4 \section*{The Bacula Console Restore Command}
5 \label{_ChapterStart13}
6 \index[general]{Command!Bacula Console Restore }
7 \index[general]{Bacula Console Restore Command }
8 \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Bacula Console Restore Command}
11 \index[general]{General }
12 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{General}
14 Below, we will discuss restoring files with the Console {\bf restore} command,
15 which is the recommended way of doing it. However, there is a standalone
16 program named {\bf bextract}, which also permits restoring files. For more
17 information on this program, please see the
18 \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{bextract} chapter of this manual.
19 You will also want to look at the {\bf bls} program in the same chapter, which
20 allows you to list the contents of your Volumes. Finally, if you have an old
21 Volume that is no longer in the catalog, you can restore the catalog entries
22 using the program named {\bf bscan}, documented in the same
23 \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{bextract} chapter.
25 In general, to restore a file or a set of files, you must run a {\bf restore}
26 job. That is a job with {\bf Type = Restore}. As a consequence, you will need
27 a predefined {\bf restore} job in your {\bf bacula-dir.conf} (Director's
28 config) file. The exact parameters (Client, FileSet, ...) that you define are
29 not important as you can either modify them manually before running the job or
30 if you use the {\bf restore} command, explained below, Bacula will
31 automatically set them for you. In fact, you can no longer simply run a restore
32 job. You must use the restore command.
34 Since Bacula is a network backup program, you must be aware that when you
35 restore files, it is up to you to ensure that you or Bacula have selected the
36 correct Client and the correct hard disk location for restoring those files.
37 {\bf Bacula} will quite willingly backup client A, and restore it by sending
38 the files to a different directory on client B. Normally, you will want to
39 avoid this, but assuming the operating systems are not too different in their
40 file structures, this should work perfectly well, if so desired.
41 By default, Bacula will restore data to the same Client that was backed
42 up, and those data will be restored not to the original places but to
43 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You may modify any of these defaults when the
44 restore command prompts you to run the job by selecting the {\bf mod}
48 \subsection*{The Restore Command}
49 \index[general]{Command!Restore }
50 \index[general]{Restore Command }
51 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restore Command}
53 Since Bacula maintains a catalog of your files and on which Volumes (disk or
54 tape), they are stored, it can do most of the bookkeeping work, allowing you
55 simply to specify what kind of restore you want (current, before a particular
56 date), and what files to restore. Bacula will then do the rest.
58 This is accomplished using the {\bf restore} command in the Console. First you
59 select the kind of restore you want, then the JobIds are selected,
60 the File records for those Jobs are placed in an internal Bacula directory
61 tree, and the restore enters a file selection mode that allows you to
62 interactively walk up and down the file tree selecting individual files to be
63 restored. This mode is somewhat similar to the standard Unix {\bf restore}
64 program's interactive file selection mode.
66 If your Files have been pruned, the {\bf restore} command will be unable
67 to find any files to restore. See below for more details on this.
69 Within the Console program, after entering the {\bf restore} command, you are
70 presented with the following selection prompt:
74 First you select one or more JobIds that contain files
75 to be restored. You will be presented several methods
76 of specifying the JobIds. Then you will be allowed to
77 select which files from those JobIds are to be restored.
78 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
79 1: List last 20 Jobs run
80 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
81 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
82 4: Enter SQL list command
83 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
84 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
85 7: Enter a list of files to restore
86 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
87 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
88 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
89 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
96 \item Item 1 will list the last 20 jobs run. If you find the Job you want,
97 you can then select item 3 and enter its JobId(s).
99 \item Item 2 will list all the Jobs where a specified file is saved. If you
100 find the Job you want, you can then select item 3 and enter the JobId.
102 \item Item 3 allows you the enter a list of comma separated JobIds whose
103 files will be put into the directory tree. You may then select which
104 files from those JobIds to restore.
106 \item Item 4 allows you to enter any arbitrary SQL command. This is probably
107 the most primitive way of finding the desired JobIds, but at the same time,
108 the most flexible. Once you have found the JobId(s), you can select item 3
111 \item Item 5 will automatically select the most recent Full backup and all
112 subsequent incremental and differential backups for a specified Client.
113 These are the Jobs and Files which, if reloaded, will restore your
114 system to the most current saved state. It automatically enters the
115 JobIds found into the directory tree. This is probably the most
116 convenient of all the above options to use if you wish to restore a
117 selected Client to its most recent state.
119 There are two important things to note. First, this automatic selection
120 will never select a job that failed (terminated with an error status).
121 If you have such a job and want to recover one or more files from it,
122 you will need to explicitly enter the JobId in item 3, then choose the
125 If some of the Jobs that are needed to do the restore have had their
126 File records pruned, the restore will be incomplete. Bacula currently
127 does not correctly detect this condition. You can however, check for
128 this by looking carefully at the list of Jobs that Bacula selects and
129 prints. If you find Jobs with the JobFiles column set to zero, when
130 files should have been backed up, then you should expect problems.
