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. You will
18 also want to look at the {\bf bls} program in the same chapter, which
19 allows you to list the contents of your Volumes. Finally, if you have an
20 old Volume that is no longer in the catalog, you can restore the catalog
21 entries using the program named {\bf bscan}, documented in the same
22 \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{bextract} chapter.
24 In general, to restore a file or a set of files, you must run a {\bf restore}
25 job. That is a job with {\bf Type = Restore}. As a consequence, you will need
26 a predefined {\bf restore} job in your {\bf bacula-dir.conf} (Director's
27 config) file. The exact parameters (Client, FileSet, ...) that you define are
28 not important as you can either modify them manually before running the job or
29 if you use the {\bf restore} command, explained below, Bacula will
30 automatically set them for you. In fact, you can no longer simply run a restore
31 job. You must use the restore command.
33 Since Bacula is a network backup program, you must be aware that when you
34 restore files, it is up to you to ensure that you or Bacula have selected the
35 correct Client and the correct hard disk location for restoring those files.
36 {\bf Bacula} will quite willingly backup client A, and restore it by sending
37 the files to a different directory on client B. Normally, you will want to
38 avoid this, but assuming the operating systems are not too different in their
39 file structures, this should work perfectly well, if so desired.
40 By default, Bacula will restore data to the same Client that was backed
41 up, and those data will be restored not to the original places but to
42 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You may modify any of these defaults when the
43 restore command prompts you to run the job by selecting the {\bf mod}
47 \section{The Restore Command}
48 \index[general]{Command!Restore}
49 \index[general]{Restore Command}
51 Since Bacula maintains a catalog of your files and on which Volumes (disk or
52 tape), they are stored, it can do most of the bookkeeping work, allowing you
53 simply to specify what kind of restore you want (current, before a particular
54 date), and what files to restore. Bacula will then do the rest.
56 This is accomplished using the {\bf restore} command in the Console. First you
57 select the kind of restore you want, then the JobIds are selected,
58 the File records for those Jobs are placed in an internal Bacula directory
59 tree, and the restore enters a file selection mode that allows you to
60 interactively walk up and down the file tree selecting individual files to be
61 restored. This mode is somewhat similar to the standard Unix {\bf restore}
62 program's interactive file selection mode.
64 If a Job's file records have been pruned from the catalog, the {\bf
65 restore} command will be unable to find any files to restore. See below
66 for more details on this.
68 Within the Console program, after entering the {\bf restore} command, you are
69 presented with the following selection prompt:
73 First you select one or more JobIds that contain files
74 to be restored. You will be presented several methods
75 of specifying the JobIds. Then you will be allowed to
76 select which files from those JobIds are to be restored.
77 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
78 1: List last 20 Jobs run
79 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
80 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
81 4: Enter SQL list command
82 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
83 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
84 7: Enter a list of files to restore
85 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
86 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
87 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
88 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
94 There are a lot of options, and as a point of reference, most people will
95 want to slect item 5 (the most recent backup for a client). The details
96 of the above options are:
99 \item Item 1 will list the last 20 jobs run. If you find the Job you want,
100 you can then select item 3 and enter its JobId(s).
102 \item Item 2 will list all the Jobs where a specified file is saved. If you
103 find the Job you want, you can then select item 3 and enter the JobId.
105 \item Item 3 allows you the enter a list of comma separated JobIds whose
106 files will be put into the directory tree. You may then select which
107 files from those JobIds to restore. Normally, you would use this option
108 if you have a particular version of a file that you want to restore and
109 you know its JobId. The most common options (5 and 6) will not select
110 a job that did not terminate normally, so if you know a file is
111 backed up by a Job that failed (possibly because of a system crash), you
112 can access it through this option by specifying the JobId.
114 \item Item 4 allows you to enter any arbitrary SQL command. This is
115 probably the most primitive way of finding the desired JobIds, but at
116 the same time, the most flexible. Once you have found the JobId(s), you
117 can select item 3 and enter them.
119 \item Item 5 will automatically select the most recent Full backup and all
120 subsequent incremental and differential backups for a specified Client.
121 These are the Jobs and Files which, if reloaded, will restore your
122 system to the most current saved state. It automatically enters the
123 JobIds found into the directory tree in an optimal way such that only
124 the most recent copy of any particular file found in the set of Jobs
125 will be restored. This is probably the most convenient of all the above
126 options to use if you wish to restore a selected Client to its most
129 There are two important things to note. First, this automatic selection
130 will never select a job that failed (terminated with an error status).
131 If you have such a job and want to recover one or more files from it,
132 you will need to explicitly enter the JobId in item 3, then choose the
135 If some of the Jobs that are needed to do the restore have had their
136 File records pruned, the restore will be incomplete. Bacula currently
137 does not correctly detect this condition. You can however, check for
138 this by looking carefully at the list of Jobs that Bacula selects and
139 prints. If you find Jobs with the JobFiles column set to zero, when
140 files should have been backed up, then you should expect problems.
142 If all the File records have been pruned, Bacula will realize that there
143 are no file records in any of the JobIds chosen and will inform you. It
144 will then propose doing a full restore (non-selective) of those JobIds.
145 This is possible because Bacula still knows where the beginning of the
146 Job data is on the Volumes, even if it does not know where particular
147 files are located or what their names are.
