for terms like starring or steering
- ???string searches for terms like hamstring or bowstring
You can use multiple asterisk wildcards in a single text string, though this might considerably slow down a large search.
The search functionality supports special characters, which must be escaped with a \ before the character. The following special characters are supported: + - & | ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ " ~ * ? : \
To search for a file named string[2].txt, enter the following: string\[2\].txt.
IBM Spectrum Protect Plus 10.1.2
Licensed Material - Property of IBM Corp. © IBM Corporation and other(s) 2018. IBM is a registered trademark of the IBM Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. | 8/23/2018