Restoring Guest Files and Folders for Citrix Hypervisor (XenServer)

You can restore individual files and folders from a virtual machine backup to a client that has the Virtual Server Agent or a File System Agent installed.

Considerations

• Restoring data to a UNC path (Windows) or to an NFS-mounted file system (Unix) is similar to restoring from one computer to another, with the following exceptions:

  • The restored data passes through the VSA proxy to the mapped share or file system.

  • The computer that hosts the share or mounted file system does not need to be another client within the CommCell.

  • All data restored to a shared directory assumes the security attributes (such as permissions) of the parent directory where data is restored.

• The version of the file system agent on the destination VM must be the same as the version of the Virtual Server Agent.

• You cannot restore files and folders directly to a virtual machine. Instead, restore to another destination and copy the data to the virtual machine.

• For Windows, you can restore files from NTFS file systems with the following limitations:

  • The formatted cluster size (allocation unit) must be 1024 or greater.

  • You cannot restore any archived files and folders.

  • You cannot restore files that have been dehydrated by Windows 2012 dedup.

• To provide UNIX file system support for ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, JFS, HFS, HFS Plus, and Btrfs file systems:

  • Convert a Linux MediaAgent to a File Recovery Enabler for Linux.

  • Identify the default File Recovery Enabler for the instance.

    Notes

    • For Commvault Service Pack 7 and later, MediaAgents that are able to act as File Recovery Enablers are automatically configured.

    • Without a File Recovery Enabler for Linux, only ext2 and ext3 file systems are supported.

    • When you perform a live browse operation on Linux files and folders, the Client tab shows logical volumes as volume groups rather than mount paths.

Before You Begin

• To restore files and folders to a Windows client or virtual machine, the client must have one of the following components installed:

  • Virtual Server Agent

  • Windows File System Agent (full or restore only)

  • UNIX File System Agent (full or restore only)

• To recover files from a backup that was made using a UNIX MediaAgent, see Enabling File and Folder Restores from Backups Made Using UNIX MediaAgents.

Procedure

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > virtualization_client > Virtual Server > instance > backup_set.

2. Start the restore from a subclient or backup set:

   • From a subclient: Right-click the subclient and then click Browse and Restore.

   • From a backup set: Right-click the backup set, point to All Tasks, and then click Browse and Restore.

3. In the Browse and Restore Options dialog box, click Guest Files and Folders and then click View Content.

4. From the browse results, expand the left pane, select the files or folders to be restored, and then click Recover All Selected.

   To select a specific file version, right-click the file, select View All Versions, and then select the version.

5. In the Restore Options for All Selected Items dialog box, specify the options for the restore operation:

   Option	Steps
   Restore ACLs	Select one of the following options: Restore ACLs Only: Restores source file and folder permissions. Restore Data Only: Restore files and folders without the permissions of the source files. Restore Both Data and ACLs: Restore files and folders with source permissions applied.
   Unconditional Overwrite	Overwrites source files or folders with the same names.
   Restore Destination	Select a destination client that has direct access to the destination storage repository. In the Destination client list, select the VSA proxy to be used for the restore. In the Specify destination path box, enter the location where the file or folder will be restored. A file or folder can be restored to a UNC path (Windows) or to an NFS-mounted file system (Unix). UNIX computers Clients with NFS mounted to another machine can restore to that mount. Click the Browse button to see if the mount is visible. Windows computers You can specify the UNC path of a shared drive to restore files directly to the original virtual machine. For example, enter \\servername\sharename. (You cannot specify a drive letter associated with a mapped drive.) Add the Windows logon information for this shared drive by using the Impersonate User option on the General tab of the Advanced Restore Options dialog box. The user account specified must have permissions for the UNC path to which the data will be restored. This user must be able to create files in the destination folder of the virtual machine through the destination proxy computer. Without these permissions, the recovery operation will not complete successfully.
   Preserve Source Paths	Use the Preserve or Remove options to determine how many levels of parent folders are created for restored files. For example, when restoring a file from the /MEMOS/SALES folder, you can preserve two levels to create both folders, or preserve one level to create only the SALES folder.

6. To further customize the restore operation, click Advanced.

   For more information about advanced options, see Advanced Restore Options.

7. Click OK to start the restore job.