A Windows Server 2008 R2 VM hosted by a vShphere 5 cluster is based on a single VMDK disk.
Inside the disk there are 3 partitions, the small system partition, the C:\ system disk partition and the D:\ data disk partition.
After an human error, the partition contain ing the D:\ disk was destroyed and all the contents got lost.
The customer created a new, empty partition and a new empty D.\ disk.
What is the simplest and safest procedure to restore all the contents of the D:\ partition (including file ownership, permissions, shares and so on)?
Can the customer share the new empty D:\ disk as a network share, connect it from the Veeam server as disk K:\ and restore the files from the backup into K:\? If they do so, can they retstore the file ownership and permissions?
Can they access the backup directly from the host where the empty partition resides and restore files and directories directly to D:\ ?
The situation with Guest OS files restoration is as the following - these files can be restored to their initial location, to any folder on the local machine or within the network:
1) Probably, the easiest way you have is to restore files to the original location. For doing it: right–click the necessary file/folder in the file system tree after the restore wizard is started and select Restore.
2) Otherwise, you can save restored files or folders on the local machine with shared disk being connected to it or save necessary files to the original VM if it's reachable via network: right–click the necessary file or folder in the file system tree and select Copy To.
Original ownership and security permissions will be preserved in case of restoring to the initial location, in case of Copy To “Preserve permissions and ownership” check box should be selected.
Thank you very much for the quick answer.
Let me ask for an additional clarification.
When you say "restored to their initial location" you mean I can select such option while performing the restore from the Veeam backup server, is it correct?
I'm afraid, I selected "Restore guest files", I selected the recovery point, I entered the reason for restore, I selected the root of my D:\ disk (showed as E:\, but it is not a problem), I select "Copy to" but I don't see any option to restore to the initial location: I can only restore files to the disks and folders of my Veeam server.
Am I missing any relevant step?
Regards
marius
Go to the Home button -> Restore -> Guest files (Windows) -> Select necessary VM -> Select needed restore point -> Click “Finish”.
After the Backup Browser comes up -> Right–click the necessary file/folder -> Select Restore -> Specify credentials and wait.
Please, also be aware that the "restore to original location" option is only available in Enterprise edition. Otherwise, it’s "copy to" that should be used.
More information can be found in the corresponding User Guide (p.226).
Thank you very much.
Unfortunately the customer does not use the Enterprise Edition, so they must use the "Copy to" option, as you suggest.
In order to preserve permissions, where should they restore the files and folders, given they work from the Veeam server?
Can they restore the files locally and then copy them to the original location?
Regards
marius
During the restore process there would be “Preserve permissions and ownership” check box that should be selected in order to save necessary permissions/ownership.
As I've already mentioned, they can restore these files either to the local machine (and copy them to the given location afterwards) or to any machine within the network.
v.Eremin wrote:The situation with Guest OS files restoration is as the following - these files can be restored to their initial location, to any folder on the local machine or within the network:
1) Probably, the easiest way you have is to restore files to the original location. For doing it: right–click the necessary file/folder in the file system tree after the restore wizard is started and select Restore.
2) Otherwise, you can save restored files or folders on the local machine with shared disk being connected to it or save necessary files to the original VM if it's reachable via network: right–click the necessary file or folder in the file system tree and select Copy To.
Original ownership and security permissions will be preserved in case of restoring to the initial location, in case of Copy To “Preserve permissions and ownership” check box should be selected.
Original ownership and security permissions will NOT preserved in my case after format partition. With “Preserve permissions and ownership” ticked. Because original disk not found or so. How it can be, if partition formated only?
You're referring to the issue that is already fixed in the latest versions of the product. Moreover, the issue seems to be unrelated and it is not 100% clear how it affects your ability to restore permissions and ownership, could you please elaborate on that?
Sorry for my incorect notice. It was with veeam 6,5 version some month ago. My coleag copy data from win2008 VM partition to external disk and then format original partition (lun:X, id:Y). "Restore into original place" not recognize as original. "Copy to" with "preserve ownerships" ticked restore parent directory attributes only, but not subdirectories attributes. Because of veeam 6,5 problem with long names, files was restored from external hdd.
Vidas wrote:My coleag copy data from win2008 VM partition to external disk and then format original partition (lun:X, id:Y). "Restore into original place" not recognize as original.
I believe that even after formatting partition, in case it is assigned the same disk letter as before, there should not be any issues with restore into original location. Do you experience different behavior?
Vidas wrote:"Copy to" with "preserve ownerships" ticked restore parent directory attributes only, but not subdirectories attributes. Because of veeam 6,5 problem with long names, files was restored from external hdd.
Correct, the issue with permissions restore using Copy To option in case of long file names was fixed in Veeam B&R 7.0 R2 update.
I remember exactly the same Q disk letter on server. And this letter mapped to all users too. Same letter. Restore begin immediately, but with "not recognized storage" or so. Then data was copied back from external disk. Amount of backup from this formatted disk/partition doubled too after data was copied back from external disk.
Differences from common VEEAM 6.5 jobs are that this VM partition is backuping separately from others job of this/same VM server: Edit_backup_job - Virtual_machines - exclusions - disks - selected_disks - SCSI(0:3). Maybe issue? VMware 5.1
Vidas wrote:Differences from common VEEAM 6.5 jobs are that this VM partition is backuping separately from others job of this/same VM server: Edit_backup_job - Virtual_machines - exclusions - disks - selected_disks - SCSI(0:3). Maybe issue?
Most likely it is. Veeam B&R matches VM disks based on the information taken from the guest OS registry. Since this backup job does not contain system partition, there's no registry to look into and the partition cannot be matched to the one of the original VM.