Compare Backup to Production

[brupnick]

Good afternoon-

Is it possible to compare the files that are in a Veeam backup against what is currently in production? I have 225 GB of data backed up that I'd like to compare against the production version of the same folder for any discrepancies.

Thank you!
Brian

[Gostev]

Hi Brian, I suppose you could power on VM in a virtual lab (or using Instant VM Recovery with network disconnected), dump directory listing with the required attributes into files, and compare those files. Or, taking it one step further, you could even hash each file on both side with the script, and compare the produced hashes between the two VMs. Thanks!

[brupnick]

Thanks, Anton. I was hoping that there was some sort of compare ability built into Enterprise Manager (feature request????), but I've downloaded md5deep and will be doing as you recommended. Thank you!!

[veremin]

Using Enterprise Manager, you can restore different versions of files and folders. However, it's not possible to compare those with what is present in the production. Thanks.

[dimaslan]

Not sure if this is has been posted already, I have not searched extensively.
When trying to do granular restores, team mates were inquiring about a way to compare file structure between production data and a Veeam B&R restore point.
I was reading through Gostev's Weekly digest from a few days ago and came up with a way to do this very easily.
This is not for cases where a specific folder or files are missing, rather for cases where the files/folders missing are unknown and there are multiple levels of folders.

1. Create an excel document
2. Open the browser of the folder where data is missing.
3. Click the address and type CMD. Hit enter and you'll get a command line on the same folder.
4. Run: dir /s /b | clip . The /s will give you the whole filestructure below the folder you are now. The /b will give you a bare output, so just the names without any dates, etc. This will help run a compare in Excel later. The | clip option will copy the output on the clipboard. You can then paste it directly in Excel. If you'd rather get the output in a text file, use dir /s /b > C:\dirlist/txt or something similar instead.
5. Open the Veeam restore point you wish to restore from (but you are not sure what is missing or do not have the space to restore and keep everything).
6. Click "Open in explorer" button. On the explorer window address bar, type CMD and enter.
7. You will now get a command prompt again but this time for the restore point. Run the command from step 4 as before.
8. Paste the contents on the second column of your Excel file.
9. You may need to sort A-Z each column separately.
10. In Excel, from the Home tab, go to Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Duplicate Values. Now I chose to only mark the unique values but you can do as per your convenience.

I hope this is helpful.