Feature Request - guest file restore

[ejenner]

Sometimes when you're asked to perform a restore of an individual file the user won't know when the file was changed or deleted. All they can tell you is that they've gone to open it and it's either not there or the contents isn't as they expected. They have no idea when this happened.

That can mean searching through several catalogs to find the point between when the file existed and when the file didn't exist. Or when the file was changed, looking at the attributes for the file as you check each catalog.

If there could be a way within the guest file restore interface to show deleted files with a ghost icon or in a different colour which shows to the operator that the file is a deleted file it could shorten time searching for missing or changed files when the dates aren't known.

Could be an option you can turn on or turn off in the interface.

Might be able to show the date.

Veeam would have to be able to mix data from other catalogs into whatever view you've decided to open so you can see data about files which wouldn't normally be in that view.

Dunno if any of what I've said makes any sense, but I think it's something which could be done and isn't yet possible with the current features?

[foggy]

Could you please elaborate a bit, do you mean restore using search in Enterprise Manager?

[csydas]

EJ,

My understanding of Veeam's file level restore indicates that this wouldn't be possible. From Veeam's standpoint, it's not aware of what is on the original VM until it actually tries to restore, though I'm happy to be proven wrong.

This would mean that during the preparation process, without an installed agent to communicate with, Veeam would have no visibility into what is or is not present, hence why it just has the "keep/overwrite" choice where basically you can tell Veeam what to do if the file already exists.

It's a great idea, but I think it's beyond what most agentless solutions can offer.

[Mgamerz]

Enterprise Manager can use the catalog option if turned on, right? Personally I have ours turned off as with deduplication on on the file server it makes it take hours (compared to like 12 minutes). But I am pretty sure catalog makes things searchable.

[foggy]

This would mean that during the preparation process, without an installed agent to communicate with, Veeam would have no visibility into what is or is not present, hence why it just has the "keep/overwrite" choice where basically you can tell Veeam what to do if the file already exists.

Correct, so it would be functionality similar to compare option in Veeam Explorers.

Enterprise Manager can use the catalog option if turned on, right? Personally I have ours turned off as with deduplication on on the file server it makes it take hours (compared to like 12 minutes). But I am pretty sure catalog makes things searchable.

Right, guest file system indexing allows you to search for the particular file in all restore points registered in Veeam B&R, which facilitates the task of identifying the correct file significantly.

[ejenner]

EJ,

My understanding of Veeam's file level restore indicates that this wouldn't be possible. From Veeam's standpoint, it's not aware of what is on the original VM until it actually tries to restore, though I'm happy to be proven wrong.

This would mean that during the preparation process, without an installed agent to communicate with, Veeam would have no visibility into what is or is not present, hence why it just has the "keep/overwrite" choice where basically you can tell Veeam what to do if the file already exists.

It's a great idea, but I think it's beyond what most agentless solutions can offer.

The software would have to be able to compare what is available in different backups. So if you have 10 restore points. A file is created at the 2nd restore point, then deleted by the 5th restore point. The idea would be to be able to still see the deleted file in the 10th restore point, just marked as deleted and the date shown for the last modification of the file as per norm.

I apologise if 9.5 can already do this, but I noticed the problem when trying to restore a file for a user and that's why I created this thread. I had to open several restore points to find a file. It wasn't until I went back 6 restore points that I found the file had been deleted. I was then able to restore and the user had what they wanted.

[foggy]

I apologise if 9.5 can already do this, but I noticed the problem when trying to restore a file for a user and that's why I created this thread. I had to open several restore points to find a file. It wasn't until I went back 6 restore points that I found the file had been deleted. I was then able to restore and the user had what they wanted.

If you have guest file system indexing enabled in the job, you can use Enterprise Manager to search for the required file through all existing restore points.

[ejenner]

If the user was able to give you the name of the file.

[foggy]

Now I see the issue.

[ejenner]

yep, it's a common-enough scenario. Especially with people who accidently delete files.