Bacula 1.32 User's Guide | Chapter 8

The Console Program | Index | Disaster Recovery Using Bacula

# The Bacula Console Restore Command

## General

Below, we will discuss restoring files with the Console Restore command, which is the recommended way of doing it. However, there is a standalone program named bextract, which also permits restoring files. For more information on this program, please see the Bacula Utility Programs chapter of this manual. There is also a program named bscan, documented in the same Bacula Utility Programs chapter, that permits restoring a catalog database from tapes.

In general, to restore a file or a set of files, you must run a restore job. That is a job with Type = Restore. As a consequence, you should have a predefined restore job in your bacula-dir.conf (Director's config) file. The exact parameters (Client, FileSet, ...) that you define are not important as you can either modify them manually before running the job or if you use the restore command, explained below, they will be automatically set for you.

Since Bacula is a network backup program, you must be aware that when you restore files, it is up to you to ensure that you or Bacula have selected the correct Client and the correct hard disk location for restoring those files. Bacula will quite willingly backup client A, and restore it by sending the files to a different directory on client B. Normally, you will want to avoid this, but assuming the operating systems are not too different in their file structures, this should work perfectly well, if so desired.

## The Restore Command

The restore command in the Console program allows you to first select one or more Jobs (JobIds) to be restored using various methods or to enter the filenames to be restored either manually or to have Bacula read the filenames from a file. These methods are explained in detail below. Once the JobIds are selected, the File records for those Jobs are placed in an internal Bacula directory tree, and the restore enters a file selection mode that allows you to interactively walk up and down the file tree selecting individual files to be restored. This mode is somewhat similar to the standard Unix restore program's interactive file selection mode.

Within the Console program, after entering the restore command, you are presented with the following selection prompt:

    First you select one or more JobIds that contain files
    to be restored. You will be presented several methods
    of specifying the JobIds. Then you will be allowed to
    select which files from those JobIds are to be restored.

    To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
         1: List last 20 Jobs run
         2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
         3: Enter list of JobIds to select
         4: Enter SQL list command
         5: Select the most recent backup for a client
         6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
         7: Enter a list of files to restore
         8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
         9: Cancel
    Select item:  (1-9):

- Item 1 will list the last 20 jobs run. If you find the Job you want, you can then select item 3 and enter its JobId(s).
- Item 2 will list all the Jobs where a specified file is saved. If you find the Job you want, you can then select item 3 and enter the JobId.
- Item 3 allows you the enter a list of comma separated JobIds whose files will be put into the directory tree.
- Item 4 allows you to enter any arbitrary SQL command. This is probably the most primitive way of finding the desired JobIds, but at the same time, the most flexible. Once you have found the JobId(s), you can select item 3 and enter them.
- Item 5 will automatically select the most recent Full backup and all subsequent incremental and differential backups for a specified Client. These are the Jobs and Files which if reloaded will restore your system to the most current saved state. It automatically enters the JobIds found into the directory tree. This is probably the most convenient of all the above options to use if you wish to restore a selected Client to its most recent state.
- Item 6 allows you to specify a date and time then Bacula will automatically select the most recent Full backup and all subsequent incremental and differential backups that started before the specified date and time.
- Item 7 allows you to specify one or more filenames (complete path required) to be restored. Each filename is entered one at a time or if you prefix a filename with the less-than symbol (<) Bacula will read that file and assume it is a list of filenames to be restored. The filename entry mode is terminated by entering a blank line.
- Item 8 allows you to specify a data and time before entering the filenames. See Item 7 above for more details.
- Item 9 allows you to cancel the restore command.

As an example, suppose that we select item 5 (restore to most recent state). It will then ask for the desired Client, which on my system, will print the all the Clients found in the database as follows:

    Defined clients:
         1: Rufus
         2: Matou
         3: Polymatou
         4: Minimatou
         5: Minou
         6: MatouVerify
         7: PmatouVerify
         8: RufusVerify
         9: Watchdog
    Select Client (File daemon) resource (1-9):

If you have only one Client, it will be automatically selected, but in this case, I enter Rufus to select the Client. Then Bacula needs to know what FileSet is to be restored, so it prompts with:

    The defined FileSet resources are:
         1: Full Set      2003-05-30 11:49:47
         2: Kerns Files   2003-06-27 21:30:51
    Select FileSet resource (1-2):

I choose item 1, which is my full backup. Note, the information that follows your FileSet names is the date and time at which the FileSet was created. Each time you edit the FileSet definition, a new FileSet will be created (with the same name but a different date and MD5 so that Bacula can distinguish it). As a consequence, it is possible to have two "Full Set" entries above, but each one will have a different date. The date is shown to make the output a bit more user friendly. If having several FileSets with the same name is confusing, you might simply rename your FileSet each time you change it.

