5 0 0:Web Single File Restore for Virtual Machines

Overview

This article describes the general procedure for single file restore (SFR) of VM files via the web Restore Assistant. For details on how to fully restore VMs via the web, see the description in Restore Assistant. SEP sesam provides simple and flexible single file restore (SFR) for almost all VMs (except Proxmox VE): VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, KVM/QEMU, Nutanix AHV, Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM), Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), and OpenNebula virtual machines via the web Restore Assistant in advanced UI mode, if you have the appropriate permissions.

Note that this article describes the general prerequisites and the procedure for restoring a single file (SFR) via the web Restore Assistant. As each VM type (VMware, Citrix, etc.) has different prerequisites and options for restoring, you should also check the instructions specific to your VM type:

• VMware Single File Restore
• Hyper-V Single File Restore
• Citrix Hypervisor Single File Restore
• KVM QEMU Single File Restore
• Nutanix AHV Single File Restore
• OLVM Single File Restore
• RHV Single File Restore
• OpenNebula Single File Restore

Prerequisites

To ensure error-free operation of SEP sesam and improve performance, make sure that the following conditions are met:

• SEP sesam Server version ≥ 5.0.0 Jaglion. For the list of supported systems, see Support Matrix.
• SFR of backups from virtualization platforms requires the guestfs-tools package to be installed on Linux in order to access and mount VM disk image on Linux. If the package is not installed on your SEP sesam Server or Linux RDS, it is not possible to mount VMDK and perform SFR. Refer to Installing guestfs-tools on Linux.
• A SEP sesam data store (Path, Si3 deduplication store, etc.) is recommended.
• Backups must not be encrypted, compressed or stored on tape.
• To restore single files via the Restore Assistant, appropriate permissions are required. For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and User Roles and Permissions.
• Make sure that there is enough free space on the target system to which you are restoring your data.

	Note
	Some restrictions also apply for mounting the virtual disk.

Accessing the restore assistant

You can access the restore assisstant in one of the following ways:

• via the GUI: by clicking the Restore Assistant icon in the toolbar or from Activities -> Restore Assistant
• from SEP sesam Web UI: left menu -> Restore Assistant
• or by entering the following address in the browser bar: http://[sesamserver]:11401/sep/ui/restore/.

Note

If you cannot access the web Restore Assistant, check if you have received the appropriate permissions for online restore. The operations and options available after logging in may differ depending on the user type. Other Web UI display restrictions may depend on the custom roles with specific permissions and the UI mode. For details, see About Authentication and Authorization and User Roles and Permissions.

Restoring single files of VMs

You can use the web Restore Assistant to restore individual VM files from VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, KVM/QEMU, Nutanix AHV, Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM), Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), and OpenNebula if you have the appropriate permissions.

To restore a single item from a VM backup, select what to restore from a list of VM types. The basic restore procedure is similar for all VM types, except that for some VM types additional restore options are available.

1. Open the Restore Assistant in the browser.
2. In the Start window, select the VM restore type: VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, KVM/QEMU, Nutanix AHV, Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager (OLVM), Red Hat Virtualization (RHV), or OpenNebula. In our example, Citrix Hypervisor is selected.
Then select the option Advanced View. The VM or single file restore option is selected by default. Click Next.


3. In the Virtual Machine window, under Selection of the server, select your target server to which the data will be restored.
   Then, under Selection of the virtual machine, select the VM that you want to restore and click Next.
4. In the Task window, under Task selection, select your source task. A backup task defines the source data that was backed up by the client.
   Then, under Backup selection, select the exact backup version you want to restore. You can use the calendar function in the upper right corner to set a date range for the backups. Select the Single file restore option (in the lower right corner) and click Next.


5. In the Files window, select the SEP sesam Server or RDS to which you want to mount the backup. You can also specify an alternative mount path (by entering an absolute path or using the Browse button) and set advanced mount options. Then click the button Mount this backup in filesystem. A new window will appear showing the progress of the mount process.

Note

SFR of backups from virtualization platforms requires the guestfs-tools package to be installed on Linux in order to access and mount VM disk image on Linux. If the package is not installed on your SEP sesam Server or Linux RDS, it is not possible to mount VMDK and perform SFR. Refer to Installing guestfs-tools on Linux. Mounting is not possible if the savesets are stored on tapes or if the data is compressed or encrypted. For mounting also some other XPRFS restrictions apply. In the case of VMware, it is posible to attach virtual disks to a Proxy-VM via NFS server instead of mounting the backup to a file system, but this is currently only supported in the SEP sesam GUI. See VMware Single File Restore.




6. Once a virtual disk is mounted to the device server, select the files you want to restore and click Next.
7. In the Target window, under Target selection, select your target environment for restore. You can use the drop-down list to select or filter VMs by name.
   Then enter or browse for your target path and select an appropriate Execution option:
   • Do not overwrite existing items: Files are only restored if they do not already exist 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 is replaced with the restored version.
   Then decide how you want to restore your data (keep the original tree structure or flat):
   • Keep original tree structure: When restoring to the original location, the Keep original tree structure option 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 the selected target directory: The backup is simply restored to a file without recreating the directory structure.
   • You can also select to skip ACL settings during restore.
   Click Next.
8. In the Options window, you can specify additional advanced options, such as selecting a data source (media pool, drive, etc.), set include/exclude filters, etc. For details on the available options, see Online restore in advanced UI mode.
   Click Next.
9. In the last step, check the summary of your restore task (restore type (based on task type, selected backup, its date and details, restore options, etc.) and click Start restore.

Monitoring restore

You can view the status of your restore jobs in the Restore Assistant by clicking the monitoring icon (second icon in the upper right corner), via SEP sesam Web UI (Monitoring -> Restores), or view the status in the GUI (Main Selection -> Job State -> Restores). The restore overview provides detailed information on the last run of restore jobs, including task name, status (successful, error, in queue ...), start and stop time of the last backup, data size, throughput, etc. For details, see SEP sesam Web UI or Restores by State in the GUI.

See also

Installing guestfs-tools on Linux – Restore Assistant – Performing a Virus Scan Before Single File Restore

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