File-level restore

Tivoli® Storage Manager for Virtual Environments provides a variety of configurations for performing file-level restore, instant restore, and disk / block device exposure.

Mount and export files with the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI

Use the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI Mount wizard to mount the backed up virtual machine disk and export the mounted virtual machine volumes to a user. The user connects to the exported volume from their local system and restores the files by copying them with a file manager application.

Go to the Restore window in the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI and click Restore Points in the header. After you select one or more restore points for one virtual machine in the table, click Mount to open the Mount wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard dialog.

Figure 1. Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments file-level restore operation for a Windows virtual machine.
Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments file-level restore operation for a Windows virtual machine.
In this file-level restore operation, a Windows virtual machine backup is selected and one (or more) snapshots are mounted as iSCSI devices to the Windows mount proxy system. The Recovery Agent mount shell provides the iSCSI targets that are connected to the iSCSI initiator on the Windows mount proxy system. The iSCSI disks are then connected. The drives and mounts are generated on the Windows mount proxy system. Optionally, a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share is created for the user. The user connects to that share and copies (restores) files to a local file system.
Figure 2. Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments file-level restore operation for a Linux virtual machine.
Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments file-level restore operation for a Linux virtual machine.
In this file-level restore operation, a Linux virtual machine backup is selected and one (or more) snapshots are mounted as iSCSI devices to the Linux mount proxy system. The Recovery Agent mount shell provides the iSCSI targets that are connected to the iSCSI initiator on the Linux mount proxy system. The Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI connects to the fsagent on the Windows mount proxy system. This Windows fsagent connects to the fsagent on the Linux mount proxy system to bring the iSCSI disks online and generate the required Logical Volume Managers (LVMs) and file systems. Optionally, a Network File System (NFS) share is created for the user. The user connects to that share and copies (restores) files to a local file system.

Previous versions of Tivoli Storage Manager for Virtual Environments delivered file-level restore function with the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent GUI. Although this function is still supported by the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent GUI, the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI Mount wizard is the preferred method.

Off-host file-level restore for Windows and for Linux

These configurations do not require the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent to be installed in each VM guest. Instead, an off-host Windows or Linux instance is responsible for file-level restore of multiple VMs. With this configuration, the mount process exposes a virtual volume from a selected disk partition.

A mount proxy node is associated with the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent. This mount proxy node is granted proxy authority to access the datacenter node (or datacenter nodes) where the snapshots are stored. When a snapshot is mounted to the off-host server, the virtual volume can be network-shared to make it accessible to the VM guest. Or, you can copy the files from the mounted volume to the VM guest by any file-sharing method.

The data paths for off-host file restores are illustrated in Figure 3 and Figure 4.

Figure 3. Off-host file-level restore for Windows
Off-host file-level restore for Windows
Figure 4. Off-host file-level restore for Linux
Off-host file-level restore for Linux

In-guest file-level restore and instant restore for Windows and for Linux

These configurations require Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent to be installed in each VM guest. The mount and instant restore processes are performed for a single partition from the backed up disk.

The mount proxy node is typically granted access only to the VM where it is running with the Tivoli Storage Manager backup-archive client dsmc set access command. The restore process is typically begun by a VMware user who logs in to the guest machine of the VM.

For these configurations, be sure to compare the specific VM guest operating system requirements with the supported levels of Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent. If a specific operating system is not supported, determine if the off-host disk / block device exposure configuration can also be used for file-level recovery. Instant restore can only be used within a VM guest for volumes that are not the operating system volume.

The data paths for in-guest file level restores are illustrated in Figure 5 and Figure 6. The data path for in-guest instant restore is illustrated in Figure 7 and Figure 8.

Figure 5. In-guest file-level restore for Windows
In-guest file-level restore for Linux
Figure 6. In-guest file-level restore for Linux
Off-host file-level restore for Windows
Figure 7. In-guest instant restore for Windows
In-guest instant restore for Windows
Figure 8. In-guest instant restore for Linux
In-guest instant restore for Linux

Off-host iSCSI target

This configuration exposes an iSCSI target from the Windows instance of the off-host Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent and manually uses an in-guest iSCSI initiator to access the disk snapshot. This configuration requires an iSCSI initiator to be installed within the VM guest. This approach exposes an iSCSI LUN, rather than the off-host file-level restore for Windows and Linux, which exposes an individual disk partition.

Use the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI Mount wizard or the Tivoli Storage Manager recovery agent GUI to accomplish this task.

In this configuration, the user specifies the VM guest iSCSI initiator name for the system where the iSCSI device is accessed. After a disk snapshot is mounted, it can be discovered and logged in to by using the iSCSI initiator in the VM guest.

If you back up a VM that contains GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks and want to mount the volume in the GPT disk, follow this procedure:
  1. Mount the GPT disk as an iSCSI target.
  2. Use the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator to log onto the target.
  3. Open the Windows Disk Management to find the disk and bring it online. You can then view the volume in the GPT disk.

The data path for off-host iSCSI target device exposure is illustrated in Figure 9.

Figure 9. Off-host iSCSI target
Off-host disk / block device exposure