At this point, Bacula has all the information it needs to find the most recent set of backups. It will then query the database, which may take a bit of time, and it will come up with something like the following. Note, some of the columns are truncated here for presentation:

    +-------+------+----------+------------------+-------------+---------+----------+------------+
    | JobId | Levl | JobFiles | StartTime        | VolumeName  | StrtFil | VolSesId | VolSesTime |
    +-------+------+----------+------------------+-------------+---------+----------+------------+
    | 1,792 | F    |  128,374 | 2002-08-03 01:58 | DLT-19Jul02 |      67 |       18 | 1028042998 |
    | 1,792 | F    |  128,374 | 2002-08-03 01:58 | DLT-04Aug02 |       0 |       18 | 1028042998 |
    | 1,797 | I    |      254 | 2002-08-04 13:53 | DLT-04Aug02 |       5 |       23 | 1028042998 |
    | 1,798 | I    |       15 | 2002-08-05 01:05 | DLT-04Aug02 |       6 |       24 | 1028042998 |
    +-------+------+----------+------------------+-------------+---------+----------+------------+

    You have selected the following JobId: 1792,1792,1797
    Building directory tree for JobId 1792 ...
    Building directory tree for JobId 1797 ...
    Building directory tree for JobId 1798 ...

    cwd is: /
    $

Depending on the number of JobFiles for each JobId, the Building directory tree ..." can take a bit of time.

In our example, Bacula found four Jobs that comprise the most recent backup of the specified Client and FileSet. Two of the Jobs have the same JobId because that Job wrote on two different Volumes. Note, in Bacula 1.32c and above, no duplicate JobIds will be printed to reduce confusion. The third Job was an incremental backup to the previous Full backup, and it only saved 254 Files compared to 128,374 for the Full backup. The fourth Job was also an incremental backup that saved 15 files.

Next Bacula entered those Jobs into the directory tree, and as a default marks all files to be restored, tells you how many files are in the tree then tells you that the current working directory (cwd) is /. Finally, Bacula prompts with the dollar sign ($) to indicate that you may enter commands to move around the directory tree and to select files.

Instead of choosing item 5 on the first menu (Select the most recent backup for a client), if we had chosen item 3 (Enter list of JobIds to select) and we had entered the JobIds 1792,1797,1798 we would have arrived at the same point.

One point to note if you are manually entering JobIds is that you must enter them in the order they were run (generally in increasing JobId order). If you enter them out of order and the same file was saved in two or more of the Jobs, you may end up with an old version of that file (i.e. not the most recent).

While in file selection mode, you can enter help or a question mark (?) to produce a summary of the available commands:

      Command    Description
      =======    ===========
      mark       mark file for restoration
      unmark     unmark file for restoration
      cd         change current directory
      pwd        print current working directory
      ls         list current directory
      dir        list current directory
      count      count marked files
      find       find files
      done       leave file selection mode
      exit       exit = done
      help       print help
      ?          print help

As a default Bacula has selected all the files in the directory tree. If you want to do a full restore, simply enter done, and Bacula will write the bootstrap records to a file and request your approval to start a restore job.

If instead, you wish to start with an empty slate (i.e. no jobs marked for restoration), simply enter unmark *. Otherwise, you can simply start looking at the tree and unmark particular files or directories if you do not want them restored. It is easy to make a mistake in specifying a file to mark or unmark, and Bacula's error handling is not perfect, so please check your work by using the ls or dir commands to see what files are actually selected. Any selected file has its name preceded by an asterisk.

To check what is marked or not marked, enter the count command, which displays:

    128401 total files. 128401 marked for restoration.

Each of the above commands will be described in more detail in the next section. We continue with the above example, having accepted to restore all files as Bacula set by default. On entering the done command, Bacula prints:

    Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr

    The restore job will require the following Volumes:

       DLT-19Jul02
       DLT-04Aug02

    128401 files selected to restore.

    Run Restore job
    JobName:    kernsrestore
    Bootstrap:  /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
    Where:      /tmp/bacula-restores
    Replace:    always
    FileSet:    Kerns Files
    Client:     Rufus
    Storage:    SDT-10000
    JobId:      *None*
    OK to run? (yes/mod/no):

Please examine each of the items very carefully to make sure that they are correct. In particular, look at Where, which tells you where in the directory structure the files will be restored, and Client, which tells you which client will receive the files. These items will not always be completed with the correct values depending on which of the restore options you chose.

