3 \chapter{The Restore Command}
5 \index[general]{Command!Console Restore}
6 \index[general]{Console Restore Command}
9 \index[general]{General }
11 Below, we will discuss restoring files with the Console {\bf restore} command,
12 which is the recommended way of doing restoring files. It is not possible
13 to restore files by automatically starting a job as you do with Backup,
14 Verify, ... jobs. However, in addition to the console restore command,
15 there is a standalone program named {\bf bextract}, which also permits
16 restoring files. For more information on this program, please see the
17 \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{bextract} chapter of this manual. We
18 don't particularly recommend the {\bf bextract} program because it
19 lacks many of the features of the normal Bacula restore, such as the
20 ability to restore Win32 files to Unix systems, and the ability to
21 restore access control lists (ACL). As a consequence, we recommend,
22 wherever possible to use Bacula itself for restores as described below.
24 You may also want to look at the {\bf bls} program in the same chapter,
25 which allows you to list the contents of your Volumes. Finally, if you
26 have an old Volume that is no longer in the catalog, you can restore the
27 catalog entries using the program named {\bf bscan}, documented in the same
28 \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{bscan} chapter.
30 In general, to restore a file or a set of files, you must run a {\bf restore}
31 job. That is a job with {\bf Type = Restore}. As a consequence, you will need
32 a predefined {\bf restore} job in your {\bf bacula-dir.conf} (Director's
33 config) file. The exact parameters (Client, FileSet, ...) that you define are
34 not important as you can either modify them manually before running the job or
35 if you use the {\bf restore} command, explained below, Bacula will
36 automatically set them for you. In fact, you can no longer simply run a restore
37 job. You must use the restore command.
39 Since Bacula is a network backup program, you must be aware that when you
40 restore files, it is up to you to ensure that you or Bacula have selected the
41 correct Client and the correct hard disk location for restoring those files.
42 {\bf Bacula} will quite willingly backup client A, and restore it by sending
43 the files to a different directory on client B. Normally, you will want to
44 avoid this, but assuming the operating systems are not too different in their
45 file structures, this should work perfectly well, if so desired.
46 By default, Bacula will restore data to the same Client that was backed
47 up, and those data will be restored not to the original places but to
48 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You may modify any of these defaults when the
49 restore command prompts you to run the job by selecting the {\bf mod}
53 \section{The Restore Command}
54 \index[general]{Command!Restore}
55 \index[general]{Restore Command}
57 Since Bacula maintains a catalog of your files and on which Volumes (disk or
58 tape), they are stored, it can do most of the bookkeeping work, allowing you
59 simply to specify what kind of restore you want (current, before a particular
60 date), and what files to restore. Bacula will then do the rest.
62 This is accomplished using the {\bf restore} command in the Console. First you
63 select the kind of restore you want, then the JobIds are selected,
64 the File records for those Jobs are placed in an internal Bacula directory
65 tree, and the restore enters a file selection mode that allows you to
66 interactively walk up and down the file tree selecting individual files to be
67 restored. This mode is somewhat similar to the standard Unix {\bf restore}
68 program's interactive file selection mode.
70 If a Job's file records have been pruned from the catalog, the {\bf
71 restore} command will be unable to find any files to restore. See below
72 for more details on this.
74 Within the Console program, after entering the {\bf restore} command, you are
75 presented with the following selection prompt:
79 First you select one or more JobIds that contain files
80 to be restored. You will be presented several methods
81 of specifying the JobIds. Then you will be allowed to
82 select which files from those JobIds are to be restored.
83 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
84 1: List last 20 Jobs run
85 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
86 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
87 4: Enter SQL list command
88 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
89 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
90 7: Enter a list of files to restore
91 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
92 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
93 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
94 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
100 There are a lot of options, and as a point of reference, most people will
101 want to slect item 5 (the most recent backup for a client). The details
102 of the above options are:
105 \item Item 1 will list the last 20 jobs run. If you find the Job you want,
106 you can then select item 3 and enter its JobId(s).
108 \item Item 2 will list all the Jobs where a specified file is saved. If you
109 find the Job you want, you can then select item 3 and enter the JobId.
111 \item Item 3 allows you the enter a list of comma separated JobIds whose
112 files will be put into the directory tree. You may then select which
113 files from those JobIds to restore. Normally, you would use this option
114 if you have a particular version of a file that you want to restore and
115 you know its JobId. The most common options (5 and 6) will not select
116 a job that did not terminate normally, so if you know a file is
117 backed up by a Job that failed (possibly because of a system crash), you
118 can access it through this option by specifying the JobId.
120 \item Item 4 allows you to enter any arbitrary SQL command. This is
121 probably the most primitive way of finding the desired JobIds, but at
122 the same time, the most flexible. Once you have found the JobId(s), you
123 can select item 3 and enter them.
125 \item Item 5 will automatically select the most recent Full backup and all
126 subsequent incremental and differential backups for a specified Client.
127 These are the Jobs and Files which, if reloaded, will restore your
128 system to the most current saved state. It automatically enters the
129 JobIds found into the directory tree in an optimal way such that only
130 the most recent copy of any particular file found in the set of Jobs
131 will be restored. This is probably the most convenient of all the above
132 options to use if you wish to restore a selected Client to its most
135 There are two important things to note. First, this automatic selection
136 will never select a job that failed (terminated with an error status).
137 If you have such a job and want to recover one or more files from it,
138 you will need to explicitly enter the JobId in item 3, then choose the
141 If some of the Jobs that are needed to do the restore have had their
142 File records pruned, the restore will be incomplete. Bacula currently
143 does not correctly detect this condition. You can however, check for
144 this by looking carefully at the list of Jobs that Bacula selects and
145 prints. If you find Jobs with the JobFiles column set to zero, when
146 files should have been backed up, then you should expect problems.
