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How to Restore Files

This article explains how to restore previously backed-up files.

What has been backed up?

First, it can be helpful to get an idea of which files you have backed up, and that have not been expired yet. To learn how to do this, visit HOWTOs/List Files.

Where can I restore my data to?

Restoring data from a backup node belonging to a machine of the same operating system as the restoring machine is always supported.

Restoring data from one operating system to another is not supported (e.g. Linux data to macOS, or Windows data to Linux).

Restore on Windows

On Windows, the easiest way to restore files is using the graphical application.

  1. Open the Backup-Archive GUI application.

  2. Click on Restore.

    SPBAC-home.png

  3. Click on Point In Time, then tick the checkbox Use a Point in Time date during the restore and select the date you wish to restore from. Once done, click Ok.

    SPBAC-restore-point-in-time.png

  4. In the file tree to the left, find the old folder(s) you wish to restore and tick the checkbox(es) next to it/them.

    SPBAC-restore-select-file.png

  5. Click on the Restore button.

  6. Click on Following location and select an empty folder to restore the old folder to. If you don't have one, you can just create an empty folder on your Desktop. Leave the Restore partial path option checked. Once done, click Restore.

    SPBAC-restore-destination.png

  7. Once the restoration is complete, your old folder should be inside the previously empty folder you selected on step 6.

    SPBAC-restore-finished.png

Restore on Linux

Restoring files is done using the dsmc restore command.

A complete example: 

dsmc restore -preservepath=complete -subdir=yes -replace=yes \
    -dateformat=3 -pitdate=2024-09-13 -pittime=08:00:00 \
    '{/the/filespace}/subdir/' '/'

Warning

-replace=yes will cause conflicting files on the destination to be replaced automatically. Remove this option if you want to manually decide for every file what to replace or not.

Explanation

The invocation above restores all files under '/the/filespace/subdir/' from 2024-09-13 08:00:00 to the same location on the current system.

Options:

  • -preservepath=complete: Preserve the complete path when restoring to the destination (which is the root directory /). For example, the file /the/filespace/subdir/a/b.txt will be restored to /the/filespace/subdir/a/b.txt on the current system. If we omit this flag, dsmc will default to preservepath=subtree, this will instead cause the aforementioned file to be restored to /subdir/a/b.txt. This may or may not cause unwanted conflicts, depending on the destination. (docs)
  • -subdir=yes: Restore files in subdirectories, recursively. Without this option, dsmc will only restore direct descendants of the specified source directory. (docs)
  • -replace=yes: On conflict, automatically replace the current file on the system. (docs)
  • -dateformat=3: Set the date format to YYYY-MM-DD (for the pitdate option). The default can vary depending on the system locale. (docs)
  • -pitdate: Point-In-Time (PIT) date of the backed-up files to restore. (docs)
  • -pittime: Point-In-Time (PIT) time of the backed-up files to restore. (docs)

Positional arguments:

  • '{/the/filespace}/subdir/': The source path of the directory to restore. /the/filespace is the filespace. You may omit {} if you do not fear any ambiguity, by instead writing '/the/filespace/subdir/'.
  • '/': The destination to where restored files and directories should end up.

More information can be found here.

More examples

Restore a single file to the current working directory: 

dsmc restore '/root/.ssh/authorized_keys' './'

Restore a directory and only its immediate descendants to the current working directory: 

dsmc restore '/home/ubuntu/' './'

Fully restore a directory to the current working directory: 

dsmc restore -subdir=yes '/home/ubuntu/' './'

Restore a directory without its content to the current working directory (almost equivalent to mkdir ubuntu): 

dsmc restore '/home/ubuntu' './'

Cancel restore session

It may happen that a restore session which you do not have access to is active. This will prevent you from restoring files from the node, and an invocation to dsmc restore will output the following: 

...
Restore function invoked.

ANS1247I Waiting for files from the server...

>>>>>> Restore Processing Interrupted!! <<<<<<
ANS1330S This node currently has a pending restartable restore session.

The requested operation cannot complete until this session either
completes or is canceled.
If you feel that it is safe, you can cancel it by invoking: 
dsmc cancel restore