The above assumes that you have defined a Restore Job resource in your Director's configuration file. Normally, you will only need one Restore Job resource definition because by its nature, restoring is a manual operation, and using the Console interface, you will be able to modify the Restore Job to do what you want.

An example Restore Job resource definition is given below.

Returning to the above example, you should verify that the Client name is correct before running the Job. However, you may want to modify some of the parameters of the restore job. For example, in addition to checking the Client it is wise to check that the Storage device chosen by Bacula is indeed correct. Although the FileSet is shown, it will be ignored in restore. The restore will choose the files to be restored either by reading the Bootstrap file, or if not is specified, it will restore all files associated with the specified backup JobId (i.e. the JobId of the Job that originally backed up the files).

Finally before running the job, please note that the default location for restoring files is not their original locations, rather the directory /tmp/bacula-restores. You can change this default by modifying your bacula-dir.conf file, or you can modify it using the mod option. If you want to restore the files to their original location, you must have Where set to nothing or to the root, i.e. /.

If you now enter yes, Bacula will run the restore Job. The Storage daemon will first request Volume DLT-19Jul02 and after the appropriate files have been restored from that volume, it will request Volume DLT-04Aug02.

## Selecting Files by Filename

If you have a small number of files to restore, and you know the filenames, you can either put the list of filenames in a file to be read by Bacula, or you can enter the names one at a time. The filenames must include the full path and filename. No wild cards are used.

To enter the files, after the restore, you select item number 7 from the prompt list:

    To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
         1: List last 20 Jobs run
         2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
         3: Enter list of JobIds to select
         4: Enter SQL list command
         5: Select the most recent backup for a client
         6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
         7: Enter a list of files to restore
         8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
         9: Cancel
    Select item:  (1-9): 7

which then prompts you with for the client name:

    Defined Clients:
         1: Timmy
         2: Tibs
         3: Rufus
    Select the Client (1-3): 3

Of course, your client list will be different, and if you have only one client, it will be automatically selected. And finally, Bacula requests you to enter a filename:

    Enter filename:

At this point, you can enter the full path and filename

    Enter filename: /home/kern/bacula/k/Makefile.in
    Enter filename:

as you can see, it took the filename. If Bacula cannot find a copy of the file, it prints the following:

    Enter filename: junk filename
    No database record found for: junk filename
    Enter filename:

If you want Bacula to read the filenames from a file, you simply precede the filename with a less-than symbol (<). When you have entered all the filenames, you enter a blank line, and Bacula will write the bootstrap file, tell you what tapes will be used, and propose a Restore job to be run:

    Enter filename:
    Automatically selected Storage: DDS-4
    Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr

    The restore job will require the following Volumes:

       test1

    1 file selected to restore.

    Run Restore job
    JobName:    kernsrestore
    Bootstrap:  /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
    Where:      /tmp/bacula-restores
    Replace:    always
    FileSet:    Kerns Files
    Client:     Rufus
    Storage:    DDS-4
    When:       2003-09-11 10:20:53
    Priority:   10
    OK to run? (yes/mod/no):

It is possible to automate the selection by file by putting your list of files in say /tmp/file-list, then using the following command:

##

##

##

##

##

    restore client=Rufus file=</tmp/file-list
    </pre>

    Command Line Arguments
    If all the above sounds complicated, you will probably agree that
    it really isn't after trying it a few times. It is possible to
    do everything that was shown above, with the exception of selecting
    the FileSet, by using command line arguments with a single command by entering:

    restore client=Rufus current all yes

    The client=Rufus specification will automatically select Rufus
    as the client, the current tells Bacula that you want to restore
    the system to the most current state possible, and the yes suppresses
    the final yes/mod/no prompt and simply runs the restore.
    The full list of possible command line arguments are:

      all -- select all Files to be restored without prompting>
             In the absence of this keyword, Bacula will prompt you to
             mark and unmark files in the directory tree.
      current -- automatically select the most current set of
             backups for the specified client.
      client=xxxx -- select the specified client.
      jobid=nnn -- specify a JobId or comma separated list of
             JobIds to be restored.
      before=YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS -- specify a date and time to
             which the system should be restored. Only Jobs started before
             the specified date/time will be selected, and as is the case
             for current Bacula will automatically find the most
             recent prior Full save and all Differential and Incremental
             saves run before the date you specify. Note, this command is
             not too user friendly in that you must specify the date/time
             exactly as shown.
       yes -- automatically run the restore without prompting
             for modifications (most useful in batch scripts).