132 If all the File records have been pruned, Bacula will realize that there
133 are no file records in any of the JobIds chosen and will inform you. It
134 will then propose doing a full restore (non-selective) of those JobIds.
135 This is possible because Bacula still knows where the beginning of the
136 Job data is on the Volumes, even if it does not know where particular
139 \item Item 6 allows you to specify a date and time, after which Bacula will
140 automatically select the most recent Full backup and all subsequent
141 incremental and differential backups that started before the specified date
144 \item Item 7 allows you to specify one or more filenames (complete path
145 required) to be restored. Each filename is entered one at a time or if you
146 prefix a filename with the less-than symbol (\lt{}) Bacula will read that
147 file and assume it is a list of filenames to be restored. The filename entry
148 mode is terminated by entering a blank line.
150 \item Item 8 allows you to specify a date and time before entering the
151 filenames. See Item 7 above for more details.
153 \item Item 9 allows you find the JobIds of the most recent backup for
154 a client. This is much like option 5 (it uses the same code), but
155 those JobIds are retained internally as if you had entered them
156 manually. You may then select item 11 (see below) to restore one
159 \item Item 10 is the same as item 9, except that it allows you to enter
160 a before date (as with item 6). These JobIds will then be retained
163 \index[general]{Restore Directories}
164 \item Item 11 allows you to enter a list of JobIds from which you can
165 select directories to be restored. The list of JobIds can have been
166 previously created by using either item 9 or 10 on the menu. You
167 may then enter a full path to a directory name or a filename preceded
168 by a less than sign (\lt{}). The filename should contain a list
169 of directories to be restored. All files in those directories will
170 be restored, but if the directory contains subdirectories, nothing
171 will be restored in the subdirectory unless you explicitly enter its
174 \item Item 12 allows you to cancel the restore command.
177 As an example, suppose that we select item 5 (restore to most recent state).
178 It will then ask for the desired Client, which on my system, will print all
179 the Clients found in the database as follows:
193 Select Client (File daemon) resource (1-9):
198 You will probably have far fewer Clients than this example, and if you have
199 only one Client, it will be automatically selected. In this case, I enter
200 {\bf Rufus} to select the Client. Then Bacula needs to know what FileSet is
201 to be restored, so it prompts with:
205 The defined FileSet resources are:
208 Select FileSet resource (1-2):
213 I choose item 1, which is my full backup. Normally, you will only have a
214 single FileSet for each Job, and if your machines are similar (all Linux) you
215 may only have one FileSet for all your Clients.
217 At this point, {\bf Bacula} has all the information it needs to find the most
218 recent set of backups. It will then query the database, which may take a bit
219 of time, and it will come up with something like the following. Note, some of
220 the columns are truncated here for presentation:
224 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
226 | JobId | Levl | JobFiles | StartTime | VolumeName | File | SesId |
228 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
230 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-19Jul02 | 67 | 18 |
232 | 1,792 | F | 128,374 | 08-03 01:58 | DLT-04Aug02 | 0 | 18 |
234 | 1,797 | I | 254 | 08-04 13:53 | DLT-04Aug02 | 5 | 23 |
236 | 1,798 | I | 15 | 08-05 01:05 | DLT-04Aug02 | 6 | 24 |
238 +-------+------+----------+-------------+-------------+------+-------+----------
240 You have selected the following JobId: 1792,1792,1797
241 Building directory tree for JobId 1792 ...
242 Building directory tree for JobId 1797 ...
243 Building directory tree for JobId 1798 ...
249 Depending on the number of {\bf JobFiles} for each JobId, the {\bf Building
250 directory tree ..."} can take a bit of time. If you notice ath all the
251 JobFiles are zero, your Files have probably been pruned and you will not be
252 able to select any individual files -- it will be restore everything or
255 In our example, Bacula found four Jobs that comprise the most recent backup of
256 the specified Client and FileSet. Two of the Jobs have the same JobId because
257 that Job wrote on two different Volumes. The third Job was an incremental
258 backup to the previous Full backup, and it only saved 254 Files compared to
259 128,374 for the Full backup. The fourth Job was also an incremental backup
262 Next Bacula entered those Jobs into the directory tree, with no files marked
263 to be restored as a default, tells you how many files are in the tree, and
264 tells you that the current working directory ({\bf cwd}) is /. Finally, Bacula
265 prompts with the dollar sign (\$) to indicate that you may enter commands to
266 move around the directory tree and to select files.
268 If you want all the files to automatically be marked when the directory
269 tree is built, enter the command {\bf restore all}.
271 Instead of choosing item 5 on the first menu (Select the most recent backup
272 for a client), if we had chosen item 3 (Enter list of JobIds to select) and we
273 had entered the JobIds {\bf 1792,1797,1798} we would have arrived at the same
276 One point to note, if you are manually entering JobIds, is that you must enter
277 them in the order they were run (generally in increasing JobId order). If you
278 enter them out of order and the same file was saved in two or more of the
279 Jobs, you may end up with an old version of that file (i.e. not the most
282 Directly entering the JobIds can also permit you to recover data from
283 a Job that wrote files to tape but that terminated with an error status.