149 \item Item 6 allows you to specify a date and time, after which Bacula will
150 automatically select the most recent Full backup and all subsequent
151 incremental and differential backups that started before the specified date
154 \item Item 7 allows you to specify one or more filenames (complete path
155 required) to be restored. Each filename is entered one at a time or if you
156 prefix a filename with the less-than symbol (\lt{}) Bacula will read that
157 file and assume it is a list of filenames to be restored. If you
158 prefix the filename with a question mark (?), then the filename will
159 be interpreted as an SQL table name, and Bacula will include the rows
160 of that table in the list to be restored. The table must contain the
161 JobId in the first column and the FileIndex in the second column.
162 This table feature is intended for external programs that want to build
163 their own list of files to be restored.
164 The filename entry mode is terminated by entering a blank line.
166 \item Item 8 allows you to specify a date and time before entering the
167 filenames. See Item 7 above for more details.
169 \item Item 9 allows you find the JobIds of the most recent backup for
170 a client. This is much like option 5 (it uses the same code), but
171 those JobIds are retained internally as if you had entered them
172 manually. You may then select item 11 (see below) to restore one
175 \item Item 10 is the same as item 9, except that it allows you to enter
176 a before date (as with item 6). These JobIds will then be retained
179 \index[general]{Restore Directories}
180 \item Item 11 allows you to enter a list of JobIds from which you can
181 select directories to be restored. The list of JobIds can have been
182 previously created by using either item 9 or 10 on the menu. You
183 may then enter a full path to a directory name or a filename preceded
184 by a less than sign (\lt{}). The filename should contain a list
185 of directories to be restored. All files in those directories will
186 be restored, but if the directory contains subdirectories, nothing
187 will be restored in the subdirectory unless you explicitly enter its
190 \item Item 12 allows you to cancel the restore command.
193 As an example, suppose that we select item 5 (restore to most recent state).
194 If you have not specified a client=xxx on the command line, it
195 it will then ask for the desired Client, which on my system, will print all
196 the Clients found in the database as follows:
210 Select Client (File daemon) resource (1-9):
214 You will probably have far fewer Clients than this example, and if you have
215 only one Client, it will be automatically selected. In this case, I enter
216 {\bf Rufus} to select the Client. Then Bacula needs to know what FileSet is
217 to be restored, so it prompts with:
221 The defined FileSet resources are:
224 Select FileSet resource (1-2):
228 If you have only one FileSet defined for the Client, it will be selected
229 automatically. I choose item 1, which is my full backup. Normally, you
230 will only have a single FileSet for each Job, and if your machines are
231 similar (all Linux) you may only have one FileSet for all your Clients.
233 At this point, {\bf Bacula} has all the information it needs to find the most
234 recent set of backups. It will then query the database, which may take a bit
235 of time, and it will come up with something like the following. Note, some of
236 the columns are truncated here for presentation:
240 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
242 | JobId | Levl | JobFiles | StartTime | VolumeName | File | SesId |
244 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
246 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-19Jul02 | 67 | 18 |
248 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-04Aug02 | 0 | 18 |
250 | 1,797 | I | 254 | 08-04 13:53 | DLT-04Aug02 | 5 | 23 |
252 | 1,798 | I | 15 | 08-05 01:05 | DLT-04Aug02 | 6 | 24 |
254 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
256 You have selected the following JobId: 1792,1792,1797
257 Building directory tree for JobId 1792 ...
258 Building directory tree for JobId 1797 ...
259 Building directory tree for JobId 1798 ...
265 Depending on the number of {\bf JobFiles} for each JobId, the {\bf Building
266 directory tree ..."} can take a bit of time. If you notice ath all the
267 JobFiles are zero, your Files have probably been pruned and you will not be
268 able to select any individual files -- it will be restore everything or
271 In our example, Bacula found four Jobs that comprise the most recent backup of
272 the specified Client and FileSet. Two of the Jobs have the same JobId because
273 that Job wrote on two different Volumes. The third Job was an incremental
274 backup to the previous Full backup, and it only saved 254 Files compared to
275 128,374 for the Full backup. The fourth Job was also an incremental backup
278 Next Bacula entered those Jobs into the directory tree, with no files marked
279 to be restored as a default, tells you how many files are in the tree, and
280 tells you that the current working directory ({\bf cwd}) is /. Finally, Bacula
281 prompts with the dollar sign (\$) to indicate that you may enter commands to
282 move around the directory tree and to select files.
284 If you want all the files to automatically be marked when the directory
285 tree is built, you could have entered the command {\bf restore all}, or
286 at the \$ prompt, you can simply enter {\bf mark *}.
288 Instead of choosing item 5 on the first menu (Select the most recent backup
289 for a client), if we had chosen item 3 (Enter list of JobIds to select) and we
290 had entered the JobIds {\bf 1792,1797,1798} we would have arrived at the same
293 One point to note, if you are manually entering JobIds, is that you must enter
294 them in the order they were run (generally in increasing JobId order). If you
295 enter them out of order and the same file was saved in two or more of the
296 Jobs, you may end up with an old version of that file (i.e. not the most
299 Directly entering the JobIds can also permit you to recover data from
300 a Job that wrote files to tape but that terminated with an error status.