    Restoring on Windows
    If you are restoring on WinNT/2K/XP systems, Bacula will restore the
    files with the original ownerships and permissions as would be expected.
    This is also true if you are restoring those files to an alternate
    directory (using the Where option in restore). However, if the
    alternate directory does not already exist, the Bacula File daemon
    (Client) will create it, and since the File daemon runs under the SYSTEM
    account, the directory will be created with SYSTEM ownership and
    permissions. In this case, you may have problems accessing the newly
    restored files.
    To avoid this problem, you can create the alternate directory
    before doing the restore. Bacula will not change the ownership and
    permissions of the directory if it is already created as long as it is
    not one of the directories being restored (i.e. written to tape).
    Restoring Files Can Be Slow
    Restoring files is generally much slower than backing it
    up for several reasons. The first is that during a backup
    the tape is normally already positioned and Bacula need only
    write. On the other hand, because restoring files
    is done so rarely, Bacula keeps only the he start file and block on the
    tape for the whole job rather than on a file by file basis which would
    use quite a lot of space in the catalog.

    Bacula versions 1.31a and older would seek to the
    first file on the first tape, then sequentially
    search the tape for the specified files. If you
    were doing a full restore, this is OK, but if you
    want to restore one or two files, the process
    could be quite long.

    This deficiency has been corrected in version 1.32.
    The consequence is that Bacula will forward space to the
    correct file mark on the tape for the Job, then forward
    space to the correct block, and finally
    sequentially read each record until it
    gets to the correct one(s) for the file or files you want
    to restore. Once the desired files are restored, Bacula
    will stop reading the tape. For restoring a small
    number of files, version 1.32 and greater are hundreds
    of times faster than previous versions.

    Finally, instead of just reading a file for backup, during
    the restore, Bacula must create the file, and the operating
    system must allocate disk space for the file as Bacula is
    restoring it.

    For all the above reasons the restoration process is generally
    much slower than backing up.
    Example Restore Job Resource

    Job {
      Name = "RestoreFiles"
      Type = Restore
      Client = Any-client
      FileSet = "Any-FileSet"
      Storage = Any-storage
      Where = /tmp/bacula-restores
      Messages = Standard
      Pool = Default
    }

    If Where is not specified, the default location for restoring
    files will be their original locations.

    File Selection Commands
    After you have selected the Jobs to be restored and Bacula has
    created the in-memory directory tree, you will enter file selection mode
    as indicated by the dollar sign ($) prompt. While in this mode, you
    may use the commands listed above. The basic idea is to move up and
    down the in memory directory structure with the cd command
    much as you normally do on the system. Once you are in a directory,
    you may select the
    files that you want restored. As a default all files are marked for
    restoration. If you wish to start with no files, simply enter: unmark *.
    Then proceed to select the files you wish to restore by marking them
    with the mark command. The available commands are:

      cdThe cd command changes the current directory to
        the argument specified. It operates much like the Unix cd command.
        Wildcard specifications are not permitted.

      dirThe dir command is similar to the ls command,
        except that it prints it in long format (all details). This command
        can be a bit slower than the ls command because it must access
        the catalog database for the detailed information for each file.

      findThe find command accepts one or more arguments
         and displays all files in the tree that match that argument. The argument
         may have wildcards. It is somewhat similar to the Unix command
         find / -name arg.

      lsThe ls command produces a listing of all the files
        contained in the current directory much like the Unix ls command.
        You may specify an argument containing wildcards, in which case only
        those files will be listed. Any file that is marked for restoration will
        have its name preceded by an asterisk (*). Directory names
        will be terminated with a forward slash (/) to distinguish them
        from filenames.

      markThe mark command allows you to mark files
        for restoration. It takes a single argument which is the filename
        or directory name in the current directory to be marked for extraction.
        The argument may be a wildcard specification, in which
        case all files that match in the current directory are marked for
        restoration. If the argument matches a directory rather than a file,
        then the directory and all files contained in that directory (recursively)
        are marked for restoration. Any marked file will have its name
        preceded with an asterisk (*) in the output produced by the
        ls or dir commands. Note, supplying a full path on
        the mark command does not work as it expects to select a file or
        directory in the current directory.

      unmarkThe unmark is identical to the mark
        command, except that it unmarks the specified file or files so that
        they will not be restored.

      pwdThe pwd command prints the current working
        directory. It accepts no arguments.

      countThe count command prints the total files in the
        directory tree and the number of files marked to be restored.

      doneThis command terminates file selection mode.

      exitThis command terminates file selection mode (the same as
         done).

      helpThis command prints a summary of the commands available.

      ?This command is the same as the help command.

    The Console Program

    Index

    Disaster Recovery Using Bacula

            Bacula 1.32 User's Guide

            The Network Backup Solution

            Copyright © 2000-2003

            Kern Sibbald and John Walker