285 While in file selection mode, you can enter {\bf help} or a question mark (?)
286 to produce a summary of the available commands:
292 cd change current directory
293 count count marked files in and below the cd
294 dir long list current directory, wildcards allowed
295 done leave file selection mode
296 estimate estimate restore size
297 exit same as done command
298 find find files, wildcards allowed
300 ls list current directory, wildcards allowed
301 lsmark list the marked files in and below the cd
302 mark mark dir/file to be restored recursively in dirs
303 markdir mark directory name to be restored (no files)
304 pwd print current working directory
305 unmark unmark dir/file to be restored recursively in dir
306 unmarkdir unmark directory name only no recursion
307 quit quit and do not do restore
312 As a default no files have been selected for restore (unless you
313 added {\bf all} to the command line. If you want to restore
314 everything, at this point, you should enter {\bf mark *}, and then {\bf done}
315 and {\bf Bacula} will write the bootstrap records to a file and request your
316 approval to start a restore job.
318 If you do not enter the above mentioned {\bf mark *} command, you will start
319 with an empty slate. Now you can simply start looking at the tree and {\bf
320 mark} particular files or directories you want restored. It is easy to make
321 a mistake in specifying a file to mark or unmark, and Bacula's error handling
322 is not perfect, so please check your work by using the {\bf ls} or {\bf dir}
323 commands to see what files are actually selected. Any selected file has its
324 name preceded by an asterisk.
326 To check what is marked or not marked, enter the {\bf count} command, which
331 128401 total files. 128401 marked to be restored.
336 Each of the above commands will be described in more detail in the next
337 section. We continue with the above example, having accepted to restore all
338 files as Bacula set by default. On entering the {\bf done} command, Bacula
343 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
344 The restore job will require the following Volumes:
348 128401 files selected to restore.
350 JobName: kernsrestore
351 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
352 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
358 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
363 Please examine each of the items very carefully to make sure that they are
364 correct. In particular, look at {\bf Where}, which tells you where in the
365 directory structure the files will be restored, and {\bf Client}, which
366 tells you which client will receive the files. Note that by default the
367 Client which will receive the files is the Client that was backed up.
368 These items will not always be completed with the correct values depending
369 on which of the restore options you chose. You can change any of these
370 default items by entering {\bf mod} and responding to the prompts.
372 The above assumes that you have defined a {\bf Restore} Job resource in your
373 Director's configuration file. Normally, you will only need one Restore Job
374 resource definition because by its nature, restoring is a manual operation,
375 and using the Console interface, you will be able to modify the Restore Job to
378 An example Restore Job resource definition is given below.
380 Returning to the above example, you should verify that the Client name is
381 correct before running the Job. However, you may want to modify some of the
382 parameters of the restore job. For example, in addition to checking the Client
383 it is wise to check that the Storage device chosen by Bacula is indeed
384 correct. Although the {\bf FileSet} is shown, it will be ignored in restore.
385 The restore will choose the files to be restored either by reading the {\bf
386 Bootstrap} file, or if not specified, it will restore all files associated
387 with the specified backup {\bf JobId} (i.e. the JobId of the Job that
388 originally backed up the files).
390 Finally before running the job, please note that the default location for
391 restoring files is {\bf not} their original locations, but rather the directory
392 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores}. You can change this default by modifying your {\bf
393 bacula-dir.conf} file, or you can modify it using the {\bf mod} option. If you
394 want to restore the files to their original location, you must have {\bf
395 Where} set to nothing or to the root, i.e. {\bf /}.
397 If you now enter {\bf yes}, Bacula will run the restore Job. The Storage
398 daemon will first request Volume {\bf DLT-19Jul02} and after the appropriate
399 files have been restored from that volume, it will request Volume {\bf
402 \subsection*{Selecting Files by Filename}
403 \index[general]{Selecting Files by Filename }
404 \index[general]{Filename!Selecting Files by }
405 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Selecting Files by Filename}
407 If you have a small number of files to restore, and you know the filenames,
408 you can either put the list of filenames in a file to be read by Bacula, or
409 you can enter the names one at a time. The filenames must include the full
410 path and filename. No wild cards are used.
