Overview
The Restore By Jobs feature provides the facility to select a specific backup job to be restored. This method of restoring data is considerably faster as it reads continuously on the storage media and retrieves the data. Restores by jobs use the same number of data streams that you configured for the subclient for data protection operations.
This feature can be used in different scenarios such as the following:
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To restore point-in-time data associated with a specific backup job, such as full, incremental, differential, etc.
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To restore CommServe DR data for the disaster recovery, see CommServe Recovery Using Disaster Recovery Backup.
This feature is especially useful for restoring multiplexed data from the same client. (This is explained in detail in the Best Practices section.)
Restores by Jobs supports the Scheduling, Data Encryption (if enabled), Command Line Interface, and Restore Data Using a Map File features. Data browsing capabilities are not available for this feature.
Note
Restore By Jobs is not supported for file system, Microsoft Exchange, and SharePoint agents. For support information, see Advanced File System Agent Options - Support.
How to Restore by Jobs
Basic restores by jobs for the agent are implemented by using the Restore by Jobs option from the backup set level to select the desired backup jobs and then starting the restore. See Restore by Jobs for File System Data for step-by-step instructions.
Basic restores by jobs for CommServe DR data are implemented by using the DR Restore: Restore by Job option from the CommServe icon to select the desired backup jobs and then starting the restore. See Restore by Jobs for CommServe DR Data for step-by-step instructions.
Points to Remember When Restoring by Jobs
Consider the following when restoring by jobs:
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Only jobs from the same backup set can be selected together to perform restores by jobs.
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A Restore by Jobs will not run if a filter archive file for a Delete Backup Data job exists. Therefore, to run a Restore by Jobs in this case, the appropriate Data Aging operation must first be run to prune the filter archive file.
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When you use the Restore by Jobs method for a Windows File System subclient, you can restore the system state along with file system data if you do an out-of-place restore. Restore by Jobs allows you to restore the system state out of place only, not in place. If you attempt to restore a backup job in place on a subclient that was used to back up system state, the system state data will be filtered out and only file system data will be restored. If you do the same restore out of place, both system state and file system data will be restored.
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Running an out-of-place Restore by Jobs for a Windows subclient will unintentionally restore Job Results-related folders and files.
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To use the Restore by Jobs option for subclient content archived on a NAS file server, you must specify the NAS file server credentials.
Best Practices
Consider the following when restoring by jobs:
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Restore by Jobs is especially useful for restoring from multiple tapes and multiplexed data, as the Restore by Job operation restores multiple jobs in parallel if these jobs are multiplexed together on the same media.
Tape Multiplexing causes data from different backup jobs to be multiplexed and interleaved on the tape. The conventional restore reads the data on the tape one backup job at a time. This might result in multiple passes of the tape before the entire data is retrieved. If the data to be restored are interleaved on the tape, and if all these data need to be restored for the same client, the multi-pass restore is not very efficient.
However in the case of a restore by job operation, data from different backup jobs are passed back to the client so that all of the interleaved backup jobs can be restored in parallel.
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Run a restore by jobs whenever you want to restore the entire contents of the job.
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Avoid running restore by jobs whenever you are restoring any of the following:
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Few files for a specific job
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Multiple versions of a file
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Point-in-time version of a file
Instead, use a conventional browse and restore to perform such operations.
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Avoid running restores by jobs for jobs associated with the default subclient. If you do this, the entire contents of the machine will be restored. As such, this may cause problems (e.g., the machine might run out of space) or produce undesirable results (e.g., you might end up restoring operating system files or directories that you really do not want to restore).
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Avoid modifying the contents of any associated subclients since this may result in the retrieval of older data.
License Requirements
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This feature requires a Feature License to be available in the CommServe® Server.
For general information about licenses, see the Commvault Licensing Program Guide. Also, Applying a License in the CommCell Console provides step-by-step instructions on how to view and apply licenses.