4 4 3 Beefalo:Restore Assistant

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Copyright © SEP AG 1999-2024. All rights reserved.

Any form of reproduction of the contents or parts of this manual is allowed only with the express written permission from SEP AG. When compiling and designing user documentation SEP AG uses great diligence and attempts to deliver accurate and correct information. However, SEP AG cannot issue a guarantee for the contents of this manual.

Icon archived docs.png This is not the latest version of SEP sesam documentation and, as such, does not provide information on features introduced in the latest release. For more information on SEP sesam releases, see SEP sesam Release Versions. For the latest documentation, check Restore Assistant.


Overview

There are two ways to restore your data in SEP sesam: by using GUI restore or through the web interface Restore Assistant. Even though most of the options are the same in both restore interfaces, the web Restore Assistant interface is designed to be more intuitive, offers additional advanced options, and makes it easy to restore your data.

You can use the web Restore Assistant to restore data from regular Path backups, NDMP and NSS file system Path backups, emails from Kopano backups, and virtual machines (Hyper-V, KVM/QEMU, OpenNebula, VMware vSphere, Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer), and Red Hat Virtualization (RHV)) to which you have been granted access.

Authentication required

Only authenticated users that have been granted the appropriate permissions are able to access the Restore Assistant and restore their data. These permissions are defined according to the user type. For details, see Configuring Database-Based Authentication.

Restoring encrypted backups

You can also perform an online restore of data from encrypted backups that are protected with a password. When restoring encrypted data with a password stored in the SEP sesam database, the password is automatically used for decryption during restore. However, if a password is not stored by SEP sesam, you will be prompted to enter it online. In the latter case, if you do not know the password, you won't be able to restore an encrypted backup and it will remain locked.

Basic and advanced web restore

With 4.4.3. Beefalo V2, the restore assistant provides basic and advanced features for online restore. Switching between the basic and advanced mode is available via Settings menu (-> UI mode), see Setting UI mode.

Restore features

Restore Assistant provides the following features:

  • As of 4.4.3. Beefalo V2, along with restoring data from regular Path backups, NDMP and NSS file system Path backups, emails from Kopano backups, and virtual machines you can now also restore KVM/QEMU VMs.
  • The newly introduced VMware Sandbox restore feature allows you to use a copy of the production environment for troubleshooting, testing and to verify the integrity of the VMs. For details, see VMware Sandbox Restore.
  • You can restore your data to the original or alternative location.
  • The flexibility to switch between basic and advanced restore mode allows more experienced users to fine-tune their restore.

Accessing Restore Assistant

You can access the Restore Assistant from the SEP sesam GUI (Activities -> Restore Assistant), from SEP sesam Web UI (left menu -> Restore Assistant) or by entering the following in the browser address bar:

http://[sesamserver]:11401/sep/ui/restore/

Information sign.png Note
If you cannot access the online Restore Assistant, check if you have been granted the appropriate permissions for online restore. For details, see About Authentication and Authorization.

Setting UI mode

As of ≥ 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, you can set your preferred UI mode by clicking the Settings icon located in the upper right corner and selecting Basic or Advanced UI mode. The basic restore mode is enabled by default.

The Settings menu also allows you to change the display language (German or English).

Restore assistant icons.jpg

SEP Tip.png Tip
The Monitoring, Dashboard, Help and Account icons (located in the upper right corner) enable you to quickly check the status of all restore jobs (Monitoring -> Restores), access SEP sesam Dashboard and online help, and log in/log out from the Restore Assistant.

Online restore in basic UI mode

The basic restore options cover the most frequent restore cases and are the recommended method of performing a restore. The basic restore procedure involves selecting the savesets which you want to restore, the restore target, etc., and provides the step by step restore wizard depending on the type of data you want to restore.

Two different procedures can be used for restore according to the data type:

Restoring files, directories and emails

  1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
  2. From the Start window, select the restore type: Restore files and directories or Groupware Applications -> Restore Kopano Mail. Click Next.
  3. Restore assistant restore type Beefalo.jpg
  4. In the Source window, select your client. You can filter the clients by name, location or operating system. Click Next.
  5. Restore assistant source.jpg
  6. In the Backup window, under the Task selection select your backup task. A backup task defines the source data which was backed up from the client.
  7. Restore assistant select task Beefalo.jpg
  8. Then under the Backup selection select the exact backup version you want to restore. You can use the calendar function found in the upper right corner to filter a date range for the displayed backups. Click Next.
  9. SEP Tip.png Tip
    You can search for a file or a directory by entering your search term in the Search for files or directories in all backups.