412 To enter the files, after the {\bf restore}, you select item number 7 from the
417 To select the JobIds, you have the following choices:
418 1: List last 20 Jobs run
419 2: List Jobs where a given File is saved
420 3: Enter list of comma separated JobIds to select
421 4: Enter SQL list command
422 5: Select the most recent backup for a client
423 6: Select backup for a client before a specified time
424 7: Enter a list of files to restore
425 8: Enter a list of files to restore before a specified time
426 9: Find the JobIds of the most recent backup for a client
427 10: Find the JobIds for a backup for a client before a specified time
428 11: Enter a list of directories to restore for found JobIds
434 which then prompts you for the client name:
442 Select the Client (1-3): 3
446 Of course, your client list will be different, and if you have only one
447 client, it will be automatically selected. And finally, Bacula requests you to
456 At this point, you can enter the full path and filename
460 Enter filename: /home/kern/bacula/k/Makefile.in
465 as you can see, it took the filename. If Bacula cannot find a copy of the
466 file, it prints the following:
470 Enter filename: junk filename
471 No database record found for: junk filename
476 If you want Bacula to read the filenames from a file, you simply precede the
477 filename with a less-than symbol (\lt{}). When you have entered all the
478 filenames, you enter a blank line, and Bacula will write the bootstrap file,
479 tells you what tapes will be used, and proposes a Restore job to be run:
484 Automatically selected Storage: DDS-4
485 Bootstrap records written to /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
486 The restore job will require the following Volumes:
489 1 file selected to restore.
491 JobName: kernsrestore
492 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
493 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
498 When: 2003-09-11 10:20:53
500 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
504 It is possible to automate the selection by file by putting your list of files
505 in say {\bf /tmp/file-list}, then using the following command:
509 restore client=Rufus file=</tmp/file-list
513 If in modifying the parameters for the Run Restore job, you find that Bacula
514 asks you to enter a Job number, this is because you have not yet specified
515 either a Job number or a Bootstrap file. Simply entering zero will allow you
516 to continue and to select another option to be modified.
517 \label{CommandArguments}
519 \subsection*{Command Line Arguments}
520 \index[general]{Arguments!Command Line }
521 \index[general]{Command Line Arguments }
522 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Command Line Arguments}
524 If all the above sounds complicated, you will probably agree that it really
525 isn't after trying it a few times. It is possible to do everything that was
526 shown above, with the exception of selecting the FileSet, by using command
527 line arguments with a single command by entering:
531 restore client=Rufus select current all done yes
535 The {\bf client=Rufus} specification will automatically select Rufus as the
536 client, the {\bf current} tells Bacula that you want to restore the system to
537 the most current state possible, and the {\bf yes} suppresses the final {\bf
538 yes/mod/no} prompt and simply runs the restore.
540 The full list of possible command line arguments are:
543 \item {\bf all} -- select all Files to be restored.
544 \item {\bf select} -- use the tree selection method.
545 \item {\bf done} -- do not prompt the user in tree mode.
546 \item {\bf current} -- automatically select the most current set of backups
547 for the specified client.
548 \item {\bf client=xxxx} -- select the specified client.
549 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId or comma separated list of JobIds to
551 \item {\bf before=YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS} -- specify a date and time to which
552 the system should be restored. Only Jobs started before the specified
553 date/time will be selected, and as is the case for {\bf current} Bacula will
554 automatically find the most recent prior Full save and all Differential and
555 Incremental saves run before the date you specify. Note, this command is not
556 too user friendly in that you must specify the date/time exactly as shown.
557 \item {\bf file=filename} -- specify a filename to be restored. You must
558 specify the full path and filename. Prefixing the entry with a less-than
560 (\lt{}) will cause Bacula to assume that the filename is on your system and
561 contains a list of files to be restored. Bacula will thus read the list from
562 that file. Multiple file=xxx specifications may be specified on the command
564 \item {\bf jobid=nnn} -- specify a JobId to be restored.
565 \item {\bf pool=pool-name} -- specify a Pool name to be used for selection of
566 Volumes when specifying options 5 and 6 (restore current system, and restore
567 current system before given date). This permits you to have several Pools,
568 possibly one offsite, and to select the Pool to be used for restoring.
569 \item {\bf yes} -- automatically run the restore without prompting for
570 modifications (most useful in batch scripts).
573 \subsection*{Restoring Directory Attributes}
574 \index[general]{Attributes!Restoring Directory }
575 \index[general]{Restoring Directory Attributes }
576 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restoring Directory Attributes}
578 Depending how you do the restore, you may or may not get the directory entries
579 back to their original state. Here are a few of the problems you can
580 encounter, and for same machine restores, how to avoid them.
583 \item You backed up on one machine and are restoring to another that is
584 either a different OS or doesn't have the same users/groups defined. Bacula
585 does the best it can in these situations. Note, Bacula has saved the
586 user/groups in numeric form, which means on a different machine, they
587 may map to different user/group names.