148 If all the File records have been pruned, Bacula will realize that there
149 are no file records in any of the JobIds chosen and will inform you. It
150 will then propose doing a full restore (non-selective) of those JobIds.
151 This is possible because Bacula still knows where the beginning of the
152 Job data is on the Volumes, even if it does not know where particular
153 files are located or what their names are.
155 \item Item 6 allows you to specify a date and time, after which Bacula will
156 automatically select the most recent Full backup and all subsequent
157 incremental and differential backups that started before the specified date
160 \item Item 7 allows you to specify one or more filenames (complete path
161 required) to be restored. Each filename is entered one at a time or if you
162 prefix a filename with the less-than symbol (\lt{}) Bacula will read that
163 file and assume it is a list of filenames to be restored. If you
164 prefix the filename with a question mark (?), then the filename will
165 be interpreted as an SQL table name, and Bacula will include the rows
166 of that table in the list to be restored. The table must contain the
167 JobId in the first column and the FileIndex in the second column.
168 This table feature is intended for external programs that want to build
169 their own list of files to be restored.
170 The filename entry mode is terminated by entering a blank line.
172 \item Item 8 allows you to specify a date and time before entering the
173 filenames. See Item 7 above for more details.
175 \item Item 9 allows you find the JobIds of the most recent backup for
176 a client. This is much like option 5 (it uses the same code), but
177 those JobIds are retained internally as if you had entered them
178 manually. You may then select item 11 (see below) to restore one
181 \item Item 10 is the same as item 9, except that it allows you to enter
182 a before date (as with item 6). These JobIds will then be retained
185 \index[general]{Restore Directories}
186 \item Item 11 allows you to enter a list of JobIds from which you can
187 select directories to be restored. The list of JobIds can have been
188 previously created by using either item 9 or 10 on the menu. You
189 may then enter a full path to a directory name or a filename preceded
190 by a less than sign (\lt{}). The filename should contain a list
191 of directories to be restored. All files in those directories will
192 be restored, but if the directory contains subdirectories, nothing
193 will be restored in the subdirectory unless you explicitly enter its
196 \item Item 12 allows you to cancel the restore command.
199 As an example, suppose that we select item 5 (restore to most recent state).
200 If you have not specified a client=xxx on the command line, it
201 it will then ask for the desired Client, which on my system, will print all
202 the Clients found in the database as follows:
216 Select Client (File daemon) resource (1-9):
220 You will probably have far fewer Clients than this example, and if you have
221 only one Client, it will be automatically selected. In this case, I enter
222 {\bf Rufus} to select the Client. Then Bacula needs to know what FileSet is
223 to be restored, so it prompts with:
227 The defined FileSet resources are:
230 Select FileSet resource (1-2):
234 If you have only one FileSet defined for the Client, it will be selected
235 automatically. I choose item 1, which is my full backup. Normally, you
236 will only have a single FileSet for each Job, and if your machines are
237 similar (all Linux) you may only have one FileSet for all your Clients.
239 At this point, {\bf Bacula} has all the information it needs to find the most
240 recent set of backups. It will then query the database, which may take a bit
241 of time, and it will come up with something like the following. Note, some of
242 the columns are truncated here for presentation:
246 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
248 | JobId | Levl | JobFiles | StartTime | VolumeName | File | SesId |
250 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
252 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-19Jul02 | 67 | 18 |
254 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-04Aug02 | 0 | 18 |
256 | 1,797 | I | 254 | 08-04 13:53 | DLT-04Aug02 | 5 | 23 |
258 | 1,798 | I | 15 | 08-05 01:05 | DLT-04Aug02 | 6 | 24 |
260 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
262 You have selected the following JobId: 1792,1792,1797
263 Building directory tree for JobId 1792 ...
264 Building directory tree for JobId 1797 ...
265 Building directory tree for JobId 1798 ...
271 Depending on the number of {\bf JobFiles} for each JobId, the {\bf Building
272 directory tree ..."} can take a bit of time. If you notice ath all the
273 JobFiles are zero, your Files have probably been pruned and you will not be
274 able to select any individual files -- it will be restore everything or
277 In our example, Bacula found four Jobs that comprise the most recent backup of
278 the specified Client and FileSet. Two of the Jobs have the same JobId because
279 that Job wrote on two different Volumes. The third Job was an incremental
280 backup to the previous Full backup, and it only saved 254 Files compared to
281 128,374 for the Full backup. The fourth Job was also an incremental backup
284 Next Bacula entered those Jobs into the directory tree, with no files marked
285 to be restored as a default, tells you how many files are in the tree, and
286 tells you that the current working directory ({\bf cwd}) is /. Finally, Bacula
287 prompts with the dollar sign (\$) to indicate that you may enter commands to
288 move around the directory tree and to select files.
290 If you want all the files to automatically be marked when the directory
291 tree is built, you could have entered the command {\bf restore all}, or
292 at the \$ prompt, you can simply enter {\bf mark *}.
294 Instead of choosing item 5 on the first menu (Select the most recent backup
295 for a client), if we had chosen item 3 (Enter list of JobIds to select) and we
296 had entered the JobIds {\bf 1792,1797,1798} we would have arrived at the same
299 One point to note, if you are manually entering JobIds, is that you must enter
300 them in the order they were run (generally in increasing JobId order). If you
301 enter them out of order and the same file was saved in two or more of the
302 Jobs, you may end up with an old version of that file (i.e. not the most
305 Directly entering the JobIds can also permit you to recover data from
306 a Job that wrote files to tape but that terminated with an error status.