302 While in file selection mode, you can enter {\bf help} or a question mark (?)
303 to produce a summary of the available commands:
309 cd change current directory
310 count count marked files in and below the cd
311 dir long list current directory, wildcards allowed
312 done leave file selection mode
313 estimate estimate restore size
314 exit same as done command
315 find find files, wildcards allowed
317 ls list current directory, wildcards allowed
318 lsmark list the marked files in and below the cd
319 mark mark dir/file to be restored recursively in dirs
320 markdir mark directory name to be restored (no files)
321 pwd print current working directory
322 unmark unmark dir/file to be restored recursively in dir
323 unmarkdir unmark directory name only no recursion
324 quit quit and do not do restore
329 As a default no files have been selected for restore (unless you
330 added {\bf all} to the command line. If you want to restore
331 everything, at this point, you should enter {\bf mark *}, and then {\bf done}
332 and {\bf Bacula} will write the bootstrap records to a file and request your
333 approval to start a restore job.
335 If you do not enter the above mentioned {\bf mark *} command, you will start
336 with an empty slate. Now you can simply start looking at the tree and {\bf
337 mark} particular files or directories you want restored. It is easy to make
338 a mistake in specifying a file to mark or unmark, and Bacula's error handling
339 is not perfect, so please check your work by using the {\bf ls} or {\bf dir}
340 commands to see what files are actually selected. Any selected file has its
341 name preceded by an asterisk.
343 To check what is marked or not marked, enter the {\bf count} command, which
348 128401 total files. 128401 marked to be restored.
353 Each of the above commands will be described in more detail in the next
354 section. We continue with the above example, having accepted to restore all
355 files as Bacula set by default. On entering the {\bf done} command, Bacula
360 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
361 The job will require the following
362 Volume(s) Storage(s) SD Device(s)
363 ===========================================================================
365 DLT-19Jul02 Tape DLT8000
366 DLT-04Aug02 Tape DLT8000
368 128401 files selected to restore.
370 JobName: kernsrestore
371 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
372 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
377 When: 2006-12-11 18:20:33
380 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
385 Please examine each of the items very carefully to make sure that they are
386 correct. In particular, look at {\bf Where}, which tells you where in the
387 directory structure the files will be restored, and {\bf Client}, which
388 tells you which client will receive the files. Note that by default the
389 Client which will receive the files is the Client that was backed up.
390 These items will not always be completed with the correct values depending
391 on which of the restore options you chose. You can change any of these
392 default items by entering {\bf mod} and responding to the prompts.
394 The above assumes that you have defined a {\bf Restore} Job resource in your
395 Director's configuration file. Normally, you will only need one Restore Job
396 resource definition because by its nature, restoring is a manual operation,
397 and using the Console interface, you will be able to modify the Restore Job to
400 An example Restore Job resource definition is given below.
402 Returning to the above example, you should verify that the Client name is
403 correct before running the Job. However, you may want to modify some of the
404 parameters of the restore job. For example, in addition to checking the Client
405 it is wise to check that the Storage device chosen by Bacula is indeed
406 correct. Although the {\bf FileSet} is shown, it will be ignored in restore.
407 The restore will choose the files to be restored either by reading the {\bf
408 Bootstrap} file, or if not specified, it will restore all files associated
409 with the specified backup {\bf JobId} (i.e. the JobId of the Job that
410 originally backed up the files).
412 Finally before running the job, please note that the default location for
413 restoring files is {\bf not} their original locations, but rather the directory
414 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You can change this default by modifying your {\bf
415 bacula-dir.conf} file, or you can modify it using the {\bf mod} option. If you
416 want to restore the files to their original location, you must have {\bf
417 Where} set to nothing or to the root, i.e. {\bf /}.
419 If you now enter {\bf yes}, Bacula will run the restore Job. The Storage
420 daemon will first request Volume {\bf DLT-19Jul02} and after the appropriate
421 files have been restored from that volume, it will request Volume {\bf
424 \section{Selecting Files by Filename}
425 \index[general]{Selecting Files by Filename }
426 \index[general]{Filename!Selecting Files by }
428 If you have a small number of files to restore, and you know the filenames,
429 you can either put the list of filenames in a file to be read by Bacula, or
430 you can enter the names one at a time. The filenames must include the full
431 path and filename. No wild cards are used.
433 To enter the files, after the {\bf restore}, you select item number 7 from the
438 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
439 1: List last 20 Jobs run
440 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
441 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
442 4: Enter SQL list command
443 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
444 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
445 7: Enter a list of files to restore
446 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
447 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
448 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
449 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
455 which then prompts you for the client name:
463 Select the Client (1-3): 3
467 Of course, your client list will be different, and if you have only one
468 client, it will be automatically selected. And finally, Bacula requests you to
477 At this point, you can enter the full path and filename
481 Enter filename: /home/kern/bacula/k/Makefile.in
486 as you can see, it took the filename. If Bacula cannot find a copy of the
487 file, it prints the following:
491 Enter filename: junk filename
492 No database record found for: junk filename
497 If you want Bacula to read the filenames from a file, you simply precede the
498 filename with a less-than symbol (\lt{}). When you have entered all the
499 filenames, you enter a blank line, and Bacula will write the bootstrap file,
500 tells you what tapes will be used, and proposes a Restore job to be run:
505 Automatically selected Storage: DDS-4
506 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
507 The restore job will require the following Volumes:
510 1 file selected to restore.
512 JobName: kernsrestore
513 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
514 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
519 When: 2003-09-11 10:20:53
521 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
525 It is possible to automate the selection by file by putting your list of files
526 in say {\bf /tmp/file-list}, then using the following command:
530 restore client=Rufus file=</tmp/file-list
534 If in modifying the parameters for the Run Restore job, you find that Bacula
535 asks you to enter a Job number, this is because you have not yet specified
536 either a Job number or a Bootstrap file. Simply entering zero will allow you
537 to continue and to select another option to be modified.