    Restore assistant select bck Beefalo.jpg

  10. In the Files window, select the files, directories or emails you want to restore. Click Next.
  11. Restore assistant select file Beefalo.jpg
  12. The options in the Target window differ slightly depending on whether you want to restore from path or mail backups.
  13. Restore from path backups
    1. Check the target client for restore.
    2. Restore assistant select target Beefalo.jpg
    3. The option Restore to original target path is enabled by default. Skip this option to restore the files to the original location. Deselect it if you want to restore your data to a new restore target and specify the new target path; you can enter or browse the path where you want to restore your data.
    4. Restore assistant target directory Beefalo.jpg
    5. Under the Execution options you can set additional restore options:
    6. Do not restore existing items: Files will be restored only if they are not already present on the target system.
      Create new version: Restore files under a new name.
      Overwrite existing items: If the data exists on the target server, it will be replaced by the restored version.
    7. Decide how you want your data to be restored (maintain the original tree structure or flat):
    8. Keep original tree structure: When restoring to original location, the option Keep original tree structure is selected by default. The directory structure of the restored files is the same as the original directory structure of the backed up data.
      Restore all items flat in selected target directory: The backup is simply restored to a file without recreating the directory structure.
      Click Next.
      Restore assistant execution options Beefalo.jpg
    9. In the Finish window, review your restore task (restore type, client, backup level, restore options) and click Start restore.
    10. Restore assistant finish Beefalo.jpg

    Kopano mail restore

    1. Check the target client for restore.
    2. Restore assistant select target Kopano Beefalo.jpg
    3. Under the Target mail folder and user, enter a new mail user (the option Change user to ) and/or folder (Change folder to option) if you want to restore mail(s) to a different user mailbox or folder. Skip this step to restore the mails to the original location (default).
    4. Restore assistant new target Kopano Beefalo.jpg
    5. Under the Execution options you can set additional restore options:
    6. Do not restore existing folders and mails: Folders and mails will be restored only if they are not already present on the target system.
      Overwrite existing folders and mails: If the data exists on the target server, it will be replaced by the restored version.
      Click Next.
      Restore assistant execution options Kopano.jpg
  14. In the Finish window, review your restore task (restore type, client, backup level, restore options) and click Start restore.

For additional restore options in the advanced UI mode, see Restoring files, directories and emails in advanced UI mode.

Restoring virtual machines

When you choose to restore a virtual machine (VM), you can select from a list of VM types what you want to restore. The basic restore procedure is almost the same for all VM types, except that some additional options are available for some VM types. The procedure differs slightly for the VMware instant recovery and VMware sandbox restore. For details, see VMware Sandbox Restore and VMware Instant Recovery.

  1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
  2. In the Start window, select your target restore type: VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, KVM/QEMU, Proxmox VE, Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), or OpenNebula. Click Next.
  3. Restore assistant VM restore type Beefalo.jpg
  4. In the Source window, under Selection of the server select your target server.
  5. Restore assistant select server.jpg
  6. Then, under Selection of the virtual machine select the VM you want to restore.
  7. Click Next.
    Restore assistant select VM.jpg
  8. In the Backup window, under the Task selection select your source task. A backup task defines the source data which was backed up from the client.
  9. Restore assistant select VM task.jpg
  10. Then under the Backup selection select the exact backup version you want to restore. You can use the calendar function found in the upper right corner to filter a date range for the displayed backups. Click Next.
  11. Restore assistant select VM backup.jpg
  12. In the Backup window, under the Virtual machine from backup review, check or uncheck the target saveset you want to restore.
  13. Click Next.
    Restore assistant select VM saveset.jpg
  14. In the Target window, under the Target selection select your target environment for restore. You can use the drop-down list to select or filter VMs by name.
  15. Restore assistant select VM target.jpg
  16. Set additional restore options under the Execution options:
  17. Do not restore an existing virtual machine: VM will be restored only if it is not already present on the target system.
    Restore an existing virtual machine with a new name: VM will be restored under a new name. In case of Proxmox and OpenNebula restore the target VM name will be automatically created.
    Overwrite an existing virtual machine: If the VM exists on the target server, it will be replaced by the restored version. You can also select to shut down the running VM automatically.
    Click Next.
    Restore assistant VM execution options.jpg
  18. In the Options window, select the data mover and then under the Recovery options select if you want to start VM after restore or not.
  19. Restore assistant recovery options Beefalo V2.jpg
    Information sign.png Note
    As of v. 4.4.3 Beefalo V2, in case of VMware restore you can also select the desired transport mode from the list of available transport modes (HOTADD, SAN, NBD, or NBDSSL); click the displayed transport mode and rearrange the modes according to your preferences.
  20. Click the option Target options of the virtual machine to set additional target options, e.g., target server, data store, network interface(s), folder, and Resource pool/vApp.
  21. Click Next.
    Restore assistant target VM options.jpg
  22. In the last step, review your restore task and click Start restore.

