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504 - How to do a restore using a task file

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Jacques van Rensburg
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  • Storage Platform

This article explains how to do a restore directly on the Storage Platform by using a special task file. This will instruct the Storage Platform to restore directly to a local or UNC path, without using the backup client at all.

Advantages

  • Multi-threaded for faster restores
  • No backup client required

Disadvantages

  • Requires some technical knowledge
  • No file permissions/rights are restored

Requirements

  • Windows operating systems only
  • The account GUID
  • The account encryption key
  • Full access the the StorageServer where the backup data resides
  • Write access to the target location where the data must be written

Instructions

Create a text file with an extension .Restore, say Local.Restore (ensure it does not have a .txt extension) and open it in Notepad. Paste in the following text and modify as necessary. Then save the file and drop it in the TaskQueue folder on the correct StorageServer. Progress can be seen in the Storage Platform Management Console.

Note: Do not create the file in the TaskQueue folder. It will be read before you can populate it.

AccountGuid=???
BackupDate=
Key=encryptionKey
Target=X:\RestoreLocal
Path=C:\Program Files\Attix5 Backup Professional SE\log*
CheckDiskSpace=true
AllowConcurrency=true
OverwriteExisting=false
Script=

Details of taskfile contents

Key Example Description
AccountGuid 79e8e23c-6741-470a-9f37-c34640e7f6e3 GUID for the Backup Account. Can be found in the Console or StorageServer logs.
BackupDate 20100331235959 The backup date to restore from. If left out, it will restore from the last backup. A list of dates is in the backups folder under GUID.
Key secret Encryption key for the backup account (required).
Target X:\RestoreLocal This is where the data will be written to. At the start of the restore, the service will check if it can write to the specified target and abort if it cannot.
If a UNC path is used, ensure the StorageServer service is running as a user with write access to the UNC folder.
Path

C:\folder1\file*
will match
C:\folder1\file4.txt
C:\folder1\files\readme.txt

PLUGIN:\29*
will match
all files from plugin 29 (VSS)

The data to restore.
If the path ends with *, it will match all files that have a full path starting with whatever is before the *, including files in all subfolders.
If the path does not end with *, it will match a file that has a full path equalling the path parameter (e.g. C:\folder1\file4.txt).
* will restore everything.
*.txt will not work.
CheckDiskSpace   true Checks if enough free space is available on the target. This is on by default.
AllowConcurrency true Restores in multithreaded mode (faster). This is on by default.
OverwriteExisting false If target files exist, should they be overwritten? The default is false. The number of skipped files will be reported.
Script c:\scripts\after_restore.ps An optional PowerShell script to run after the restore. This will only be executed if the restore was successful.

 

Creating a task file using REST

The task file on the StorageServer can also be created by making a REST call to the StorageServer, e.g. https://192.168.1.1:8443/api/tasks/queue/restore?AccountGuid=xxx&Date=yyy&Key=zzz

In order for this to work, you will to need to authenticate the HTTPS request on the StorageServer using the admin key (master password). 

Doing multiple restores simultaneously

The Storage Platform is able to do multiple restores simultaneously - simply create a single task file per restore. Call each task file <guid>.Restore or <account_name>.Restore. As soon as a restore is done, its task file will be deleted. Limit the number of active tasks to what the server can handle. A restore task can be cancelled from the Console by right-clicking on the progress. 

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