308 While in file selection mode, you can enter {\bf help} or a question mark (?)
309 to produce a summary of the available commands:
315 cd change current directory
316 count count marked files in and below the cd
317 dir long list current directory, wildcards allowed
318 done leave file selection mode
319 estimate estimate restore size
320 exit same as done command
321 find find files, wildcards allowed
323 ls list current directory, wildcards allowed
324 lsmark list the marked files in and below the cd
325 mark mark dir/file to be restored recursively in dirs
326 markdir mark directory name to be restored (no files)
327 pwd print current working directory
328 unmark unmark dir/file to be restored recursively in dir
329 unmarkdir unmark directory name only no recursion
330 quit quit and do not do restore
335 As a default no files have been selected for restore (unless you
336 added {\bf all} to the command line. If you want to restore
337 everything, at this point, you should enter {\bf mark *}, and then {\bf done}
338 and {\bf Bacula} will write the bootstrap records to a file and request your
339 approval to start a restore job.
341 If you do not enter the above mentioned {\bf mark *} command, you will start
342 with an empty slate. Now you can simply start looking at the tree and {\bf
343 mark} particular files or directories you want restored. It is easy to make
344 a mistake in specifying a file to mark or unmark, and Bacula's error handling
345 is not perfect, so please check your work by using the {\bf ls} or {\bf dir}
346 commands to see what files are actually selected. Any selected file has its
347 name preceded by an asterisk.
349 To check what is marked or not marked, enter the {\bf count} command, which
354 128401 total files. 128401 marked to be restored.
359 Each of the above commands will be described in more detail in the next
360 section. We continue with the above example, having accepted to restore all
361 files as Bacula set by default. On entering the {\bf done} command, Bacula
366 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
367 The job will require the following
368 Volume(s) Storage(s) SD Device(s)
369 ===========================================================================
371 DLT-19Jul02 Tape DLT8000
372 DLT-04Aug02 Tape DLT8000
374 128401 files selected to restore.
376 JobName: kernsrestore
377 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
378 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
383 When: 2006-12-11 18:20:33
386 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
391 Please examine each of the items very carefully to make sure that they are
392 correct. In particular, look at {\bf Where}, which tells you where in the
393 directory structure the files will be restored, and {\bf Client}, which
394 tells you which client will receive the files. Note that by default the
395 Client which will receive the files is the Client that was backed up.
396 These items will not always be completed with the correct values depending
397 on which of the restore options you chose. You can change any of these
398 default items by entering {\bf mod} and responding to the prompts.
400 The above assumes that you have defined a {\bf Restore} Job resource in your
401 Director's configuration file. Normally, you will only need one Restore Job
402 resource definition because by its nature, restoring is a manual operation,
403 and using the Console interface, you will be able to modify the Restore Job to
406 An example Restore Job resource definition is given below.
408 Returning to the above example, you should verify that the Client name is
409 correct before running the Job. However, you may want to modify some of the
410 parameters of the restore job. For example, in addition to checking the Client
411 it is wise to check that the Storage device chosen by Bacula is indeed
412 correct. Although the {\bf FileSet} is shown, it will be ignored in restore.
413 The restore will choose the files to be restored either by reading the {\bf
414 Bootstrap} file, or if not specified, it will restore all files associated
415 with the specified backup {\bf JobId} (i.e. the JobId of the Job that
416 originally backed up the files).
418 Finally before running the job, please note that the default location for
419 restoring files is {\bf not} their original locations, but rather the directory
420 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You can change this default by modifying your {\bf
421 bacula-dir.conf} file, or you can modify it using the {\bf mod} option. If you
422 want to restore the files to their original location, you must have {\bf
423 Where} set to nothing or to the root, i.e. {\bf /}.
425 If you now enter {\bf yes}, Bacula will run the restore Job. The Storage
426 daemon will first request Volume {\bf DLT-19Jul02} and after the appropriate
427 files have been restored from that volume, it will request Volume {\bf
430 \section{Selecting Files by Filename}
431 \index[general]{Selecting Files by Filename }
432 \index[general]{Filename!Selecting Files by }
434 If you have a small number of files to restore, and you know the filenames,
435 you can either put the list of filenames in a file to be read by Bacula, or
436 you can enter the names one at a time. The filenames must include the full
437 path and filename. No wild cards are used.
439 To enter the files, after the {\bf restore}, you select item number 7 from the
444 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
445 1: List last 20 Jobs run
446 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
447 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
448 4: Enter SQL list command
449 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
450 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
451 7: Enter a list of files to restore
452 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
453 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
454 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
455 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
461 which then prompts you for the client name:
469 Select the Client (1-3): 3
473 Of course, your client list will be different, and if you have only one
474 client, it will be automatically selected. And finally, Bacula requests you to
483 At this point, you can enter the full path and filename
487 Enter filename: /home/kern/bacula/k/Makefile.in
492 as you can see, it took the filename. If Bacula cannot find a copy of the
493 file, it prints the following:
497 Enter filename: junk filename
498 No database record found for: junk filename
503 If you want Bacula to read the filenames from a file, you simply precede the
504 filename with a less-than symbol (\lt{}). When you have entered all the
505 filenames, you enter a blank line, and Bacula will write the bootstrap file,
506 tells you what tapes will be used, and proposes a Restore job to be run:
511 Automatically selected Storage: DDS-4
512 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
513 The restore job will require the following Volumes:
516 1 file selected to restore.
518 JobName: kernsrestore
519 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
520 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
525 When: 2003-09-11 10:20:53
527 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
531 It is possible to automate the selection by file by putting your list of files
532 in say {\bf /tmp/file-list}, then using the following command:
536 restore client=Rufus file=</tmp/file-list
540 If in modifying the parameters for the Run Restore job, you find that Bacula
541 asks you to enter a Job number, this is because you have not yet specified
542 either a Job number or a Bootstrap file. Simply entering zero will allow you
543 to continue and to select another option to be modified.