538 \label{CommandArguments}
540 \section{Command Line Arguments}
541 \index[general]{Arguments!Command Line }
542 \index[general]{Command Line Arguments }
544 If all the above sounds complicated, you will probably agree that it really
545 isn't after trying it a few times. It is possible to do everything that was
546 shown above, with the exception of selecting the FileSet, by using command
547 line arguments with a single command by entering:
551 restore client=Rufus select current all done yes
555 The {\bf client=Rufus} specification will automatically select Rufus as the
556 client, the {\bf current} tells Bacula that you want to restore the system to
557 the most current state possible, and the {\bf yes} suppresses the final {\bf
558 yes/mod/no} prompt and simply runs the restore.
560 The full list of possible command line arguments are:
563 \item {\bf all} -- select all Files to be restored.
564 \item {\bf select} -- use the tree selection method.
565 \item {\bf done} -- do not prompt the user in tree mode.
566 \item {\bf current} -- automatically select the most current set of backups
567 for the specified client.
568 \item {\bf client=xxxx} -- select the specified client.
569 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId or comma separated list of JobIds to
571 \item {\bf before=YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS} -- specify a date and time to which
572 the system should be restored. Only Jobs started before the specified
573 date/time will be selected, and as is the case for {\bf current} Bacula will
574 automatically find the most recent prior Full save and all Differential and
575 Incremental saves run before the date you specify. Note, this command is not
576 too user friendly in that you must specify the date/time exactly as shown.
577 \item {\bf file=filename} -- specify a filename to be restored. You must
578 specify the full path and filename. Prefixing the entry with a less-than
580 (\lt{}) will cause Bacula to assume that the filename is on your system and
581 contains a list of files to be restored. Bacula will thus read the list from
582 that file. Multiple file=xxx specifications may be specified on the command
584 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId to be restored.
585 \item {\bf pool=pool-name} -- specify a Pool name to be used for selection of
586 Volumes when specifying options 5 and 6 (restore current system, and restore
587 current system before given date). This permits you to have several Pools,
588 possibly one offsite, and to select the Pool to be used for restoring.
589 \item {\bf where=/tmp/bacula-restore} -- restore files in {\bf where} directory.
590 \item {\bf yes} -- automatically run the restore without prompting for
591 modifications (most useful in batch scripts).
594 \label{restorefilerelocation}
595 You can also do filename and path manipulations, implemented in Bacula
596 2.1.8 or later, such as adding a suffix to all your files, renaming files
597 or directories, etc. Theses options will overwrite {\bf where=} option.
598 See the next section for more information and examples.
601 \item {\bf strip\_prefix=/prod} -- remove a part of the filename when restoring.
602 \item {\bf add\_prefix=/test} -- add a prefix to all files when restoring (like
603 where) (can't be used with {\bf where=}).
604 \item {\bf add\_suffix=.old} -- add a suffix to all your files.
605 \item {\bf regexwhere=!a.pdf!a.bkp.pdf!} -- do complex filename manipulation
606 like with sed unix command. Will overwrite other filename manipulation.
609 \section{Using File Relocation}
610 \index[general]{Using File Relocation}
611 \label{filerelocation}
613 \subsection{Introduction}
615 The \textbf{where=} option is simple, but not very powerful. With file
616 relocation, Bacula can restore a file to the same directory, but with a
617 different name, or in an other directory without recreating the full path.
619 For example, many users use OS snapshot features so that file
620 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox} will be backed up from the directory
621 \texttt{/.snap/home/eric/mbox}, which can complicate restores. If you use
622 \textbf{where=/tmp}, the file will be restored to
623 \texttt{/tmp/.snap/home/eric/mbox} and you will have to move the file to
624 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox.bkp} by hand. In this case, you could use
625 \textbf{strip\_prefix=/.snap} and \textbf{add\_suffix=.bkp} options and
626 Bacula will restore the file to its original location -- that is
627 \texttt{/home/eric/mbox}.
629 To use this feature, there are command line options as described in
630 the \ilink{restore section}{restorefilerelocation} of this manual;
631 you can modify your restore job before running it; or you can
632 add options to your restore job in as described in
633 \ilink{bacula-dir.conf}{confaddprefix}.
636 Parameters to modify:
642 Select parameter to modify (1-12):
645 This will replace your current Where value
650 5: Test filename manipulation
652 Select parameter to modify (1-6):
656 \subsection{RegexWhere format}
658 The format is very close to that used by sed or Perl (\texttt{s/replace this/by
659 that/}) operator. A valid regexwhere expression has three fields :
661 \item a search expression (with optionnal submatch)
662 \item a replacement expression (with optionnal back references \$1 to \$9)
663 \item a set of search options (only case-insensitive ``i'' at this time)
666 Each field is delimited by a separator specified by the user as the first
667 character of the expression. The separator can be one of the following:
669 <separator-keyword> = / ! ; % : , ~ # = &
672 You can use several expressions separated by a commas.
674 \subsection*{Examples}
676 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|l}
678 Orignal filename & Computed filename & RegexWhere & Comments \\
681 \texttt{c:/system.ini} & \texttt{c:/system.old.ini} & \texttt{/.ini\$/.old.ini/} & use \$ as end of filename\\
683 \texttt{/prod/u01/pdata/} & \texttt{/rect/u01/rdata} & \texttt{/prod/rect/,/pdata/rdata/} & using two regexp\\
685 \texttt{/prod/u01/pdata/} & \texttt{/rect/u01/rdata} & \texttt{!/prod/!/rect/!,/pdata/rdata/} & using \texttt{!} instead of \texttt{/}\\
687 \texttt{C:/WINNT} & \texttt{d:/WINNT} & \texttt{/c:/d:/i} & using case-insensitive pattern matching \\
692 %\subsubsection{Using group}
694 %Like with Perl or Sed, you can make submatch with \texttt{()},
696 %\subsubsection*{Examples}
699 %\subsubsection{Options}
701 % i Do case-insensitive pattern matching.
