Knowledge Base

Redirecting restored files on Linux systems

LiveVault enables you to restore Linux SQL files to another computer on your network. However, the computer to which you are restoring files must have a LiveVault agent running on it, and must have stored locally the same encryption key that the computer from which the data was backed up had. An agent computer can have encryption keys from multiple computers, but you must retrieve each of the keys individually. LiveVault does not support redirected restore to a mounted network drive.

When redirecting restored files to a different machine, the target machine and the source machine must have the same operating system.

Important:
Due to file system incompatibility, you cannot restore Windows to Linux, or Linux to Windows.

This article shows how to:

In addition, the article contains an example of redirected Linux restore so that you can understand the effect of preserving, or not preserving, directory structure.

Prerequisites

Before beginning this task, ensure you have the following:

  • Access to the encryption key password for the source computer, in order to obtain the source encryption key.
  • Access to the Backup Direct Server Vaulting Management Portal.

 

Restoring files to another computer

To restore Linux MySQL files to another computer on your network, proceed as follows.

Note:
The machine you want to restore to must have a local copy of the encryption key that the computer from which the data was backed up had. You cannot restore to this machine unless it has a copy of the exact encryption key of the computer from which the data was backed up.

  1. If you don't have a copy of the source computer encryption key, then obtain one as follows,
    1. On the computer to which you are restoring, run the lvregister.sh Configuration Wizard utility from usr\livevault\bin.
    2. Select option 4, Request Keys for Redirected Restore.
    3. Enter the user name and password for the customer to which that agent is provisioned. (lvregister.sh lists the available computers).

Important:
The list obtained through lvregister.sh does not indicate operating systems. You must determine whether the source computer has the same operating system as the target computer. 

  1. Type the number of the source computer you want, and enter the encryption key password for that computer. You need to have access to the password for the source computer in order to perform this task.
  2. Restart LiveVault.
  1. Return to the Backup Direct Server Vaulting Management Portal.
  2. From the Restore Request page, Options tab, tick the Redirect restored data to a different computer check box.
  3. From the menu, select the agent computer to which you want to restore the files, then click Next.

The Restore Request Confirmation page opens.

  1. Click Done.

The restore job is created and begins restoring according to the schedule.

 

Restoring files to a different directory, on the same computer

To restore Linux MySQL files to a different directory, on the same computer, proceed as follows.

  1. Tick the Redirect restored files to a different location check box.
  2. In the Path to restore to field, enter the path of the directory to which you want the files restored.
  3. To preserve the directory tree structure from which the files were backed up, select Preserve Directories. The directory structure must exist in the same form as it did when the files were backed up; if it is different, the backup directory structure is recreated, starting at the home directory.

Note:
If you select Don't preserve directories, then the files are restored at the directory you specify in the Path to restore to field. The directory tree is not preserved, all files are restored to the same directory, and directory and subdirectory names are restored as objects.
If you select Don't preserve directories, and don't specify a path to restore to, then the files are restored to the home directory.

 

Redirected Linux restore example

In this example, assume you choose the following files to restore:

  • /mydocs/presentations/sales1.txt
  • /mydocs/presentations/sales2.txt
  • /mydocs/collateral/datasheet.txt

Also assume you choose to redirect the files into the destination directory:

  • /common

 

The placement of the restored files depends on whether or not you choose to preserve the directory structure:

If you choose Preserve directories, the result is:

  • /common/mydocs/presentations/sales1.txt
  • /common/mydocs/presentations/sales2.txt
  • /common/mydocs/collateral/datasheet.txt

If you choose Don't preserve directories, the result is:

  • /common/sales1.txt
  • /common/sales2.txt
  • /common/datasheet.txt

 

Note that you must choose to either maintain the entire directory structure (which includes the original root directory), or none of the directory structure. You cannot restore an identical directory structure without increasing the depth of the directory structure in the destination location. For example, you cannot achieve the following result from this redirected restore example:

  • /common/presentations/sales1.txt
  • /common/presentations/sales2.txt
  • /common/collateral/datasheet.txt