544 \label{CommandArguments}
546 \section{Command Line Arguments}
547 \index[general]{Arguments!Command Line }
548 \index[general]{Command Line Arguments }
550 If all the above sounds complicated, you will probably agree that it really
551 isn't after trying it a few times. It is possible to do everything that was
552 shown above, with the exception of selecting the FileSet, by using command
553 line arguments with a single command by entering:
557 restore client=Rufus select current all done yes
561 The {\bf client=Rufus} specification will automatically select Rufus as the
562 client, the {\bf current} tells Bacula that you want to restore the system to
563 the most current state possible, and the {\bf yes} suppresses the final {\bf
564 yes/mod/no} prompt and simply runs the restore.
566 The full list of possible command line arguments are:
569 \item {\bf all} -- select all Files to be restored.
570 \item {\bf select} -- use the tree selection method.
571 \item {\bf done} -- do not prompt the user in tree mode.
572 \item {\bf current} -- automatically select the most current set of backups
573 for the specified client.
574 \item {\bf client=xxxx} -- select the specified client.
575 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId or comma separated list of JobIds to
577 \item {\bf before=YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS} -- specify a date and time to which
578 the system should be restored. Only Jobs started before the specified
579 date/time will be selected, and as is the case for {\bf current} Bacula will
580 automatically find the most recent prior Full save and all Differential and
581 Incremental saves run before the date you specify. Note, this command is not
582 too user friendly in that you must specify the date/time exactly as shown.
583 \item {\bf file=filename} -- specify a filename to be restored. You must
584 specify the full path and filename. Prefixing the entry with a less-than
586 (\lt{}) will cause Bacula to assume that the filename is on your system and
587 contains a list of files to be restored. Bacula will thus read the list from
588 that file. Multiple file=xxx specifications may be specified on the command
590 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId to be restored.
591 \item {\bf pool=pool-name} -- specify a Pool name to be used for selection of
592 Volumes when specifying options 5 and 6 (restore current system, and restore
593 current system before given date). This permits you to have several Pools,
594 possibly one offsite, and to select the Pool to be used for restoring.
595 \item {\bf where=/tmp/bacula-restore} -- restore files in {\bf where} directory.
596 \item {\bf yes} -- automatically run the restore without prompting for
597 modifications (most useful in batch scripts).
598 \item {\bf strip\_prefix=/prod} -- remove a part of the filename when restoring.
599 \item {\bf add\_prefix=/test} -- add a prefix to all files when restoring (like
600 where) (can't be used with {\bf where=}).
601 \item {\bf add\_suffix=.old} -- add a suffix to all your files.
602 \item {\bf regexwhere=!a.pdf!a.bkp.pdf!} -- do complex filename manipulation
603 like with sed unix command. Will overwrite other filename manipulation.
606 \label{restorefilerelocation}
607 \section{Using File Relocation}
608 \index[general]{Using File Relocation}
609 \label{filerelocation}
611 \subsection{Introduction}
613 The \textbf{where=} option is simple, but not very powerful. With file
614 relocation, Bacula can restore a file to the same directory, but with a
615 different name, or in an other directory without recreating the full path.
617 You can also do filename and path manipulations, implemented in Bacula
618 2.1.8 or later, such as adding a suffix to all your files, renaming files
619 or directories, etc. Theses options will overwrite {\bf where=} option.
622 For example, many users use OS snapshot features so that file
623 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox} will be backed up from the directory
624 \texttt{/.snap/home/eric/mbox}, which can complicate restores. If you use
625 \textbf{where=/tmp}, the file will be restored to
626 \texttt{/tmp/.snap/home/eric/mbox} and you will have to move the file to
627 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox.bkp} by hand. In this case, you could use
628 \textbf{strip\_prefix=/.snap} and \textbf{add\_suffix=.bkp} options and
629 Bacula will restore the file to its original location -- that is
630 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox}.
632 To use this feature, there are command line options as described in
633 the \ilink{restore section}{restorefilerelocation} of this manual;
634 you can modify your restore job before running it; or you can
635 add options to your restore job in as described in
636 \ilink{bacula-dir.conf}{confaddprefix}.
639 Parameters to modify:
645 Select parameter to modify (1-12):
648 This will replace your current Where value
653 5: Test filename manipulation
655 Select parameter to modify (1-6):
659 \subsection{RegexWhere format}
661 The format is very close to that used by sed or Perl (\texttt{s/replace this/by
662 that/}) operator. A valid regexwhere expression has three fields :
664 \item a search expression (with optionnal submatch)
665 \item a replacement expression (with optionnal back references \$1 to \$9)
666 \item a set of search options (only case-insensitive ``i'' at this time)
669 Each field is delimited by a separator specified by the user as the first
670 character of the expression. The separator can be one of the following:
672 <separator-keyword> = / ! ; % : , ~ # = &
675 You can use several expressions separated by a commas.
677 \subsection*{Examples}
679 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|l}
681 Orignal filename & Computed filename & RegexWhere & Comments \\
684 \texttt{c:/system.ini} & \texttt{c:/system.old.ini} & \texttt{/.ini\$/.old.ini/} & use \$ as end of filename\\
686 \texttt{/prod/u01/pdata/} & \texttt{/rect/u01/rdata} & \texttt{/prod/rect/,/pdata/rdata/} & using two regexp\\
688 \texttt{/prod/u01/pdata/} & \texttt{/rect/u01/rdata} & \texttt{!/prod/!/rect/!,/pdata/rdata/} & using \texttt{!} instead of \texttt{/}\\
690 \texttt{C:/WINNT} & \texttt{d:/WINNT} & \texttt{/c:/d:/i} & using case-insensitive pattern matching \\
695 %\subsubsection{Using group}
697 %Like with Perl or Sed, you can make submatch with \texttt{()},
699 %\subsubsection*{Examples}
702 %\subsubsection{Options}
704 % i Do case-insensitive pattern matching.