588 \item You are restoring into a directory that is already created and has
589 file creation restrictions. Bacula tries to reset everything but
590 without walking up the full chain of directories and modifying them all
591 during the restore, which Bacula does and will not do, getting
592 permissions back correctly in this situation depends to a large extent
594 \item You are doing a recursive restore of a directory tree. In this case
595 Bacula will restore a file before restoring the file's parent directory
596 entry. In the process of restoring the file Bacula will create the
597 parent directory with open permissions and ownership of the file being
598 restored. Then when Bacula tries to restore the parent directory Bacula
599 sees that it already exists (Similar to the previous situation). If you
600 had set the Restore job's "Replace" property to "never" then Bacula will
601 not change the directory's permissions and ownerships to match what it
602 backed up, you should also notice that the actual number of files
603 restored is less then the expected number. If you had set the Restore
604 job's "Replace" property to "always" then Bacula will change the
605 Directory's ownership and permissions to match what it backed up, also
606 the actual number of files restored should be equal to the expected
608 \item You selected one or more files in a directory, but did not select the
609 directory entry to be restored. In that case, if the directory is not
610 on disk Bacula simply creates the directory with some default attributes
611 which may not be the same as the original. If you do not select a
612 directory and all its contents to be restored, you can still select
613 items within the directory to be restored by individually marking those
614 files, but in that case, you should individually use the "markdir"
615 command to select all higher level directory entries (one at a time) to
616 be restored if you want the directory entries properly restored.
621 \subsection*{Restoring on Windows}
622 \index[general]{Restoring on Windows }
623 \index[general]{Windows!Restoring on }
624 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restoring on Windows}
626 If you are restoring on WinNT/2K/XP systems, Bacula will restore the files
627 with the original ownerships and permissions as would be expected. This is
628 also true if you are restoring those files to an alternate directory (using
629 the Where option in restore). However, if the alternate directory does not
630 already exist, the Bacula File daemon (Client) will try to create it. In
631 some cases, it may not create the directories, and if it does since the
632 File daemon runs under the SYSTEM account, the directory will be created
633 with SYSTEM ownership and permissions. In this case, you may have problems
634 accessing the newly restored files.
636 To avoid this problem, you should create any alternate directory before
637 doing the restore. Bacula will not change the ownership and permissions of
638 the directory if it is already created as long as it is not one of the
639 directories being restored (i.e. written to tape).
641 The default restore location is {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/} and if you are
642 restoring from drive {\bf E:}, the default will be
643 {\bf /tmp/bacula-restores/e/}, so you should ensure that this directory
644 exists before doing the restore, or use the {\bf mod} option to
645 select a different {\bf where} directory that does exist.
647 Some users have experienced problems restoring files that participate in
648 the Active Directory. They also report that changing the userid under which
649 Bacula (bacula-fd.exe) runs, from SYSTEM to a Domain Admin userid, resolves
653 \subsection*{Restoring Files Can Be Slow}
654 \index[general]{Slow!Restoring Files Can Be }
655 \index[general]{Restoring Files Can Be Slow }
656 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restoring Files Can Be Slow}
658 Restoring files is generally {\bf much} slower than backing them up for several
659 reasons. The first is that during a backup the tape is normally already
660 positioned and Bacula only needs to write. On the other hand, because restoring
661 files is done so rarely, Bacula keeps only the start file and block on the
662 tape for the whole job rather than on a file by file basis which would use
663 quite a lot of space in the catalog.
665 Bacula will forward space to the correct file mark on the tape for the Job,
666 then forward space to the correct block, and finally sequentially read each
667 record until it gets to the correct one(s) for the file or files you want to
668 restore. Once the desired files are restored, Bacula will stop reading the
671 Finally, instead of just reading a file for backup, during the restore, Bacula
672 must create the file, and the operating system must allocate disk space for
673 the file as Bacula is restoring it.
675 For all the above reasons the restore process is generally much slower than
676 backing up (sometimes it takes three times as long).
678 \subsection*{Problems Restoring Files}
679 \index[general]{Files!Problems Restoring }
680 \index[general]{Problems Restoring Files }
681 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Problems Restoring Files}
683 The most frequent problems users have restoring files are error messages such
688 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
689 block.c:868 Volume data error at 20:0! Short block of 512 bytes on
690 device /dev/tape discarded.
698 04-Jan 00:33 z217-sd: RestoreFiles.2005-01-04_00.31.04 Error:
699 block.c:264 Volume data error at 20:0! Wanted ID: "BB02", got ".".
704 Both these kinds of messages indicate that you were probably running your tape
705 drive in fixed block mode rather than variable block mode. Fixed block mode
706 will work with any program that reads tapes sequentially such as tar, but
707 Bacula repositions the tape on a block basis when restoring files because this
708 will speed up the restore by orders of magnitude when only a few files are being
709 restored. There are several ways that you can attempt to recover from this
710 unfortunate situation.
712 Try the following things, each separately, and reset your Device resource to
713 what it is now after each individual test:
716 \item Set "Block Positioning = no" in your Device resource and try the
717 restore. This is a new directive and untested.
718 \item Set "Minimum Block Size = 512" and "Maximum Block Size = 512" and
719 try the restore. If you are able to determine the block size your drive
720 was previously using, you should try that size if 512 does not work.