703 \section{Restoring Directory Attributes}
704 \index[general]{Attributes!Restoring Directory }
705 \index[general]{Restoring Directory Attributes }
707 Depending how you do the restore, you may or may not get the directory entries
708 back to their original state. Here are a few of the problems you can
709 encounter, and for same machine restores, how to avoid them.
712 \item You backed up on one machine and are restoring to another that is
713 either a different OS or doesn't have the same users/groups defined. Bacula
714 does the best it can in these situations. Note, Bacula has saved the
715 user/groups in numeric form, which means on a different machine, they
716 may map to different user/group names.
718 \item You are restoring into a directory that is already created and has
719 file creation restrictions. Bacula tries to reset everything but
720 without walking up the full chain of directories and modifying them all
721 during the restore, which Bacula does and will not do, getting
722 permissions back correctly in this situation depends to a large extent
725 \item You are doing a recursive restore of a directory tree. In this case
726 Bacula will restore a file before restoring the file's parent directory
727 entry. In the process of restoring the file Bacula will create the
728 parent directory with open permissions and ownership of the file being
729 restored. Then when Bacula tries to restore the parent directory Bacula
730 sees that it already exists (Similar to the previous situation). If you
731 had set the Restore job's "Replace" property to "never" then Bacula will
732 not change the directory's permissions and ownerships to match what it
733 backed up, you should also notice that the actual number of files
734 restored is less then the expected number. If you had set the Restore
735 job's "Replace" property to "always" then Bacula will change the
736 Directory's ownership and permissions to match what it backed up, also
737 the actual number of files restored should be equal to the expected
740 \item You selected one or more files in a directory, but did not select the
741 directory entry to be restored. In that case, if the directory is not
742 on disk Bacula simply creates the directory with some default attributes
743 which may not be the same as the original. If you do not select a
744 directory and all its contents to be restored, you can still select
745 items within the directory to be restored by individually marking those
746 files, but in that case, you should individually use the "markdir"
747 command to select all higher level directory entries (one at a time) to
748 be restored if you want the directory entries properly restored.
752 \section{Restoring on Windows}
753 \index[general]{Restoring on Windows }
754 \index[general]{Windows!Restoring on }
756 If you are restoring on WinNT/2K/XP systems, Bacula will restore the files
757 with the original ownerships and permissions as would be expected. This is
758 also true if you are restoring those files to an alternate directory (using
759 the Where option in restore). However, if the alternate directory does not
760 already exist, the Bacula File daemon (Client) will try to create it. In
761 some cases, it may not create the directories, and if it does since the
762 File daemon runs under the SYSTEM account, the directory will be created
763 with SYSTEM ownership and permissions. In this case, you may have problems
764 accessing the newly restored files.
766 To avoid this problem, you should create any alternate directory before
767 doing the restore. Bacula will not change the ownership and permissions of
768 the directory if it is already created as long as it is not one of the
769 directories being restored (i.e. written to tape).
771 The default restore location is {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/} and if you are
772 restoring from drive {\bf E:}, the default will be
773 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/e/}, so you should ensure that this directory
774 exists before doing the restore, or use the {\bf mod} option to
775 select a different {\bf where} directory that does exist.
777 Some users have experienced problems restoring files that participate in
778 the Active Directory. They also report that changing the userid under which
779 Bacula (bacula-fd.exe) runs, from SYSTEM to a Domain Admin userid, resolves
783 \section{Restoring Files Can Be Slow}
784 \index[general]{Slow!Restoring Files Can Be }
785 \index[general]{Restoring Files Can Be Slow }
787 Restoring files is generally {\bf much} slower than backing them up for several
788 reasons. The first is that during a backup the tape is normally already
789 positioned and Bacula only needs to write. On the other hand, because restoring
790 files is done so rarely, Bacula keeps only the start file and block on the
791 tape for the whole job rather than on a file by file basis which would use
792 quite a lot of space in the catalog.
794 Bacula will forward space to the correct file mark on the tape for the Job,
795 then forward space to the correct block, and finally sequentially read each
796 record until it gets to the correct one(s) for the file or files you want to
797 restore. Once the desired files are restored, Bacula will stop reading the
800 Finally, instead of just reading a file for backup, during the restore, Bacula
801 must create the file, and the operating system must allocate disk space for
802 the file as Bacula is restoring it.
804 For all the above reasons the restore process is generally much slower than
805 backing up (sometimes it takes three times as long).
807 \section{Problems Restoring Files}
808 \index[general]{Files!Problems Restoring }
809 \index[general]{Problems Restoring Files }
811 The most frequent problems users have restoring files are error messages such
816 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
817 block.c:868 Volume data error at 20:0! Short block of 512 bytes on
818 device /dev/tape discarded.