706 \section{Restoring Directory Attributes}
707 \index[general]{Attributes!Restoring Directory }
708 \index[general]{Restoring Directory Attributes }
710 Depending how you do the restore, you may or may not get the directory entries
711 back to their original state. Here are a few of the problems you can
712 encounter, and for same machine restores, how to avoid them.
715 \item You backed up on one machine and are restoring to another that is
716 either a different OS or doesn't have the same users/groups defined. Bacula
717 does the best it can in these situations. Note, Bacula has saved the
718 user/groups in numeric form, which means on a different machine, they
719 may map to different user/group names.
721 \item You are restoring into a directory that is already created and has
722 file creation restrictions. Bacula tries to reset everything but
723 without walking up the full chain of directories and modifying them all
724 during the restore, which Bacula does and will not do, getting
725 permissions back correctly in this situation depends to a large extent
728 \item You are doing a recursive restore of a directory tree. In this case
729 Bacula will restore a file before restoring the file's parent directory
730 entry. In the process of restoring the file Bacula will create the
731 parent directory with open permissions and ownership of the file being
732 restored. Then when Bacula tries to restore the parent directory Bacula
733 sees that it already exists (Similar to the previous situation). If you
734 had set the Restore job's "Replace" property to "never" then Bacula will
735 not change the directory's permissions and ownerships to match what it
736 backed up, you should also notice that the actual number of files
737 restored is less then the expected number. If you had set the Restore
738 job's "Replace" property to "always" then Bacula will change the
739 Directory's ownership and permissions to match what it backed up, also
740 the actual number of files restored should be equal to the expected
743 \item You selected one or more files in a directory, but did not select the
744 directory entry to be restored. In that case, if the directory is not
745 on disk Bacula simply creates the directory with some default attributes
746 which may not be the same as the original. If you do not select a
747 directory and all its contents to be restored, you can still select
748 items within the directory to be restored by individually marking those
749 files, but in that case, you should individually use the "markdir"
750 command to select all higher level directory entries (one at a time) to
751 be restored if you want the directory entries properly restored.
753 \item The {\bf bextract} program does not restore access control lists
754 (ACLs), nor will it restore non-portable Win32 data (default) to Unix
759 \section{Restoring on Windows}
760 \index[general]{Restoring on Windows }
761 \index[general]{Windows!Restoring on }
763 If you are restoring on WinNT/2K/XP systems, Bacula will restore the files
764 with the original ownerships and permissions as would be expected. This is
765 also true if you are restoring those files to an alternate directory (using
766 the Where option in restore). However, if the alternate directory does not
767 already exist, the Bacula File daemon (Client) will try to create it. In
768 some cases, it may not create the directories, and if it does since the
769 File daemon runs under the SYSTEM account, the directory will be created
770 with SYSTEM ownership and permissions. In this case, you may have problems
771 accessing the newly restored files.
773 To avoid this problem, you should create any alternate directory before
774 doing the restore. Bacula will not change the ownership and permissions of
775 the directory if it is already created as long as it is not one of the
776 directories being restored (i.e. written to tape).
778 The default restore location is {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/} and if you are
779 restoring from drive {\bf E:}, the default will be
780 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/e/}, so you should ensure that this directory
781 exists before doing the restore, or use the {\bf mod} option to
782 select a different {\bf where} directory that does exist.
784 Some users have experienced problems restoring files that participate in
785 the Active Directory. They also report that changing the userid under which
786 Bacula (bacula-fd.exe) runs, from SYSTEM to a Domain Admin userid, resolves
790 \section{Restoring Files Can Be Slow}
791 \index[general]{Slow!Restoring Files Can Be }
792 \index[general]{Restoring Files Can Be Slow }
794 Restoring files is generally {\bf much} slower than backing them up for several
795 reasons. The first is that during a backup the tape is normally already
796 positioned and Bacula only needs to write. On the other hand, because restoring
797 files is done so rarely, Bacula keeps only the start file and block on the
798 tape for the whole job rather than on a file by file basis which would use
799 quite a lot of space in the catalog.
801 Bacula will forward space to the correct file mark on the tape for the Job,
802 then forward space to the correct block, and finally sequentially read each
803 record until it gets to the correct one(s) for the file or files you want to
804 restore. Once the desired files are restored, Bacula will stop reading the
807 Finally, instead of just reading a file for backup, during the restore, Bacula
808 must create the file, and the operating system must allocate disk space for
809 the file as Bacula is restoring it.
811 For all the above reasons the restore process is generally much slower than
812 backing up (sometimes it takes three times as long).
814 \section{Problems Restoring Files}
815 \index[general]{Files!Problems Restoring }
816 \index[general]{Problems Restoring Files }
818 The most frequent problems users have restoring files are error messages such
823 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
824 block.c:868 Volume data error at 20:0! Short block of 512 bytes on
825 device /dev/tape discarded.
833 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
834 block.c:264 Volume data error at 20:0! Wanted ID: "BB02", got ".".
839 Both these kinds of messages indicate that you were probably running your tape
840 drive in fixed block mode rather than variable block mode. Fixed block mode
841 will work with any program that reads tapes sequentially such as tar, but
842 Bacula repositions the tape on a block basis when restoring files because this
843 will speed up the restore by orders of magnitude when only a few files are being
844 restored. There are several ways that you can attempt to recover from this
845 unfortunate situation.
