Archive:The Restore 4.4

From SEPsesam
<<<Back
The Backup
User Manual
Next>>>
Duplication and Migration


Restore overview

SEP sesam provides three restore types: full restore (all files of a save set), selective restore (selected files) and generation restore. Restore is triggered from the menu bar -> Activities -> Restore. Restore wizard guides you through the process of restoring your data. For step-by-step procedure, see Standard Restore Procedure.

Restore tasks can be saved, scheduled and run automatically in continuous intervals to check and control the data integrity. For details, see SEPuler.

Selective restore

During selective restore only a subset of files of a save set is selected. Sesam positions the media at the last mark before the selected data, skips unselected files and transfers only the desired files. This guarantees a quick and network-optimal restore.

Generation restore

Selective restores from differential or incremental backups require a chain of several restores starting from the last full backup. Sesam automatically switches to the generation view and handles the arrangement of these single steps for the user. In the generation view, all generations of files are presented: The selection list displays not only the files from the selected differential or incremental backup, but all files since the last full backup.

In the SEP sesam GUI a specific view can be chosen, either the view for single backups or the generations view. The single backups view enables the user to specify only works on the selected type, whether it is an incremental or a differential restore (similar to a normal restore).

Scheduled restores

Scheduled restores are performed by creating an event or task. It is also possible to schedule a restore for data that has not yet been backed up. The selective restore can be set to run at the completion of the daily backup routine, e.g., the last backed up file can be restored, preferably to a new directory and the data validity established.

Restore wizard

Restore wizard is triggered from the menu bar -> Activities -> Restore. The following restore options are available in the restore wizard to define how your data will be restored.

Step 1: Welcome page

By default, the welcome page is not displayed when starting the wizard. It provides only general information on specifying restore process.

Step 2: Filter

You can select how you want to search for your backed up data. Save sets can be searched by task name in the save set, or by filename or path.

Restore wizard-filter.png


The specific tasks can be selected from the Task drop-down list, or a regular expression can be entered into the Search pattern field to search for files by their name or path. Saved in period allows the user to search for save sets only within the specified timeframe. Show external results extends the search to the save sets that belong to other clients.

Step 3: Select task

The results of the search are displayed in the table.

Restore wizard select.png


You can enable any of the following options:

Complete restore of selected task will restore everything in the task. Hide migrated means that the save sets that have been moved with a migration task will not appear in the results. Generation restore must be checked if you are restoring from an incremental or differential backup. Disaster restore should be enabled if you are restoring a server from a disaster scenario. For details on disaster recovery, see Sesam Disaster Recovery. If a client server is being recovered, simply select the server’s disaster recovery backup task.

Mount save set – available only from version 4.4.2

After selecting the save set for restore, from the SEP sesam v. 4.4.2 a checkbox Mount save set under the Single File Restore becomes available. You can mount any non-compressed and non-encrypted file-based save set stored to default data store Path or to Si3 data store. Mounting is not possible if the save sets are stored to tapes.

Note:

It is recommended that this option is enabled for restoring specific data, such as Exchange, Hyper-V and V-Sphere backups, because it provides faster restore time and performance. The target save set is mounted to the SEP sesam home directory var\tmp\mnt, e.g., C:\Program Files\SEPsesam\var\tmp\mnt\save_set_ID. This way the save set is instantly accessible for browsing and searching before the actual restore is even triggered, providing you with quick access to your data, such as single mailboxes. The mounted save set is basically a virtual read-only file system, therefore it cannot be altered or otherwise damaged.

Step 4: Select files

Individual files can be specified for restore.

Restore wizard select files.png


The file explorer is used to specify the files to be restored.

The Search button below provides an additional option to search for files within the target save set.

Step 5: Save and start

The final step of the restore wizard provides an overview of the restore task. In the table above the save set that is selected for restore is displayed with its attributes. In the Name field, the name of the task is assigned automatically and can be modified.

Restore wizard save.png


Most of the following options already have default values or are enabled by default and can be used in most cases. Some provide fine-tuning needed for more specific data restore.

Drive:The number of the drive with backed up data (more relevant for tape backups without a loader).

Interface: The name of the server FROM which the files are being restored. This is either a Remote Device Server (RDS) or the SEP sesam server.

Target node : The name of the server where the files are being restored TO.

Preferred media pool: If the data was migrated or replicated and different media pools were used for the process, the source media pool to restore from can be selected from the drop-down list of available media pools.

Used media | Barcode: If the data was migrated, the migrated copy is stored to another media. Here the source media to restore from can be selected from the drop-down list of available media.

Target path settings provides the following options:

  • Restore to original path is selected by default and restores the data to the same location from which it was backed up. Note that this only applies if the target node is the same server from which the data was backed up, i.e. when source and target server are the same.
  • Original tree structure is enabled by default when restoring to original location. The directory structure of the restored files is the same as the original directory structure of the backed up data. If this option is disabled, the directory structure is not recreated and only the files are restored (flat structure).
  • New restore target should be selected when restoring files to some other location. The path to the directory to which the data should be restored can be entered manually or by using the Browser button to open the file explorer.

Execution options provides the following options:

  • Do not overwrite existing files is selected by default. Files will be restored only if they are not already present on the target system.
  • Overwrite existing files will replace files on the target system with their restored version.
  • Create a new version will restore files under a new name.

Expert options

Clicking the button Expert options will open a new window, where more specific options and actions can be defined.

Options tab

Verbose level allows user to change the verbosity of the main log to display more information than the default logging mode. Verbose logging is divided to levels 0 to 6.

  • 0: Print only standard and error messages together with summary.
  • 1: Add a line for every item when its processing starts: sbc-3008: Info: Processing item: [xxx]...
  • 2: Add a line when processing for item is finished: sbc-3108: Info: Item processed successfully: [xxx]
  • 3: Add backup module processing information (with DB_API modules).
  • 4: Add underlying module processing XBSA and detailed DB_API modules.
  • 5: Add packing data (mtf, cpio, sidf) trace messages.
  • 6:

Restore options text box allows for other specific options to be entered.

Based on the specification in the previous parts of the wizard, one of the following is already selected: Restore the complete save set , Restore according to composed list or Disk_info disaster recovery. Changes of these restore options will override the specification made in the restore wizard.

  • Restore the complete save set will restore all files of the save set.
  • Restore according to the composed list will create a selective restore according to the regular expressions used in filter (see Filter tab below.
  • Disk_info disaster recovery will restore disk info, for example a master boot record and registry during disaster recovery.
Relocation tab

By default, no relocation is selected, restoring files to original path . If with relocation is enabled, a new target location can be specified for restored files. Individual files can be restored to separate paths.

Filter tab

Files for a selective restore can be defined using regular expression-based filtering.

Backup type tab

By default, the backup type according to which the data is backed up is selected (default is Path; other backup types are, for example, Hyper-V, SAP Hana, Exchange Server, Lotus Notes, MySQL, VMware vSphere etc.). When you have backed up data with backup type other than default Path, for example Hyper-V, you can still use the option As path backup. This option allows you to restore your data directly to the file system without any additional action, for example, files from a Hyper-V backup, rather than restoring according to your special backup type, for example, restoring (and importing) Hyper-V data to the Hyper-V manager.
The option Write save set into file allows you to restore the entire save set into a single file.

Pre/Post tab

Specifies whether any pre or post script should be applied for this restore task.

EOL tab

Specifies for how long (in days) this restore task will be kept and can be accessed using GUI. Default is 7 days.

See also

Scheduling Restore

Schedules 4.4

Standard Restore Procedure