826 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
827 block.c:264 Volume data error at 20:0! Wanted ID: "BB02", got ".".
832 Both these kinds of messages indicate that you were probably running your tape
833 drive in fixed block mode rather than variable block mode. Fixed block mode
834 will work with any program that reads tapes sequentially such as tar, but
835 Bacula repositions the tape on a block basis when restoring files because this
836 will speed up the restore by orders of magnitude when only a few files are being
837 restored. There are several ways that you can attempt to recover from this
838 unfortunate situation.
840 Try the following things, each separately, and reset your Device resource to
841 what it is now after each individual test:
844 \item Set "Block Positioning = no" in your Device resource and try the
845 restore. This is a new directive and untested.
846 \item Set "Minimum Block Size = 512" and "Maximum Block Size = 512" and
847 try the restore. If you are able to determine the block size your drive
848 was previously using, you should try that size if 512 does not work.
849 This is a really horrible solution, and it is not at all recommended
850 to continue backing up your data without correcting this condition.
851 Please see the Tape Testing chapter for more on this.
852 \item Try editing the restore.bsr file at the Run xxx yes/mod/no prompt
853 before starting the restore job and remove all the VolBlock statements.
854 These are what causes Bacula to reposition the tape, and where problems
855 occur if you have a fixed block size set for your drive. The VolFile
856 commands also cause repositioning, but this will work regardless of the
858 \item Use bextract to extract the files you want -- it reads the Volume
859 sequentially if you use the include list feature, or if you use a .bsr
860 file, but remove all the VolBlock statements after the .bsr file is
861 created (at the Run yes/mod/no) prompt but before you start the restore.
864 \section{Restore Errors}
865 \index[general]{Errors!Restore}
866 \index[general]{Restore Errors}
868 There are a number of reasons why there may be restore errors or
869 warning messages. Some of the more common ones are:
873 \item [file count mismatch]
874 This can occur for the following reasons:
876 \item You requested Bacula not to overwrite existing or newer
878 \item A Bacula miscount of files/directories. This is an
879 on-going problem due to the complications of directories,
880 soft/hard link, and such. Simply check that all the files you
881 wanted were actually restored.
883 \item [file size error]
884 When Bacula restores files, it checks that the size of the
885 restored file is the same as the file status data it saved
886 when starting the backup of the file. If the sizes do not
887 agree, Bacula will print an error message. This size mismatch
888 most often occurs because the file was being written as Bacula
889 backed up the file. In this case, the size that Bacula
890 restored will be greater than the status size. This often
891 happens with log files.
893 If the restored size is smaller, then you should be concerned
894 about a possible tape error and check the Bacula output as
895 well as your system logs.
900 \section{Example Restore Job Resource}
901 \index[general]{Example Restore Job Resource }
902 \index[general]{Resource!Example Restore Job }
907 Name = "RestoreFiles"
910 FileSet = "Any-FileSet"
911 Storage = Any-storage
912 Where = /tmp/bacula-restores
919 If {\bf Where} is not specified, the default location for restoring files will
920 be their original locations.
923 \section{File Selection Commands}
924 \index[general]{Commands!File Selection }
925 \index[general]{File Selection Commands }
927 After you have selected the Jobs to be restored and Bacula has created the
928 in-memory directory tree, you will enter file selection mode as indicated by
929 the dollar sign ({\bf \$}) prompt. While in this mode, you may use the
930 commands listed above. The basic idea is to move up and down the in memory
931 directory structure with the {\bf cd} command much as you normally do on the
932 system. Once you are in a directory, you may select the files that you want
933 restored. As a default no files are marked to be restored. If you wish to
934 start with all files, simply enter: {\bf cd /} and {\bf mark *}. Otherwise
935 proceed to select the files you wish to restore by marking them with the {\bf
936 mark} command. The available commands are:
941 The {\bf cd} command changes the current directory to the argument
943 It operates much like the Unix {\bf cd} command. Wildcard specifications are
946 Note, on Windows systems, the various drives (c:, d:, ...) are treated like
948 directory within the file tree while in the file selection mode. As a
949 consequence, you must do a {\bf cd c:} or possibly in some cases a {\bf cd
950 C:} (note upper case) to get down to the first directory.
954 The {\bf dir} command is similar to the {\bf ls} command, except that it
955 prints it in long format (all details). This command can be a bit slower
957 the {\bf ls} command because it must access the catalog database for the
958 detailed information for each file.
961 \index[dir]{estimate }
962 The {\bf estimate} command prints a summary of the total files in the tree,
963 how many are marked to be restored, and an estimate of the number of bytes
965 be restored. This can be useful if you are short on disk space on the
967 where the files will be restored.
971 The {\bf find} command accepts one or more arguments and displays all files
972 in the tree that match that argument. The argument may have wildcards. It is
973 somewhat similar to the Unix command {\bf find / -name arg}.
976 The {\bf ls} command produces a listing of all the files contained in the
977 current directory much like the Unix {\bf ls} command. You may specify an
978 argument containing wildcards, in which case only those files will be
980 Any file that is marked to be restored will have its name preceded by an
981 asterisk ({\bf *}). Directory names will be terminated with a forward slash
982 ({\bf /}) to distinguish them from filenames.
986 The {\bf lsmark} command is the same as the {\bf ls} except that it will
987 print only those files marked for extraction. The other distinction is that
988 it will recursively descend into any directory selected.