721 \item Try editing the restore.bsr file at the Run xxx yes/mod/no prompt
722 before starting the restore job and remove all the VolBlock statements.
723 These are what causes Bacula to reposition the tape, and where problems
724 occur if you have a fixed block size set for your drive. The VolFile
725 commands also cause repositioning, but this will work regardless of the
727 \item Use bextract to extract the files you want -- it reads the Volume
728 sequentially if you use the include list feature, or if you use a .bsr
729 file, but remove all the VolBlock statements after the .bsr file is
730 created (at the Run yes/mod/no) prompt but before you start the restore.
733 \subsection*{Restore Errors}
734 \index[general]{Errors!Restore}
735 \index[general]{Restore Errors}
736 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restore Errors}
738 There are a number of reasons why there may be restore errors or
739 warning messages. Some of the more common ones are:
743 \item [file count mismatch]
744 This can occur for the following reasons:
746 \item You requested Bacula not to overwrite existing or newer
748 \item A Bacula miscount of files/directories. This is an
749 on-going problem due to the complications of directories,
750 soft/hard link, and such. Simply check that all the files you
751 wanted were actually restored.
753 \item [file size error]
754 When Bacula restores files, it checks that the size of the
755 restored file is the same as the file status data it saved
756 when starting the backup of the file. If the sizes do not
757 agree, Bacula will print an error message. This size mismatch
758 most often occurs because the file was being written as Bacula
759 backed up the file. In this case, the size that Bacula
760 restored will be greater than the status size. This often
761 happens with log files.
763 If the restored size is smaller, then you should be concerned
764 about a possible tape error and check the Bacula output as
765 well as your system logs.
770 \subsection*{Example Restore Job Resource}
771 \index[general]{Example Restore Job Resource }
772 \index[general]{Resource!Example Restore Job }
773 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Example Restore Job Resource}
778 Name = "RestoreFiles"
781 FileSet = "Any-FileSet"
782 Storage = Any-storage
783 Where = /tmp/bacula-restores
790 If {\bf Where} is not specified, the default location for restoring files will
791 be their original locations.
794 \subsection*{File Selection Commands}
795 \index[general]{Commands!File Selection }
796 \index[general]{File Selection Commands }
797 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{File Selection Commands}
799 After you have selected the Jobs to be restored and Bacula has created the
800 in-memory directory tree, you will enter file selection mode as indicated by
801 the dollar sign ({\bf \$}) prompt. While in this mode, you may use the
802 commands listed above. The basic idea is to move up and down the in memory
803 directory structure with the {\bf cd} command much as you normally do on the
804 system. Once you are in a directory, you may select the files that you want
805 restored. As a default no files are marked to be restored. If you wish to
806 start with all files, simply enter: {\bf cd /} and {\bf mark *}. Otherwise
807 proceed to select the files you wish to restore by marking them with the {\bf
808 mark} command. The available commands are:
813 The {\bf cd} command changes the current directory to the argument
815 It operates much like the Unix {\bf cd} command. Wildcard specifications are
818 Note, on Windows systems, the various drives (c:, d:, ...) are treated like
820 directory within the file tree while in the file selection mode. As a
821 consequence, you must do a {\bf cd c:} or possibly in some cases a {\bf cd
822 C:} (note upper case) to get down to the first directory.
826 The {\bf dir} command is similar to the {\bf ls} command, except that it
827 prints it in long format (all details). This command can be a bit slower
829 the {\bf ls} command because it must access the catalog database for the
830 detailed information for each file.
833 \index[dir]{estimate }
834 The {\bf estimate} command prints a summary of the total files in the tree,
835 how many are marked to be restored, and an estimate of the number of bytes
837 be restored. This can be useful if you are short on disk space on the
839 where the files will be restored.
843 The {\bf find} command accepts one or more arguments and displays all files
844 in the tree that match that argument. The argument may have wildcards. It is
845 somewhat similar to the Unix command {\bf find / -name arg}.
848 The {\bf ls} command produces a listing of all the files contained in the
849 current directory much like the Unix {\bf ls} command. You may specify an
850 argument containing wildcards, in which case only those files will be
852 Any file that is marked to be restored will have its name preceded by an
853 asterisk ({\bf *}). Directory names will be terminated with a forward slash
854 ({\bf /}) to distinguish them from filenames.
858 The {\bf lsmark} command is the same as the {\bf ls} except that it will
859 print only those files marked for extraction. The other distinction is that
860 it will recursively descend into any directory selected.
864 The {\bf mark} command allows you to mark files to be restored. It takes a
865 single argument which is the filename or directory name in the current
866 directory to be marked for extraction. The argument may be a wildcard
867 specification, in which case all files that match in the current directory
868 are marked to be restored. If the argument matches a directory rather than a
869 file, then the directory and all the files contained in that directory
870 (recursively) are marked to be restored. Any marked file will have its name
871 preceded with an asterisk ({\bf *}) in the output produced by the {\bf ls}
873 {\bf dir} commands. Note, supplying a full path on the mark command does not
874 work as expected to select a file or directory in the current directory.
