> Expert > Backup and Restore Agents > Snapshot Management > Supported Agents > VMware > Restores > Guest Files and Folders

Restoring Guest Files and Folders

You can restore guest files and folders from a virtual machine streaming backup or IntelliSnap backup to a virtual machine or destination client.

Before You Begin

  • You can restore files and folders:

    • From a Windows VM backup to a Windows VM or destination client.

    • From a Linux VM backup to a Linux or Windows VM or destination client.

      Note

      Do not restore Windows backup data to a Linux destination client.

  • To enable a restore operation to mount the hardware snapshot to the ESXi host, when using a NetApp storage array, ensure that the NFS export policy for the storage array contains a mapping to the first VMkernel port on the target ESXi host.

Procedure

  1. From the CommCell Console, navigate to Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > VMware > backup_set.

  2. Right-click the subclient that contains the data to restore and select Browse and Restore.

  3. In the Browse and Restore Options window:

    1. Select Guest Files and Folders.

      • If you are restoring from a backup made using a UNIX MediaAgent, click the Advanced Options tab and select a Windows MediaAgent from the Use MediaAgent list. This action is applicable only for virtualization clients that use Indexing Version 1.

      • If the Virtual Server Agent and MediaAgent are not installed on the same machine, click the Advanced Options tab; then select a client that has the Virtual Server Agent installed from the Use MediaAgent field.

      • By default, Live File Recovery uses the preferred Linux access node for the VMware instance/hypervisor as described in Specifying the Preferred Linux Access Node for a Virtual Server Instance. To override that setting, you can click the Advanced Options tab and select a Linux access node from the File Recovery Enabler for Linux list; in that case you must select the same Linux access node from the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog (Advanced > Data Path tab > Use File Recovery Enabler for Linux list).

        Note

        • To browse and recover files from a guest VM running Windows 2012 R2, select a VSA proxy and MediaAgent that is Windows Server 2012 R2 or later.

        • If your hypervisor uses Indexing Version 1, selecting the preferred node for guest file restores is mandatory to enable mount operations for guest file restores of a VM.

        • For hypervisors using the latest version of indexing, selecting the preferred node for guest file restores is optional. If you do not configure a preferred node for guest file restores for a hypervisor, when you perform live browse and restore of guest files on Linux VMs, the Commvault software automatically selects an access node.

    2. Click View Content.

  4. In the left pane of the Content tab, navigate to the required volume on the virtual machine with the files and folders to be restored. The guest files and folders on the volume are displayed in the right pane.

    Note

    You cannot sort the entries in the right pane when browsing snapshot data (Live Browse).

  5. Select the required guest files and folders in the right pane. To select a specific file version, right-click the file and select View All Versions; then select the version.

  6. Click Recover All Selected at the bottom of the window.

  7. On the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog:

    Option

    Steps

    Restore files to a proxy:

    When you are restoring guest files or folders for a virtual machine, by default they are restored to the proxy that was used to back up the virtual machine; but you can specify a different proxy during the restore operation.

    1. Select a proxy from the Destination Client list.

    2. Click Browse under Specify Destination Path and select the folder where files should be restored.

    Restore files to a VM without an agent

    For agentless restores:

    1. Select Restore to Virtual Machine.

      The Destination client field changes to Proxy Client.

    2. Ensure that an appropriate proxy is selected in the Proxy Client field.

    3. To restore to a virtual machine on a different vCenter, click Change and browse to select the vCenter.

    4. To specify a different target virtual machine, click ... and browse to select the target VM; then enter the user name and password for the target VM.

      The user credentials for the target VM must have vCenter or ESX host permissions sufficient to restore files to the VM. For example, you can specify the credentials that are used to access the vCenter.

    5. Click Browse under Specify Destination Path and select the folder where files should be restored.

    Specify a Linux access node for Live File Recovery:

    For Live File Recovery, the restore operation can use the Linux access node that is configured for the instance/hypervisor; in this case, you do not need to select a Linux access node during the browse or restore. If you specified a different Linux access node on the Browse and Restore Options dialog, perform the following steps to ensure that the same Linux access node is used for the restore:

    1. Click Advanced.

    2. Click the Data Path tab.

    3. Select Use File Recovery Enabler for Linux and select a Linux access node.

      Ensure that you select the same Linux access node as selected on the Browse and Restore Options > Advanced tab (or the default Linux access node if not specified for browse).

    Restore files to a client with an agent:

    1. Under Restore Destination, select the target client from the Destination client list.

    2. Click Advanced, then click the Data Path tab.

    3. For the Use Proxy field, select the proxy to be used to mount the snapshot.

    4. Click OK to save the settings for Advanced Restore Options.

  8. Click OK to submit the restore request.

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