> Essential > Virtualization > Information for All Virtualized Platforms > File Indexing > Operations for VMs or Instances

Searching for Virtual Machine Files

You can search within a VM or instance to find a specific file to restore or download from the most recent indexed backup.

The following folders on the default drive (for example, C:) are excluded from search results. If the folders are located on a non-default drive (for example, E:), then they will be included in search results.

  • Program Files

  • Program Files (x86)

  • Windows

  • ProgramData

Restore and download of deleted files is supported. Restore and download of latest version of file is supported.

You can download files up to 5 GB in size. For best results with larger files, perform a restore operation. You cannot download or restore files from a backup copy on tape. Downloading older file versions is not supported for File Indexing Version 2.

Procedure

  1. From the Command Center navigation pane, go to Protect > Virtualization.

    The Virtual machines tab appears.

  2. On the Virtual machines tab, click in the search box in the top right corner, and then enter a search string for the VMs that you are searching for (you can use UNIX-style regular expressions), and then press Enter.

  3. Click a VM that has indexed files.

    The details page for the VM appears.

  4. Click the search box in the upper right corner, enter a search string for the files that you are searching for (you can use UNIX-style regular expressions), and then press Enter.

    The Search page displays search results. The left side of the page displays File Type and Size facets that enable you to filter the search results. You can sort results by clicking on column headings.

  5. Click in the search box again to select options that modify the search, as follows:

    • Filename: Search for files that include the search string in the file name.

    • File Type: Select one of the following options to return files of the selected type:

      • Audio

      • Executable

      • Image

      • Office

      • System

      • Video

    • Modified: Select one of the following options to find files within the specified time range:

      • Today

      • Yesterday

      • This Week

      • This Month

      • This Year

      • Last Week

      • Last Month

      • Last Year

      • Time Range

    • Include Folders: Select this option to include folders in the results.

  6. Click Search to repeat the search with the modified criteria.

  7. Select an item in the search results and then click one of the following options:

    Note

    • Restore and download of deleted files is supported.

    • You cannot download or restore files from a backup copy on tape.

    • You can download files up to 5 GB in size. For larger files, you should perform a restore operation.

    • Download of older file versions is not supported for File Indexing Version 2.

Results

  • The files and folders are downloaded to the selected location in your computer.

  • If the download operation initiated a job, then it is listed on the Recent downloads page in the Command Center. You will receive an email notification when the download operation is complete with a link to the Recent downloads page in the Command Center.

Note

You will receive the email notification only if your CommCell environment has a single web server.

What to Do Next

To view the list of downloaded files on the Recent downloads page, click Recent downloads Recent_downloads_button on the top right corner of the Command Center. For more information, see Accessing Recent Downloads.

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