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Restore an entire Source Volume


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I'm testing to restore a full backup from a mac laptop. I did successfully the backup (one warning only) and now I'm trying to restore.

 

What I did:

 - Full backup from a 10.6.8 laptop with all updates;

 - Formar the HDD, then reinstalled with same OS X and updates

 - I'm getting this for almost 2hours:

 

BTW, I'm monitoring the Mac HD and it has the same size within this 2 hours

post-46382-0-81018500-1428676230_thumb.png

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Yep that's it.

 

So my project is:

Backup a server

install parallels on a new (more recent) server

install a 10.6.8 on new image over parallels

create and mount one (or more) disk(s) for the restore on the image

restore the backup to the mounted disk (i'm at this stage)

reboot and select the disk for start (Crossing fingers for that to work)

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YES! Up and Running :-)

 

One note, Parallels won't let me run OS X not Server. So my first test was restoring a backup from a "simple" OS X, that could not be started. So again I tried with Server Edition and everything run smoothly :-D

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another nice feature fpr this restore would be if I can make differential restores, This is:

 

Every week I make a backup (differential), then I would like to make a week script to restore only this newer files. I think this is possible

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Retrospect does most of its work in "differential" mode. If it restores an "entire disk", which you have to do if you want the permissions restored, it will not re-copy data that is already there AND matches the meta data (permissions and others flags)

 

Try it. You'll still have to wait for Retro to restore the permissions, and if you have lots (millions) of files, that can take a long time, but it will do what you want, if I understand what that is.

 

(and yes, restoring a "live" Mac OS X system is not recommended. It could be made to work, in theory, but I would not trust the result, no matter what Retro did.)

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Hi iCompute. I'm afraid you aren't correct (see attached image). If i restore entire disk it will erase destination

 

So I'm doubtful between overwrite older or corresponding.

 

Another issue is when I try to automate restore (do a schedule) I cannot select last backup. I only have the option to select one on the list (that already is made)

post-46382-0-75429600-1430992742_thumb.png

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first off, if you want the permissions restored, and if you are restoring a boot volume, you *must* restore permissions, you have to use "restore entire volume".

 

Yes, I'm aware of that "warning". I think it is misleading, because it doesn't actually erase the volume.

 

The idea that Retro "erases" the target volume is that it will compare the desired result with the files on the disk, and it will delete any files that are not to be restored, add the files that are missing, and leave the ones that are already there alone. That's the moral equivalent of "erasing" the volume first, but that's not what it does.

 

Judging from my experience with this in retro 9+, mostly from the speed of operations, that is what it does - just like Retro 6, which did this really well.

 

I suggest you try it. Restore several gig of data, delete one file, add a spurious file, and then repeat the restore. It should go pretty fast, and delete the spurious file. It should go so fast that it is not credible that it actually deletes and re-restores all the files.

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I think I found a bug.

 

If you restore a volume to a client volume, Retro behaves as described above. only a small subset of the data is re-copied to the destination if the restore is repeated. The "permissions" take a while to re-set.

 

If you restore a volume to a local (firewire, direct attach) disk, all of the data is re-copied to the destination volume. Even if I run the same restore script again, with no changes to the destination volume, every file is re-copied to the destination. The setting of permissions still takes a while.

 

I only tried doing this with "restore entire volume"

 

Maybe this is fixed in v12?

 

I'm still running engine 11.5.3 on Mac OS X 10.8.5. Client is 11.5.2 on Mac OS X 10.7

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When you do a backup to a media set, the most recent backup (snapshot) of each volume is retained. The older "snaps" are kept on the media set, but you have to "retrieve" them to use them. That means that normally, the only backup that you "see" on a given media set is the most recent one. If what you want is to ony restore the "most recent" backup, this does just what you want. If you want access to the older "snaps", you need to take another step or two.

 

Check out the Media Set panel. Look at the "backups" tab, and the "retrieve…" button in the lower right.

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This may be a glitch I've seen in the console. Sometimes when setting up a new script, it will only offer you a very few backups to restore - as few as one. When this happens, I quit and re-start the console, and the backups appear, as they should.

 

I have found that any time the console is telling me something "odd", I restart the console (just quit and re-launch). 99/100 times, that fixes the problem. Last I saw on this forum, the console still has bugs when dealing with more than one engine at a time, confusing the two engines.

 

Hope this helps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

TY Lennart. No grooming.

 

The last issue i'm facing is that I need to make an automated restore of the last backup. So:

 

 - Backup server A at 10pm, ends at 11pm (let's suppose);

 - Restore (last) Backup to Server B at 01AM (next day)(I will give sufficient difference time for the A backup to finish) ;

 

What i'm facing is that the restore cannot be automatic, that is the message that shows. One note is that when I'm creating the script I don't have "last backup". I can only select an existing snapshot!

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TY Lennart. No grooming.

 

The last issue i'm facing is that I need to make an automated restore of the last backup. So:

 

 - Backup server A at 10pm, ends at 11pm (let's suppose);

 - Restore (last) Backup to Server B at 01AM (next day)(I will give sufficient difference time for the A backup to finish) ;

 

What i'm facing is that the restore cannot be automatic, that is the message that shows. One note is that when I'm creating the script I don't have "last backup". I can only select an existing snapshot!

Why do you have to do a "restore" to server B?

Try a "copy files" script from server A to Server B.

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Ok, that would be a nice approach. And the deleted files that we don't want/need? This is for a EmailServer (I have a new hw equipment ready in case of failure of the First A)

 

The restore script erase files that aren's on last backup...

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At least I have many years experience of Retrospect. :)

 

Page 133-134:

http://download.retrospect.com/docs/mac/v12/user_guide/Retrospect_Mac_User_Guide-EN.pdf

Overwrite entire volume replaces the entire contents of the destination volume or Favorite Folder with the selected files and folders from the source volume or Favorite Folder. Everything else on the destination volume is deleted. Retrospect saves time by not copying identical files, that is, files that share the same location, name, modification date and time, etc., that are already present on the destination. New files are added, and different versions of files already present on the destination are replaced by the files from the source, even if the file already present on the destination is newer.

 

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