847 Try the following things, each separately, and reset your Device resource to
848 what it is now after each individual test:
851 \item Set "Block Positioning = no" in your Device resource and try the
852 restore. This is a new directive and untested.
854 \item Set "Minimum Block Size = 512" and "Maximum Block Size = 512" and
855 try the restore. If you are able to determine the block size your drive
856 was previously using, you should try that size if 512 does not work.
857 This is a really horrible solution, and it is not at all recommended
858 to continue backing up your data without correcting this condition.
859 Please see the Tape Testing chapter for more on this.
861 \item Try editing the restore.bsr file at the Run xxx yes/mod/no prompt
862 before starting the restore job and remove all the VolBlock statements.
863 These are what causes Bacula to reposition the tape, and where problems
864 occur if you have a fixed block size set for your drive. The VolFile
865 commands also cause repositioning, but this will work regardless of the
868 \item Use bextract to extract the files you want -- it reads the Volume
869 sequentially if you use the include list feature, or if you use a .bsr
870 file, but remove all the VolBlock statements after the .bsr file is
871 created (at the Run yes/mod/no) prompt but before you start the restore.
874 \section{Restore Errors}
875 \index[general]{Errors!Restore}
876 \index[general]{Restore Errors}
878 There are a number of reasons why there may be restore errors or
879 warning messages. Some of the more common ones are:
883 \item [file count mismatch]
884 This can occur for the following reasons:
886 \item You requested Bacula not to overwrite existing or newer
888 \item A Bacula miscount of files/directories. This is an
889 on-going problem due to the complications of directories,
890 soft/hard link, and such. Simply check that all the files you
891 wanted were actually restored.
894 \item [file size error]
895 When Bacula restores files, it checks that the size of the
896 restored file is the same as the file status data it saved
897 when starting the backup of the file. If the sizes do not
898 agree, Bacula will print an error message. This size mismatch
899 most often occurs because the file was being written as Bacula
900 backed up the file. In this case, the size that Bacula
901 restored will be greater than the status size. This often
902 happens with log files.
904 If the restored size is smaller, then you should be concerned
905 about a possible tape error and check the Bacula output as
906 well as your system logs.
911 \section{Example Restore Job Resource}
912 \index[general]{Example Restore Job Resource }
913 \index[general]{Resource!Example Restore Job }
918 Name = "RestoreFiles"
921 FileSet = "Any-FileSet"
922 Storage = Any-storage
923 Where = /tmp/bacula-restores
930 If {\bf Where} is not specified, the default location for restoring files will
931 be their original locations.
934 \section{File Selection Commands}
935 \index[general]{Commands!File Selection }
936 \index[general]{File Selection Commands }
938 After you have selected the Jobs to be restored and Bacula has created the
939 in-memory directory tree, you will enter file selection mode as indicated by
940 the dollar sign ({\bf \$}) prompt. While in this mode, you may use the
941 commands listed above. The basic idea is to move up and down the in memory
942 directory structure with the {\bf cd} command much as you normally do on the
943 system. Once you are in a directory, you may select the files that you want
944 restored. As a default no files are marked to be restored. If you wish to
945 start with all files, simply enter: {\bf cd /} and {\bf mark *}. Otherwise
946 proceed to select the files you wish to restore by marking them with the {\bf
947 mark} command. The available commands are:
952 The {\bf cd} command changes the current directory to the argument
954 It operates much like the Unix {\bf cd} command. Wildcard specifications are
957 Note, on Windows systems, the various drives (c:, d:, ...) are treated like
959 directory within the file tree while in the file selection mode. As a
960 consequence, you must do a {\bf cd c:} or possibly in some cases a {\bf cd
961 C:} (note upper case) to get down to the first directory.
965 The {\bf dir} command is similar to the {\bf ls} command, except that it
966 prints it in long format (all details). This command can be a bit slower
968 the {\bf ls} command because it must access the catalog database for the
969 detailed information for each file.
972 \index[dir]{estimate }
973 The {\bf estimate} command prints a summary of the total files in the tree,
974 how many are marked to be restored, and an estimate of the number of bytes
976 be restored. This can be useful if you are short on disk space on the
978 where the files will be restored.
982 The {\bf find} command accepts one or more arguments and displays all files
983 in the tree that match that argument. The argument may have wildcards. It is
984 somewhat similar to the Unix command {\bf find / -name arg}.
987 The {\bf ls} command produces a listing of all the files contained in the
988 current directory much like the Unix {\bf ls} command. You may specify an
989 argument containing wildcards, in which case only those files will be
992 Any file that is marked to be restored will have its name preceded by an
993 asterisk ({\bf *}). Directory names will be terminated with a forward slash
994 ({\bf /}) to distinguish them from filenames.
998 The {\bf lsmark} command is the same as the {\bf ls} except that it will
999 print only those files marked for extraction. The other distinction is that
1000 it will recursively descend into any directory selected.
1004 The {\bf mark} command allows you to mark files to be restored. It takes a
1005 single argument which is the filename or directory name in the current
1006 directory to be marked for extraction. The argument may be a wildcard
1007 specification, in which case all files that match in the current directory
1008 are marked to be restored. If the argument matches a directory rather than a
1009 file, then the directory and all the files contained in that directory
1010 (recursively) are marked to be restored. Any marked file will have its name
1011 preceded with an asterisk ({\bf *}) in the output produced by the {\bf ls}
1013 {\bf dir} commands. Note, supplying a full path on the mark command does not
1014 work as expected to select a file or directory in the current directory.
