Overview
In-place and out-of-place restore options provide the ability to restore all of the selected data to one specific destination. Using a map file allows you to restore individual files and folders to different locations.
The map file contains a list of files to be restored, with their corresponding restore paths. In addition, you can also specify whether the files that were selected for restore during the browse operation, but not specified in the map file, should be restored to the selected restore destination.
Consider the following examples:
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You wish to restore a list of files and folders from a computer and each of the files that you wish to restore has different destinations. The following steps can be used to accomplish this objective:
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Start the restore operation from the backup set or subclient level (depending on where the source data was originally available) and select the data to be restored.
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Specify the restore destination.
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Attach a map file containing the list of files to be restored.
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Clear the option to restore unmapped files.
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You wish to restore a set of files to a specified location, while some files within that set have to be restored to a different destination or several different destinations. The following steps can be used to accomplish this objective:
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Start the restore operation from the backup set or subclient level (depending on where the source data was originally available) and select the data to be restored.
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Specify the restore destination.
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Attach the map file containing the list of files (with different destinations) to be restored.
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Make sure that the option to restore unmapped files is selected.
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The map file restore options are also supported by Restore by Jobs and restores from the command line.
How to Perform a Map File Restore
The following section provides the steps for restoring data using a map file:
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Run a restore operation. See Restore Data Using a Map File or Restore NAS Data Using a Map File for step-by-step instructions.
Specifications for the Map File
The following sections describe the properties and format of the map file.
Map File Type
The map file should be a text file, in the CSV (Comma Separated Value) format.
Map File Format
For information on the map file format, see Map File Format for File System Restores.
Map File Location
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For File System Agents, the map file must be located on the client where the files will be restored.
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For NDMP Agents, the map file must be located on the CommServe.
Adding Files and Folders with Unicode Characters
If the path or the filename contains Unicode characters, the map file must be converted to a format that can be used by the restore operation. This can be done using the CVconvertUnicode utility. For a detailed explanation on how to use this tool, see Unicode Conversion Utility.
Points to Remember While Creating the Map File
Consider the following while creating a map file:
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The specified paths for both the source and destination must be absolute paths.
If the specified destination folder is not available, the necessary destination folder will be created during the restore.
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The source and destination type should be the same. For example, a folder must map to another folder and a file to another file. (The results may be unpredictable if this is not followed.)
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Renaming all restore files with suffix is honored only if a file with same name already exists. Consider the following example:
If you are restoring a specific version of a file with the name filename1.txt and the file is already available in the destination folder, then the file is restored as filename1,.txt. The suffix is ignored. However, if even filename1,.txt is already available in the destination folder, then the file is restored as filename1,<version ID>.txt.
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Wildcards in source or destination path are not supported.
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To filter a file, add the source folder and file and then add an empty double quotes as the destination. For example:
"C:\dir5",""
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The AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Solaris File System iDataAgents can run map file restores for the following:
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Symbolic links to raw device data (but not the data itself)
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Raw device data whose full path is specified
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Best Practices
Consider the following while restoring data using a map file:
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Use a map file only when there is a large number of files to be restored with multiple destination paths. Consider the following examples:
You wish to restore 10 files. Within these 10 files, 8 files must be restored to the same location, while 2 files must be restored to separate destinations - in this case select these 10 file in the Browse window, specify the destination path for the 8 files to the common location and only include the 2 files in the map file.
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As much as possible, filter the files from the Browse window, rather than filtering the files using a map file.