992 The {\bf mark} command allows you to mark files to be restored. It takes a
993 single argument which is the filename or directory name in the current
994 directory to be marked for extraction. The argument may be a wildcard
995 specification, in which case all files that match in the current directory
996 are marked to be restored. If the argument matches a directory rather than a
997 file, then the directory and all the files contained in that directory
998 (recursively) are marked to be restored. Any marked file will have its name
999 preceded with an asterisk ({\bf *}) in the output produced by the {\bf ls}
1001 {\bf dir} commands. Note, supplying a full path on the mark command does not
1002 work as expected to select a file or directory in the current directory.
1003 Also, the {\bf mark} command works on the current and lower directories but
1004 does not touch higher level directories.
1006 After executing the {\bf mark} command, it will print a brief summary:
1015 If no files were marked, or:
1024 if some files are marked.
1027 \index[dir]{unmark }
1028 The {\bf unmark} is identical to the {\bf mark} command, except that it
1029 unmarks the specified file or files so that they will not be restored. Note:
1030 the {\bf unmark} command works from the current directory, so it does not
1031 unmark any files at a higher level. First do a {\bf cd /} before the {\bf
1032 unmark *} command if you want to unmark everything.
1036 The {\bf pwd} command prints the current working directory. It accepts no
1041 The {\bf count} command prints the total files in the directory tree and the
1042 number of files marked to be restored.
1046 This command terminates file selection mode.
1050 This command terminates file selection mode (the same as done).
1054 This command terminates the file selection and does not run the restore
1060 This command prints a summary of the commands available.
1063 This command is the same as the {\bf help} command.
1066 \label{database_restore}
1067 \section{Restoring When Things Go Wrong}
1068 \index[general]{Restoring When Things Go Wrong }
1069 \index[general]{Restoring Your Database}
1070 \index[general]{Database!Restoring}
1072 This and the following sections will try to present a few of the kinds of
1073 problems that can come up making restoring more difficult. I'll try to
1074 provide a few ideas how to get out of these problem situations.
1075 In addition to what is presented here, there is more specific information
1076 on restoring a \ilink{Client}{restore_client} and your
1077 \ilink{Server}{restore_server} in the \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using
1078 Bacula}{RescueChapter} chapter of this manual.
1082 My database is broken.
1084 For SQLite, use the vacuum command to try to fix the database. For either
1085 MySQL or PostgreSQL, see the vendor's documentation. They have specific tools
1086 that check and repair databases, see the \ilink{database
1087 repair}{DatabaseRepair} sections of this manual for links to vendor
1090 Assuming the above does not resolve the problem, you will need to restore
1091 or rebuild your catalog. Note, if it is a matter of some
1092 inconsistencies in the Bacula tables rather than a broken database, then
1093 running \ilink{dbcheck}{dbcheck} might help, but you will need to ensure
1094 that your database indexes are properly setup. Please see
1095 the \ilink{Database Performance Issues}{DatabasePerformance} sections
1096 of this manual for more details.
1099 How do I restore my catalog?
1100 \item[Solution with a Catalog backup]
1101 If you have backed up your database nightly (as you should) and you
1102 have made a bootstrap file, you can immediately load back your
1103 database (or the ASCII SQL output). Make a copy of your current
1104 database, then re-initialize it, by running the following scripts:
1106 ./drop_bacula_tables
1107 ./make_bacula_tables
1109 After re-initializing the database, you should be able to run
1110 Bacula. If you now try to use the restore command, it will not
1111 work because the database will be empty. However, you can manually
1112 run a restore job and specify your bootstrap file. You do so
1113 by entering the {bf run} command in the console and selecting the
1114 restore job. If you are using the default bacula-dir.conf, this
1115 Job will be named {\bf RestoreFiles}. Most likely it will prompt
1116 you with something such as:
1120 JobName: RestoreFiles
1121 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
1122 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
1127 When: 2005-07-10 17:33:40
1130 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
1133 A number of the items will be different in your case. What you want to
1134 do is: to use the mod option to change the Bootstrap to point to your
1135 saved bootstrap file; and to make sure all the other items such as
1136 Client, Storage, Catalog, and Where are correct. The FileSet is not
1137 used when you specify a bootstrap file. Once you have set all the
1138 correct values, run the Job and it will restore the backup of your
1139 database, which is most likely an ASCII dump.
1141 You will then need to follow the instructions for your
1142 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1143 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{CatMaintenanceChapter} chapter of
1144 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1145 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1146 XXX Database sections).
1148 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1149 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make\_bacula\_tables} command, or
1150 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1153 \item[Solution with a Job listing]
1154 If you did save your database but did not make a bootstrap file, then
1155 recovering the database is more difficult. You will probably need to
1156 use bextract to extract the backup copy. First you should locate the
1157 listing of the job report from the last catalog backup. It has
1158 important information that will allow you to quickly find your database
1159 file. For example, in the job report for the CatalogBackup shown below,
1160 the critical items are the Volume name(s), the Volume Session Id and the
1161 Volume Session Time. If you know those, you can easily restore your
1166 22-Apr 10:22 HeadMan: Start Backup JobId 7510,
1167 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0
1168 22-Apr 10:23 HeadMan: Bacula 1.37.14 (21Apr05): 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1170 Job: CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.00
1173 FileSet: "CatalogFile" 2003-04-10 01:24:01
1176 Start time: 22-Apr-2005 10:21:00
1177 End time: 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1180 FD Bytes Written: 210,739,395
1181 SD Bytes Written: 210,739,521
1183 Software Compression: None
1184 Volume name(s): DLT-22Apr05
1185 Volume Session Id: 11
1186 Volume Session Time: 1114075126
1187 Last Volume Bytes: 1,428,240,465
1188 Non-fatal FD errors: 0
1190 FD termination status: OK
1191 SD termination status: OK
1192 Termination: Backup OK
1197 From the above information, you can manually create a bootstrap file,
1198 and then follow the instructions given above for restoring your database.