875 Also, the {\bf mark} command works on the current and lower directories but
876 does not touch higher level directories.
878 After executing the {\bf mark} command, it will print a brief summary:
887 If no files were marked, or:
896 if some files are marked.
900 The {\bf unmark} is identical to the {\bf mark} command, except that it
901 unmarks the specified file or files so that they will not be restored. Note:
902 the {\bf unmark} command works from the current directory, so it does not
903 unmark any files at a higher level. First do a {\bf cd /} before the {\bf
904 unmark *} command if you want to unmark everything.
908 The {\bf pwd} command prints the current working directory. It accepts no
913 The {\bf count} command prints the total files in the directory tree and the
914 number of files marked to be restored.
918 This command terminates file selection mode.
922 This command terminates file selection mode (the same as done).
926 This command terminates the file selection and does not run the restore
932 This command prints a summary of the commands available.
935 This command is the same as the {\bf help} command.
938 \label{database_restore}
939 \subsection*{Restoring When Things Go Wrong}
940 \index[general]{Restoring When Things Go Wrong }
941 \index[general]{Restoring Your Database}
942 \index[general]{Database!Restoring}
943 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Restoring When Things Go Wrong}
945 This and the following sections will try to present a few of the kinds of
946 problems that can come up making restoring more difficult. I'll try to
947 provide a few ideas how to get out of these problem situations.
948 In addition to what is presented here, there is more specific information
949 on restoring a \ilink{Client}{restore_client} and your
950 \ilink{Server}{restore_server} in the \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using
951 Bacula}{_ChapterRescue} chapter of this manual.
955 My database is broken.
957 For SQLite, use the vacuum command to try to fix the database. For either
958 MySQL or PostgreSQL, see the vendor's documentation. They have specific tools
959 that check and repair databases.
961 Assuming the above does not resolve the problem, you will need to restore
962 or rebuild your catalog.
964 How do I restore my catalog?
966 If you have backed up your database nightly (as you should) and you
967 have made a bootstrap file, you can immediately load back your
968 database (or the ASCII SQL output). Make a copy of your current
969 database, then re-initialize it, by running the following scripts:
974 After re-initializing the database, you should be able to run
975 Bacula. If you now try to use the restore command, it will not
976 work because the database will be empty. However, you can manually
977 run a restore job and specify your bootstrap file. You do so
978 by entering the {bf run} command in the console and selecting the
979 restore job. If you are using the default bacula-dir.conf, this
980 Job will be named {\bf RestoreFiles}. Most likely it will prompt
981 you with something such as:
985 JobName: RestoreFiles
986 Bootstrap: /home/kern/bacula/working/restore.bsr
987 Where: /tmp/bacula-restores
992 When: 2005-07-10 17:33:40
995 OK to run? (yes/mod/no):
998 A number of the items will be different in your case. What you want to
999 do is: to use the mod option to change the Bootstrap to point to your
1000 saved bootstrap file; and to make sure all the other items such as
1001 Client, Storage, Catalog, and Where are correct. The FileSet is not
1002 used when you specify a bootstrap file. Once you have set all the
1003 correct values, run the Job and it will restore the backup of your
1004 database, which is most likely an ASCII dump.
1006 You will then need to follow the instructions for your
1007 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1008 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{_ChapterStart12} chapter of
1009 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1010 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1011 XXX Database sections).
1013 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1014 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make_bacula_tables} command, or
1015 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1019 If you did save your database but did not make a bootstrap file, then
1020 recovering the database is more difficult. You will probably need to
1021 use bextract to extract the backup copy. First you should locate the
1022 listing of the job report from the last catalog backup. It has
1023 important information that will allow you to quickly find your database
1024 file. For example, in the job report for the CatalogBackup shown below,
1025 the critical items are the Volume name(s), the Volume Session Id and the
1026 Volume Session Time. If you know those, you can easily restore your
1031 22-Apr 10:22 HeadMan: Start Backup JobId 7510,
1032 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0
1033 22-Apr 10:23 HeadMan: Bacula 1.37.14 (21Apr05): 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1035 Job: CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.00
1038 FileSet: "CatalogFile" 2003-04-10 01:24:01
1041 Start time: 22-Apr-2005 10:21:00
1042 End time: 22-Apr-2005 10:23:06
1045 FD Bytes Written: 210,739,395
1046 SD Bytes Written: 210,739,521
1048 Software Compression: None
1049 Volume name(s): DLT-22Apr05
1050 Volume Session Id: 11
1051 Volume Session Time: 1114075126
1052 Last Volume Bytes: 1,428,240,465
1053 Non-fatal FD errors: 0
1055 FD termination status: OK
1056 SD termination status: OK
1057 Termination: Backup OK
1062 From the above information, you can manually create a bootstrap file,
1063 and then follow the instructions given above for restoring your database.
