Understanding the Find Options Window
The Find feature lets you search through backed-up data and restore it from the search results.
You can start a Find operation at the backup set or subclient level. The sub-levels shown on the Search Results tab are based on where you start the Find operation.
Using the Search Results Tab to Select Objects to Restore
The Search Results tab shows the results of a Find operation. Using Find, you can search through backed-up a file or folder information based on its metadata, such as name, modification date, size, or backup date. Data that is excluded by filtering does not appear in the search results.
Notes:
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All selections of folders are recursive.
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If you sort the Find results by clicking a column heading on the Search Results tab, any selections that you have made will be lost.
The selection icons indicate these conditions:
The object is not selected for restoration. |
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The object is selected for restoration. If the object is a folder, all child objects are selected also. |
Find results work differently when a Content Indexing job has been run after the last backup job, as follows:
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If Content Indexing is enabled on the client, and jobs are Content Indexed, Find results are displayed from Content Indexed data.
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If Content Indexing is not enabled, Find results are displayed from backed-up file and folder metadata.
Find Files with Specific File Names
You can find files with specific names or name patterns. Wildcard expressions can be used to match specific file name patterns. This function provides the ability to find and restore files and/or folders/directories that have a common naming convention. For example, msde2.txt and msj4j.txt.
Note that a combination of wildcards in a single expression (e.g., access?.h*) can also be used. If the expression is specified by itself, without a path (*.txt), the system searches for and returns all data within the backup set that satisfies the expression. By preceding the expression with a path, the scope of the restored data can be narrowed. For example, specifying sys:\data\*.txt, would restore only those files and directories within the sys:\data directory with extensions of .txt.
If a wildcard pattern that matches the name of a directory was specified, the system restores the directory, but none of the directory's contents. For example, if the wildcard restore string is tem?, the system restores any and all data named with a four-character string starting with the letters t, e, and m. If a directory name satisfies the wild card condition (e.g., sys:\temp) then only the directory would be restored; however, none of the files or any subdirectories contained therein are restored.
See the "Supported Wildcard Characters" section on this page for a list of supported wildcards.
Use the following steps to find files with specific name or name pattern:
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From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System
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Right-click a Backup Set and click All Tasks | Find.
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Click Add and select File Name filter from the Filters tab.
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Add a file name or name pattern in the box, e.g. *.doc or *.*.
Multiple filters can be specified together using spaces in between.
Tip
You may also specify additional options to run the Find Operation, e.g. Time Range, Copy Precedence, Starting Path, Page Size etc. For detailed information on these options, see the corresponding Browse and Restore page for your Agent.
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Click View Content.
Supported Wildcard Characters
Wildcards |
Description |
Examples |
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* |
Any number of characters. This wildcard is used in the following scenarios:
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? |
Any one character.
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[] |
Set or range of characters. |
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[!] |
The negation of a set or range of characters. You can use the wildcard in the following scenario: filter all files in a directory except the files for which the name starts with any character from the specified set or range of characters. |
/root/[!AEIOU]*.doc filters all .doc files in the /root directory that start with a letter other than A, E, I, O, or U. |
** |
Matches any directory level. |
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*** |
Matches any directory level, including the parent directory |
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Notes:
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When you use wildcards to specify the subclient content, the content path appears in Italics.
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If you want all the files with the file extension ".doc" to be filtered from any level, then specify the content as "*.doc". If any subclient content does not start with a forward slash (/), then "/**/" will be prefixed to the content to match at any level. For example: "*.doc" will become "/**/*.doc".
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If you wants to treat the asterisk (*), question mark (?), and square brackets ([ ]) as literal, and not as wildcards, then add a forward slash (\) before the wildcard. For example: /Report\[2011-2012\]/*.doc will filter all the .doc files under /Report[2011-2012]
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More than one type of wildcard can be used when specifying subclient content. For example: /Dcvol?/oracle[1-47]/**/*.log).
Find Files with Specific Modified Date
Use the following steps to find files with specific modification time:
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From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System
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Right-click a Backup Set and click All Tasks | Find.
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Click Add and select Modified Date filter from the Filters tab.
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Select a modification time from the drop down list, e.g. Last Month.
Tip
You may also specify additional options to run the Find Operation, e.g. Time Range, Copy Precedence, Starting Path, Page Size etc. For detailed information on these options, see the corresponding Browse and Restore page for your Agent.
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Click View Content.
Find Files with Specific File Size
Use the following steps to find files that satisfy a specific file size:
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From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System
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Right-click a Backup Set and click All Tasks | Find.
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Click Add and select File Size filter from the Filters tab.
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Select an operator from the drop down list and enter the file size in the box provided, e.g. Greater than 2 MB.
Tip
You may also specify additional options to run the Find Operation, e.g. Time Range, Copy Precedence, Starting Path, Page Size etc. For detailed information on these options, see the corresponding Browse and Restore page for your Agent.
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Click View Content.
Find Files That Were Stubs
Use the following steps to find files that existed as stubs when backed up:
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From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System
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Right-click a Backup Set and click All Tasks | Find.
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Click Add and select Stubbed Objects filter from the Filters tab.
Tip
You may also specify additional options to run the Find Operation, e.g. Time Range, Copy Precedence, Starting Path, Page Size etc. For detailed information on these options, see the corresponding Browse and Restore page for your Agent.
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Click View Content.
Find Files with Specific Wording as Their Content
Use the following steps to find the backed up files with specific wording in their content:
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From the CommCell Browser, navigate to Client Computers | <Client> | File System
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Right-click a Backup Set and click All Tasks | Find.
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Click Add and select Contains filter from the Filters tab.
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Enter the content of the file you want to find, e.g. file system.
Tip
This filter will work only if the Content Indexing Engine is installed and a Content Indexing job has been run after the last backup job.
You may also specify additional options to run the Find Operation, e.g. Time Range, Copy Precedence, Starting Path, Page Size etc. For detailed information on these options, see the corresponding Browse and Restore page for your Agent.
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Click View Content.
Restoring Items using the Selected Items List
Use these steps to add files or folders that appear on the Search Results tab to the list on the Selected Items tab, and then restore them:
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In the Find Options window, select one or more items.
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Add all currently selected items by right-clicking one selected item, then clicking Add to Selected List.
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Click the Selected Items tab, then right-click a selected item in the list.
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Click Restore.