1199 A reconstructed bootstrap file for the above backup Job would look
1204 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1206 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1211 Where we have inserted the Volume name, Volume Session Id, and Volume
1212 Session Time that correspond to the values in the job report. We've also
1213 used a FileIndex of one, which will always be the case providing that
1214 there was only one file backed up in the job.
1216 The disadvantage of this bootstrap file compared to what is created when
1217 you ask for one to be written, is that there is no File and Block
1218 specified, so the restore code must search all data in the Volume to find
1219 the requested file. A fully specified bootstrap file would have the File
1220 and Blocks specified as follows:
1224 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1226 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1233 Once you have restored the ASCII dump of the database,
1234 you will then to follow the instructions for your
1235 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1236 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{CatMaintenanceChapter} chapter of
1237 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1238 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1239 XXX Database sections).
1241 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1242 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make\_bacula\_tables} command, or
1243 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1245 \item [Solution without a Job Listing]
1246 If you do not have a job listing, then it is a bit more difficult.
1247 Either you use the \ilink{bscan}{bscan} program to scan the contents
1248 of your tape into a database, which can be very time consuming
1249 depending on the size of the tape, or you can use the \ilink{bls}{bls}
1250 program to list everything on the tape, and reconstruct a bootstrap
1251 file from the bls listing for the file or files you want following
1252 the instructions given above.
1254 There is a specific example of how to use {\bf bls} below.
1257 I try to restore the last known good full backup by specifying
1258 item 3 on the restore menu then the JobId to restore. Bacula
1266 and restores nothing.
1268 Most likely the File records were pruned from the database either due
1269 to the File Retention period expiring or by explicitly purging the
1270 Job. By using the "llist jobid=nn" command, you can obtain all the
1271 important information about the job:
1276 Job: save.2005-12-05_18.27.33
1284 SchedTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:32
1285 StartTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:35
1286 EndTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:37
1287 JobTDate: 1133803657
1289 VolSessionTime: 1133803624
1296 FileSet.FileSet: BackupSet
1300 Then you can find the Volume(s) used by doing:
1304 select VolumeName from JobMedia,Media where JobId=1 and JobMedia.MediaId=Media.MediaId;
1307 Finally, you can create a bootstrap file as described in the previous
1308 problem above using this information.
1310 If you are using Bacula version 1.38.0 or greater, when you select
1311 item 3 from the menu and enter the JobId, it will ask you if
1312 you would like to restore all the files in the job, and it will
1313 collect the above information and write the bootstrap file for
1317 You don't have a bootstrap file, and you don't have the Job report for
1318 the backup of your database, but you did backup the database, and you
1319 know the Volume to which it was backed up.
1322 Either bscan the tape, or use {\bf bls} to indicate where it is on the
1327 ./bls -j -V DLT-22Apr05 /dev/nst0
1330 Might produce the following output:
1333 bls: butil.c:258 Using device: "/dev/nst0" for reading.
1334 21-Jul 18:34 bls: Ready to read from volume "DLT-22Apr05" on device "DLTDrive"
1336 Volume Record: File:blk=0:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126 JobId=0 DataLen=164
1338 Begin Job Session Record: File:blk=118:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1340 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:21:00 Level=F Type=B
1341 End Job Session Record: File:blk=118:4053 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1343 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:23:06 Level=F Type=B Files=1 Bytes=210,739,395 Errors=0
1346 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of Volume at file 201 on device "DLTDrive" (/dev/nst0),
1347 Volume "DLT-22Apr05"
1348 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of all volumes.
1351 Of course, there will be many more records printed, but we have indicated
1352 the essential lines of output. From the information on the Begin Job and End
1353 Job Session Records, you can reconstruct a bootstrap file such as the one
1357 How can I find where a file is stored.
1359 Normally, it is not necessary, you just use the {\bf restore} command to
1360 restore the most recently saved version (menu option 5), or a version
1361 saved before a given date (menu option 8). If you know the JobId of the
1362 job in which it was saved, you can use menu option 3 to enter that JobId.
1364 If you would like to know the JobId where a file was saved, select
1365 restore menu option 2.
1367 You can also use the {\bf query} command to find information such as:
1372 1: List up to 20 places where a File is saved regardless of the
1374 2: List where the most recent copies of a file are saved
1375 3: List last 20 Full Backups for a Client
1376 4: List all backups for a Client after a specified time
1377 5: List all backups for a Client
1378 6: List Volume Attributes for a selected Volume
1379 7: List Volumes used by selected JobId
1380 8: List Volumes to Restore All Files
1381 9: List Pool Attributes for a selected Pool
1382 10: List total files/bytes by Job
1383 11: List total files/bytes by Volume
1384 12: List Files for a selected JobId
1385 13: List Jobs stored on a selected MediaId
1386 14: List Jobs stored for a given Volume name
1387 15: List Volumes Bacula thinks are in changer
1388 16: List Volumes likely to need replacement from age or errors
1389 Choose a query (1-16):