1015 Also, the {\bf mark} command works on the current and lower directories but
1016 does not touch higher level directories.
1018 After executing the {\bf mark} command, it will print a brief summary:
1027 If no files were marked, or:
1036 if some files are marked.
1039 \index[dir]{unmark }
1040 The {\bf unmark} is identical to the {\bf mark} command, except that it
1041 unmarks the specified file or files so that they will not be restored. Note:
1042 the {\bf unmark} command works from the current directory, so it does not
1043 unmark any files at a higher level. First do a {\bf cd /} before the {\bf
1044 unmark *} command if you want to unmark everything.
1048 The {\bf pwd} command prints the current working directory. It accepts no
1053 The {\bf count} command prints the total files in the directory tree and the
1054 number of files marked to be restored.
1058 This command terminates file selection mode.
1062 This command terminates file selection mode (the same as done).
1066 This command terminates the file selection and does not run the restore
1072 This command prints a summary of the commands available.
1075 This command is the same as the {\bf help} command.
1078 \label{database_restore}
1079 \section{Restoring When Things Go Wrong}
1080 \index[general]{Restoring When Things Go Wrong }
1081 \index[general]{Restoring Your Database}
1082 \index[general]{Database!Restoring}
1084 This and the following sections will try to present a few of the kinds of
1085 problems that can come up making restoring more difficult. We will try to
1086 provide a few ideas how to get out of these problem situations.
1087 In addition to what is presented here, there is more specific information
1088 on restoring a \ilink{Client}{restore_client} and your
1089 \ilink{Server}{restore_server} in the \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using
1090 Bacula}{RescueChapter} chapter of this manual.
1094 My database is broken.
1096 For SQLite, use the vacuum command to try to fix the database. For either
1097 MySQL or PostgreSQL, see the vendor's documentation. They have specific tools
1098 that check and repair databases, see the \ilink{database
1099 repair}{DatabaseRepair} sections of this manual for links to vendor
1102 Assuming the above does not resolve the problem, you will need to restore
1103 or rebuild your catalog. Note, if it is a matter of some
1104 inconsistencies in the Bacula tables rather than a broken database, then
1105 running \ilink{dbcheck}{dbcheck} might help, but you will need to ensure
1106 that your database indexes are properly setup. Please see
1107 the \ilink{Database Performance Issues}{DatabasePerformance} sections
1108 of this manual for more details.
1111 How do I restore my catalog?
1112 \item[Solution with a Catalog backup]
1113 If you have backed up your database nightly (as you should) and you
1114 have made a bootstrap file, you can immediately load back your
1115 database (or the ASCII SQL output). Make a copy of your current
1116 database, then re-initialize it, by running the following scripts:
1118 ./drop_bacula_tables
1119 ./make_bacula_tables
1121 After re-initializing the database, you should be able to run
1122 Bacula. If you now try to use the restore command, it will not
1123 work because the database will be empty. However, you can manually
1124 run a restore job and specify your bootstrap file. You do so
1125 by entering the {bf run} command in the console and selecting the
1126 restore job. If you are using the default bacula-dir.conf, this
1127 Job will be named {\bf RestoreFiles}. Most likely it will prompt
1128 you with something such as:
1133 JobName: RestoreFiles
1134 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
1135 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
1140 When: 2005-07-10 17:33:40
1143 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
1147 A number of the items will be different in your case. What you want to
1148 do is: to use the mod option to change the Bootstrap to point to your
1149 saved bootstrap file; and to make sure all the other items such as
1150 Client, Storage, Catalog, and Where are correct. The FileSet is not
1151 used when you specify a bootstrap file. Once you have set all the
1152 correct values, run the Job and it will restore the backup of your
1153 database, which is most likely an ASCII dump.
1155 You will then need to follow the instructions for your
1156 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1157 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{CatMaintenanceChapter} chapter of
1158 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1159 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1160 XXX Database sections).
1162 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1163 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make\_bacula\_tables} command, or
1164 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1167 \item[Solution with a Job listing]
1168 If you did save your database but did not make a bootstrap file, then
1169 recovering the database is more difficult. You will probably need to
1170 use bextract to extract the backup copy. First you should locate the
1171 listing of the job report from the last catalog backup. It has
1172 important information that will allow you to quickly find your database
1173 file. For example, in the job report for the CatalogBackup shown below,
1174 the critical items are the Volume name(s), the Volume Session Id and the
1175 Volume Session Time. If you know those, you can easily restore your
1180 22-Apr 10:22 HeadMan: Start Backup JobId 7510,
1181 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0
1182 22-Apr 10:23 HeadMan: Bacula 1.37.14 (21Apr05): 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1184 Job: CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.00
1187 FileSet: "CatalogFile" 2003-04-10 01:24:01
1190 Start time: 22-Apr-2005 10:21:00
1191 End time: 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1194 FD Bytes Written: 210,739,395
1195 SD Bytes Written: 210,739,521
1197 Software Compression: None
1198 Volume name(s): DLT-22Apr05
1199 Volume Session Id: 11
1200 Volume Session Time: 1114075126
1201 Last Volume Bytes: 1,428,240,465
1202 Non-fatal FD errors: 0
1204 FD termination status: OK
1205 SD termination status: OK
1206 Termination: Backup OK
1210 From the above information, you can manually create a bootstrap file,
1211 and then follow the instructions given above for restoring your database.
1212 A reconstructed bootstrap file for the above backup Job would look
1217 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1219 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1224 Where we have inserted the Volume name, Volume Session Id, and Volume
1225 Session Time that correspond to the values in the job report. We've also
1226 used a FileIndex of one, which will always be the case providing that
1227 there was only one file backed up in the job.
