To browse and recover files, you must have information about the files and folders included in a backup (metadata). This file metadata can be provided in the following ways:
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Discovering file and folder information dynamically during the browse operation. This capability is known as Live Browse. Live Browse is used when file and folder metadata is not available for a backup.
Note
This method was originally introduced as a feature called Live File Recovery for VMware restores. It is now the default method for guest file and folder restores for all hypervisors.
-
Collecting file and folder information during the backup (not recommended).
Live browse with block-level reads is replacing metadata collection as the default mechanism for browse and restore operations.
Changes in Metadata Collection for Service Pack 11 and Later
The Enable Granular Recovery option has been removed from the Advanced Backup Options dialog box for all hypervisors.
For hypervisors that support metadata collection, the following option is now available in the Subclient Properties dialog box:
-
Collect File Details: On the Backup Options tab, for streaming backups and backup copies.
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Collect File Details for Snapshot Copy: On the IntelliSnap Operations tab, for IntelliSnap backups. Use this option when creating a copy for tape storage, because file and folder information is required when recovering files from tape.
Note
The options to collect file details are available only for virtualization clients that use Indexing Version 1.
By default, these options are not enabled for any subclients. This reduces the time required to perform backups.
You can use live browse to view and recover guest files without collecting file information during backups.
For upgraded clients, the settings for these options reflect the configuration of existing backup schedules for each subclient. If an existing backup schedule explicitly selected the Enable Granular Recovery option, the Collect File Details option is enabled for the corresponding subclient.
For upgrades from a previous service pack, the following additional considerations apply:
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If the CommServe system was upgraded to SP11 but the VSA proxy is still using an earlier service pack, the schedule shows the previous selection for the Enable Granular Recovery option and scheduled backups honor that setting. However, if you initiate a backup manually from the subclent, the resulting backup does not collect metadata, regardless of the subclient setting. To avoid this behavior, upgrade the VSA proxy to SP11.
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If different schedules existed for a subclient prior to an upgrade to SP11, with different settings for the Enable Granular Recovery option, the subclient has the Collect File Details option set after the upgrade to SP11. However, when the schedule that did not select the Enable Granular Recovery option runs, file information is collected because that option is controlled by the subclient setting. The best practice is to use separate subclients for VMs that require metadata collection during backups.
Option to Collect File Details During Backup
The following table shows which hypervisors include the Collect File Details option.
Note
The Collect File Details option enables a backup operation to collect file and folder metadata only for NTFS, ext2, and ext3 file systems. Backup operations cannot collect file and folder metadata for other file systems.
By default, metadata is not collected for streaming backups, IntelliSnapbackup copies, orIntelliSnap backups.
|
Hypervisor |
Is the Collect File Details option available for subclients? |
Is metadata collected by default during backups? |
Is block-level browse used for file recovery? |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Amazon |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Citrix Xen |
Yes |
No |
Yes (if metadata was not collected during backup) |
|
Huawei FusionCompute |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Microsoft Azure |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Microsoft Hyper-V |
Yes |
No |
Yes (if metadata was not collected during backup) |
|
Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
OpenStack |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Oracle VM |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
Red Hat Virtualization |
No |
No |
Yes |
|
VMware |
Yes |
No |
Yes (if metadata was not collected during backup) |