Restoring data by using the web user interface

After you back up files and directories, you can use the IBM Storage Protect web user interface to restore the files and directories to the backup-archive client workstation.

Before you begin

Ensure that you are logged in to the web user interface. A backup must exist before you can restore data.

About this task

You can restore files and directories by browsing a file space, by searching for a file or directory, or by filtering the search results by specifying a range of backup dates. You can also specify options such as changing the destination for the restored items.

Only those files and directories that you have permission to access are visible in the web user interface.

Procedure

On the button bar in the web user interface, click Restore.
In the Backups pane, the file spaces that contain your backup versions on the IBM Storage Protect server are displayed.

Locate the file or directory that you want to restore by browsing the available file spaces or by searching for an object. You can use one of the following methods:

Method	Steps
By browsing a file space	Click a filespace name and browse the directories and subdirectories within the file space. You can also use the breadcrumbs to navigate to different directory levels.
By searching for files and directories	To search for a file or a group of files with similar names, specify a file name or a pattern to search on: To search for files without specifying options: Enter the search string in the search field. You can enter all or part of a file name. You can use wildcard characters in the search string. Use an asterisk () to represent zero, one, or multiple characters. Use the question mark (?) to represent a single character. Optional: Select a file space and browse to a directory in which to begin the search. If you do not specify a directory, the search operation extends across all file spaces and might take some time to complete. Click Search without options. To search for files and directories by specifying options: Enter the search string in the search field. You can enter all or part of a file or directory name. You can use wildcard characters in the search string. Use an asterisk () to represent zero, one, or multiple characters. Use the question mark (?) to represent a single character. Optional: Select a file space and browse to a directory in which to begin the search. If you do not specify a directory, the search operation is across all file spaces and might take some time to complete. Click Options to open the Search Options pane. To search for files, click Search for > files. To search for directories, click Search for > directories. To search for files within a range of backup dates, click Search for objects with backup date and specify a range of dates. You can use the date picker to select the start and end dates. The start date is the earliest backup date and the end date is the latest backup date to search on. You can also specify a single date for the end and start dates by double-clicking a date in the date picker. This action sets the start and end dates to the same date. This option is disabled if you are searching for directories. Click Search with Options to begin the search. The objects that match the criteria are displayed in the file list with their full path names and sizes. Restriction: You cannot search for files and directories in the same query. You can search for files within a date range and select the files to restore. Then, begin another query to search for directories within a date range, and select the directories to restore. For more information about the search function, see Tips about the search function.

Method

Steps

By browsing a file space

Click a filespace name and browse the directories and subdirectories within the file space. You can also use the breadcrumbs to navigate to different directory levels.

By searching for files and directories

To search for a file or a group of files with similar names, specify a file name or a pattern to search on:

To search for files without specifying options:
1. Enter the search string in the search field. You can enter all or part of a file name. You can use wildcard characters in the search string. Use an asterisk (*) to represent zero, one, or multiple characters. Use the question mark (?) to represent a single character.
2. Optional: Select a file space and browse to a directory in which to begin the search. If you do not specify a directory, the search operation extends across all file spaces and might take some time to complete.
3. Click Search without options.
To search for files and directories by specifying options:
1. Enter the search string in the search field. You can enter all or part of a file or directory name. You can use wildcard characters in the search string. Use an asterisk (*) to represent zero, one, or multiple characters. Use the question mark (?) to represent a single character.
2. Optional: Select a file space and browse to a directory in which to begin the search. If you do not specify a directory, the search operation is across all file spaces and might take some time to complete.
3. Click Options to open the Search Options pane.
4. To search for files, click Search for > files. To search for directories, click Search for > directories.
5. To search for files within a range of backup dates, click Search for objects with backup date and specify a range of dates. You can use the date picker to select the start and end dates. The start date is the earliest backup date and the end date is the latest backup date to search on.
  You can also specify a single date for the end and start dates by double-clicking a date in the date picker. This action sets the start and end dates to the same date.
  
  This option is disabled if you are searching for directories.
6. Click Search with Options to begin the search. The objects that match the criteria are displayed in the file list with their full path names and sizes.
Restriction: You cannot search for files and directories in the same query. You can search for files within a date range and select the files to restore. Then, begin another query to search for directories within a date range, and select the directories to restore.

For more information about the search function, see Tips about the search function.

Restriction: You cannot select an entire file space to restore. The web user interface is intended for smaller operations, such as restoring files and directories. To restore an entire file space, access the physical client workstation and use the backup-archive client command-line interface.