There are some additional restore options available in the advanced UI mode, see Restoring VMs in advanced UI mode.

Online restore in advanced UI mode

For more experienced users, some additional restore options are available in the advanced UI mode (v. ≥ Beefalo V2). For example, in the Start window you can restore backups and VMs to the file system or write your backups and VMs into dump files. If you are restoring VMs, you can select among more specific VM restore types.

Restore assistant advanced start.jpg

As with the basic options, the advanced options also differ depending on the type of restore:

Restoring files, directories and emails in advanced UI mode

The following additional restore options are available when restoring files, directories or emails in the advanced UI mode:

  • In the Start window, you can restore backups to the file system or write backups into dump files. Although the restore procedure in such cases is similar, some options may not be available (e.g., the Source windows).
  • If you want to write your backups into dump files, you have to specify a restore target path in the Target window (by browsing or entering the path). Optionally, you can modify a name of the dump file. If the dump file name is not specified, it will be generated automatically. Restore assistant dump file.jpg
  • In the Backup window, you can select whether you want to perform a Generation, Selective or Complete restore.
  • Restore assistant select bck Beefalo V2.jpg
  • In the Options window (step 5 in the advanced mode of the restore dialog) you can set the following options:
  • Under the Optional data source selection, you can set your preferred media pool, drive, used media|barcode, and interface from the drop-down lists. Advanced options optional data.jpg
    Under the Advanced restore options, you can further fine-tune your restore:
    • Use the Include/Exclude Filter tab to specify which files or directories you want to include or exclude from restoring, e.g., enter *.docx to the relevant filter to include or exclude all MS Word *.docx files from restore.
    • Advanced options filter.jpg
    • Use the EOL, Generation, Pre/Post tab if you want to specify the EOL parameter for restore (how long (in days) the restore task will be kept), enable/disable a generation restore, and specify whether any pre- or post script should be applied for the restore task, see Pre/Post options.
    • Advanced options EOL.jpg
    • Use the Log, Special Options tab to change the log level for your particular restore, see Setting Log Level. You can specify additional commands for restore, which can be helpful for special options of the sbc command. For details on commands, see SBC CLI.
    • Advanced options log.jpg

Restoring virtual machines in advanced UI mode

If you turn on the advanced UI mode, you can set additional restore options. It is recommended that the advanced mode is only used by expert users as the basic options are sufficient to address most restore use cases. The following additional options are provided by using the Advanced UI mode.

  • In the Start window, you can restore virtual machines to a file system, or write virtual machines into dump files:
    • If you want to restore VMs to a file system, the restore procedure is the same as the restore procedure for files, directories and emails, as described in the above section Restoring files, directories and emails. You only have to select a server and VM as a source instead of a client.
    • If you want to write VMs into dump files, the procedure differs from the usual VM restore only in that you have to specify a restore target path in the Target window and optionally modify a name of the dump file (see the related section above).
  • In the Options window, you can modify the Recovery options: By clicking the Edit button (located in the upper right corner), you can activate/deactivate different recovery actions: conf, remove, start, etc., and perform VM-related checks: VM power state, VM guest tools state and VM network IP address.
  • VMs recovery options.jpg
    To add your custom action or your custom check, select the template from the Actions or Checks drop-down lists or enter your action/check commands manually. To activate your custom action/check, click Save. You can simply remove any action/check by clicking the recycle bin icon. VMs recovery options modify.jpg
  • Under the Optional data source selection, you can select your preferred media pool, drive, used media|barcode, and interface from the drop-down lists.
  • Advanced options optional data.jpg
  • An additional set of options is available under the Options for restore: You can specify the EOL parameter for restore (how long (in days) the restore task will be kept), enable/disable a generation restore, and decide whether any pre- or post script should be applied for the restore task, see Pre/Post options.
    In case of a VMware restore, you can also set the transport hierarchy (if you have not modified the transport mode before under the Virtualization restore options); for details, see Selecting the best VMware transport mode for your environment.
  • VMs restore options Beefalo.jpg

You can view the status of your restore jobs by using SEP sesam Web UI (Monitoring -> Restores) or SEP sesam GUI (Main Selection -> Job State -> Restores). For details, see Monitoring and Reporting.