1229 The disadvantage of this bootstrap file compared to what is created when
1230 you ask for one to be written, is that there is no File and Block
1231 specified, so the restore code must search all data in the Volume to find
1232 the requested file. A fully specified bootstrap file would have the File
1233 and Blocks specified as follows:
1237 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1239 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1246 Once you have restored the ASCII dump of the database,
1247 you will then to follow the instructions for your
1248 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1249 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{CatMaintenanceChapter} chapter of
1250 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1251 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1252 XXX Database sections).
1254 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1255 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make\_bacula\_tables} command, or
1256 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1258 \item [Solution without a Job Listing]
1259 If you do not have a job listing, then it is a bit more difficult.
1260 Either you use the \ilink{bscan}{bscan} program to scan the contents
1261 of your tape into a database, which can be very time consuming
1262 depending on the size of the tape, or you can use the \ilink{bls}{bls}
1263 program to list everything on the tape, and reconstruct a bootstrap
1264 file from the bls listing for the file or files you want following
1265 the instructions given above.
1267 There is a specific example of how to use {\bf bls} below.
1270 I try to restore the last known good full backup by specifying
1271 item 3 on the restore menu then the JobId to restore. Bacula
1279 and restores nothing.
1282 Most likely the File records were pruned from the database either due
1283 to the File Retention period expiring or by explicitly purging the
1284 Job. By using the "llist jobid=nn" command, you can obtain all the
1285 important information about the job:
1291 Job: save.2005-12-05_18.27.33
1299 SchedTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:32
1300 StartTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:35
1301 EndTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:37
1302 JobTDate: 1133803657
1304 VolSessionTime: 1133803624
1311 FileSet.FileSet: BackupSet
1315 Then you can find the Volume(s) used by doing:
1320 select VolumeName from JobMedia,Media where JobId=1 and JobMedia.MediaId=Media.MediaId;
1324 Finally, you can create a bootstrap file as described in the previous
1325 problem above using this information.
1327 If you are using Bacula version 1.38.0 or greater, when you select
1328 item 3 from the menu and enter the JobId, it will ask you if
1329 you would like to restore all the files in the job, and it will
1330 collect the above information and write the bootstrap file for
1334 You don't have a bootstrap file, and you don't have the Job report for
1335 the backup of your database, but you did backup the database, and you
1336 know the Volume to which it was backed up.
1339 Either bscan the tape (see below for bscanning), or better use {\bf bls}
1340 to find where it is on the tape, then use {\bf bextract} to
1341 restore the database. For example,
1346 ./bls -j -V DLT-22Apr05 /dev/nst0
1349 Might produce the following output:
1352 bls: butil.c:258 Using device: "/dev/nst0" for reading.
1353 21-Jul 18:34 bls: Ready to read from volume "DLT-22Apr05" on device "DLTDrive"
1355 Volume Record: File:blk=0:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126 JobId=0 DataLen=164
1357 Begin Job Session Record: File:blk=118:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1359 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:21:00 Level=F Type=B
1360 End Job Session Record: File:blk=118:4053 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1362 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:23:06 Level=F Type=B Files=1 Bytes=210,739,395 Errors=0
1365 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of Volume at file 201 on device "DLTDrive" (/dev/nst0),
1366 Volume "DLT-22Apr05"
1367 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of all volumes.
1370 Of course, there will be many more records printed, but we have indicated
1371 the essential lines of output. From the information on the Begin Job and End
1372 Job Session Records, you can reconstruct a bootstrap file such as the one
1376 How can I find where a file is stored.
1378 Normally, it is not necessary, you just use the {\bf restore} command to
1379 restore the most recently saved version (menu option 5), or a version
1380 saved before a given date (menu option 8). If you know the JobId of the
1381 job in which it was saved, you can use menu option 3 to enter that JobId.
1383 If you would like to know the JobId where a file was saved, select
1384 restore menu option 2.
1386 You can also use the {\bf query} command to find information such as:
1391 1: List up to 20 places where a File is saved regardless of the
1393 2: List where the most recent copies of a file are saved
1394 3: List last 20 Full Backups for a Client
1395 4: List all backups for a Client after a specified time
1396 5: List all backups for a Client
1397 6: List Volume Attributes for a selected Volume
1398 7: List Volumes used by selected JobId
1399 8: List Volumes to Restore All Files
1400 9: List Pool Attributes for a selected Pool
1401 10: List total files/bytes by Job
1402 11: List total files/bytes by Volume
1403 12: List Files for a selected JobId
1404 13: List Jobs stored on a selected MediaId
1405 14: List Jobs stored for a given Volume name
1406 15: List Volumes Bacula thinks are in changer
1407 16: List Volumes likely to need replacement from age or errors
1408 Choose a query (1-16):
1413 I didn't backup my database. What do I do now?
1415 This is probably the worst of all cases, and you will probably have
1416 to re-create your database from scratch and then bscan in all your
1417 Volumes, which is a very long, painful, and inexact process.
1419 There are basically three steps to take:
1422 \item Ensure that your SQL server is running (MySQL or PostgreSQL)
1423 and that the Bacula database (normally bacula) exists. See the
1424 \ilink{Installation}{CreateDatabase} chapter of the manual.
1425 \item Ensure that the Bacula databases are created. This is also
1426 described at the above link.
1427 \item Start and stop the Bacula Director using the propriate
1428 bacula-dir.conf file so that it can create the Client and
1429 Storage records which are not stored on the Volumes. Without these
1430 records, scanning is unable to connect the Job records to the proper
1434 When the above is complete, you can begin bscanning your Volumes. Please
1435 see the \ilink{bscan}{bscan} section of the Volume Utility Tools of this
1436 chapter for more details.