From the file list, select the objects to restore by clicking the arrow icon

that is associated with an object. For files, click the file name to show the available backup versions of the file, and click the arrow icon

for the version that you want to restore.

You can restore the following types of objects:

Table 1. Types of objects in the web user interface
Icon	Description
	File
	Directory
	Link, junction, or mount point You cannot navigate into a link, junction, or mount point object, but the object itself is processed. The content in the target directory that is linked to is not processed.
	IBM Storage Protect HSM for Windows or IBM Storage Protect for Space Management stub file (shown only in the Backup/Archive page) On the Restore and Retrieve pages, stub files are indicated by the file icon.

When you click a file name, the available backup versions of the file are shown. You can select the version that you want to restore.

Selected objects are added to the Restore List section. To remove an item from the Restore List section, click the delete icon that is associated with the item on the list.

You can continue to browse and select more files and directories by adding them to the Restore List section. However, to avoid conflicts, you cannot add the same item to the restore list more than once. If you duplicate an item, you are prompted to remove the existing item from the list or to cancel the operation.

For example, the \mydir\file.txt file was backed up to the IBM Storage Protect server. You add the file.txt file to the Restore List section. Then, you add the mydir directory to the Restore List section. The Conflict detected dialog is displayed and you are prompted to resolve the conflict.

In the Restore List section, restore the selected items by using one of the following options:
- By default, the items in the Restore List section are restored to their original locations. To begin the restore operation without specifying any restore options, click Restore.
  If a file or directory exists in the original location, the file or directory is not overwritten. The backup date is appended to the name of the restored object to differentiate it from the original object. For example, file1.txt exists in the original location. If the backup date for that file is 27 June 2021 at 17:49:47, the restored file name is file1.txt-2021-06-27-17-49-47.txt.
  
  If a directory exists in the original location, the restored content is placed into the destination directory. For example, on your file system, the /dir1/dir2 directory contains files file1, file2, and file3. When you restore file dir2/fileA to directory /dir1, the /dir1/dir2 directory will contain files file1, file2, file3, and fileA.
- To change the default behavior of the restore operation, click Options in the Restore List and specify one or more of the following options:
  - To restore items to an alternative location, specify the location where you want to place the restored items in the Alternate Location field. You can click Browse to browse to a destination on your client workstation or specify a directory.
    The alternative directory must be specified by using valid syntax for a directory path. The directory can be existing or new. If you specify a new directory, it is created during the restore operation. The path cannot be a network path.
    
    If you are restoring a directory to an alternative location, only the selected directory and all subdirectories are preserved in the new location, not the full path. If you added a file to the Restore List in the same operation, that file is also restored to the alternative location.
  - To overwrite the original file or directory in the restore destination, select Overwrite.
  - To restore only directories that were backed up before a specific date in the Restore List, specify a date in the Point in time restore for directories field.
  Click Restore to begin the restore operation.
Monitor the progress of the operation in the Tasks pane.
The task status is automatically refreshed every 5 seconds. You can click the twistie to expand a task to view its details.
If the task ended with the Failed status, a number is displayed in the Total objects failed field in the task details. Click the information icon in the Total objects failed field to view detailed information about any objects that were not processed successfully.

To cancel a task, click the icon.

When a task completes processing with the Success, Failed, or Canceled status, you can click the delete icon to remove the task from the Tasks pane. This action also removes the task from the database that stores the task information.

If a long-running task is in progress and you close the web user interface, or the web user interface times out after 30 minutes of inactivity, the task continues. When you log in to the web user interface later, the details of the task are available for review. All tasks are automatically removed 48 hours after completion, or when the backup-archive client web server is restarted.

Results

Tip: The following message is issued at the start of a restore operation if a restartable restore session is pending:

ANS5151S This node currently has a pending restartable restore session. The requested 
operation cannot complete until this session either completes or is canceled.

The restore operation cannot begin because the restartable restore session and the current operation affect the same file space. A restartable restore is a restore process that was interrupted due to a power outage or network failure. No further restore operations can begin until the restartable restore operation is completed or is canceled.

To cancel or restart the restartable restore operation, complete the following steps by using the backup-archive command-line client or the IBM Storage Protect administrative client:

Issue the query restore command to view a list of your restartable restore sessions in the IBM Storage Protect server database.
To cancel any unneeded restartable restore sessions, issue the cancel restore command. To restart a restore session at the point of interruption, issue the restart restore command.

For more information, see Restartable restore process.