1064 A reconstructed bootstrap file for the above backup Job would look
1069 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1071 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1076 Where we have inserted the Volume name, Volume Session Id, and Volume
1077 Session Time that correspond to the values in the job report. We've also
1078 used a FileIndex of one, which will always be the case providing that
1079 there was only one file backed up in the job.
1081 The disadvantage of this bootstrap file compared to what is created when
1082 you ask for one to be written, is that there is no File and Block
1083 specified, so the restore code must search all data in the Volume to find
1084 the requested file. A fully specified bootstrap file would have the File
1085 and Blocks specified as follows:
1089 Volume="DLT-22Apr05"
1091 VolSessionTime=1114075126
1098 Once you have restored the ASCII dump of the database,
1099 you will then to follow the instructions for your
1100 database type to recreate the database from the ASCII backup file.
1101 See the \ilink {Catalog Maintenance}{_ChapterStart12} chapter of
1102 this manual for examples of the command needed to restore a
1103 database from an ASCII dump (they are shown in the Compacting Your
1104 XXX Database sections).
1106 Also, please note that after you restore your database from an ASCII
1107 backup, you do NOT want to do a {\bf make_bacula_tables} command, or
1108 you will probably erase your newly restored database tables.
1112 I try to restore the last known good full backup by specifying
1113 item 3 on the restore menu then the JobId to restore. Bacula
1121 and restores nothing.
1123 Most likely the File records were pruned from the database either due
1124 to the File Retention period expiring or by explicitly purging the
1125 Job. By using the "llist jobid=nn" command, you can obtain all the
1126 important information about the job:
1131 Job: save.2005-12-05_18.27.33
1139 SchedTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:32
1140 StartTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:35
1141 EndTime: 2005-12-05 18:27:37
1142 JobTDate: 1133803657
1144 VolSessionTime: 1133803624
1151 FileSet.FileSet: BackupSet
1155 Then you can find the Volume(s) used by doing:
1159 select VolumeName from JobMedia,Media where JobId=1 and JobMedia.MediaId=Media.MediaId;
1162 Finally, you can create a bootstrap file as described in the previous
1163 problem above using this information.
1165 If you are using Bacula version 1.38.0 or greater, when you select
1166 item 3 from the menu and enter the JobId, it will ask you if
1167 you would like to restore all the files in the job, and it will
1168 collect the above information and write the bootstrap file for
1172 You don't have a bootstrap file, and you don't have the Job report for
1173 the backup of your database, but you did backup the database, and you
1174 know the Volume to which it was backed up.
1177 Use {\bf bls} to indicate where it is on the tape. For example:
1181 ./bls -j -V DLT-22Apr05 /dev/nst0
1184 Might produce the following output:
1187 bls: butil.c:258 Using device: "/dev/nst0" for reading.
1188 21-Jul 18:34 bls: Ready to read from volume "DLT-22Apr05" on device "DLTDrive"
1190 Volume Record: File:blk=0:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126 JobId=0 DataLen=164
1192 Begin Job Session Record: File:blk=118:0 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1194 Job=CatalogBackup.2005-04-22_01.10.0 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:21:00 Level=F Type=B
1195 End Job Session Record: File:blk=118:4053 SessId=11 SessTime=1114075126
1197 Date=22-Apr-2005 10:23:06 Level=F Type=B Files=1 Bytes=210,739,395 Errors=0
1200 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of Volume at file 201 on device "DLTDrive" (/dev/nst0),
1201 Volume "DLT-22Apr05"
1202 21-Jul 18:34 bls: End of all volumes.
1205 Of course, there will be many more records printed, but we have indicated
1206 the essential lines of output. From the information on the Begin Job and End
1207 Job Session Records, you can reconstruct a bootstrap file such as the one
1211 How can I find where a file is stored.
1213 Normally, it is not necessary, you just use the {\bf restore} command to
1214 restore the most recently saved version (menu option 5), or a version
1215 saved before a given date (menu option 8). If you know the JobId of the
1216 job in which it was saved, you can use menu option 3 to enter that JobId.
1218 If you would like to know the JobId where a file was saved, select
1219 restore menu option 2.
1221 You can also use the {\bf query} command to find information such as:
1227 2: List up to 20 places where a File is saved regardless of the directory:
1228 3: List where the most recent copies of a file are saved:
1229 4: List last 20 Full Backups for a Client:
1230 5: List all backups for a Client after a specified time
1231 6: List all backups for a Client
1232 7: List Volume Attributes for a selected Volume:
1233 8: List Volumes used by selected JobId:
1234 9: List Volumes to Restore All Files:
1235 10: List Pool Attributes for a selected Pool:
1236 11: List total files/bytes by Job:
1237 12: List total files/bytes by Volume:
1238 13: List Files for a selected JobId:
1239 14: List Jobs stored in a selected MediaId:
1240 15: List Jobs stored for a given Volume name:
1241 Choose a query (1-15):