Table level incremental restore with nzrestore

Diagnosing The Problem

If you are restoring the whole database, you can restore each backup one at a time, so long as you keep the database locked. Locked means changes are not permitted, but selects are, so you can check if the rows/tables/etc you were expecting have been restored, and if not, restore some more incremental backups:

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/full -lockdb 1
-increment 1
Restore of increment 1 from backupset 2014102453439 to database
'iii' committed.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzsql iii -c "select * from DROPPED_TABLE ;"
NOTICE: Database 'III' is available for read-only
C1
----
3
(1 row)

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/cumulative -lockdb 1
-increment next
Restore of increment 2 from backupset 20141024053439 to database
'iii' committed.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ dbc "select * from DROPPED_TABLE order by c1;"
NOTICE: Database 'III' is available for read-only
C1
----
3
17
(2 rows)

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/differential -lockdb 1
-increment rest
Restore of increment 3 from backupset 2014102453439 to database
'iii' committed.
Restore of increment 4 from backupset 2014102453439 to database
'iii' committed.
Restore of increment 5 from backupset 2014102453439 to database
'iii' committed.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ dbc "select * from DROPPED_TABLE order by c1;"
NOTICE: Database 'III' is available for read-only
C1
----
3
17
18
19
20
(5 rows)

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -unlockdb

[nz@NZ-H1]$ dbc "select * from DROPPED_TABLE order by c1;"
C1
----
3
17
18
19
20
(5 rows)

However, if you are restoring specific tables, you will get errors from trying to restore incremental backups with different nzrestore commands. The -increment, -lockdb and -tables command line options are mutually exclusive:

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/full  -increment 1
    -tables ONEROW -lockdb 1
  Error: -lockdb only valid in restore operations that can be followed
    by NEXT or REST.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/full  -increment 1
    -tables ONEROW
  Restore of increment 1 from backupset 20141024053439 to database 'iii'
    committed.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/cumulative -increment next
    -tables ONEROW
Error: -increment NEXT/REST not valid with -contents, -noData, or -tables.

[nz@NZ-H1]$ nzrestore -db iii -dir /tmp/iii/cumulative -increment 2 -tables ONEROW
Error: Invalid backupset 20141024053439, first increment must be a full backup.