Topics | How To | Examples | Support | Related Topics
Control the Browse Time Interval
Establish the Page Size for a Browse
Browse Using a Specific MediaAgent
Browse Multiple Versions of a File or Object
Browse Data Associated with Specific Jobs
Full Backup Transparent Browse
Global Browse/Search/Recovery Options
Browse Only Volumes (Image Level)
The option to browse the data obtained by data protection operations provides the facility to view and if necessary, selectively restore/recover the data objects (files/folder/directories/database objects, etc.) that were backed up. This option is especially useful to search for specific data object(s), including a specific version.
The browse option can be invoked from the client, agent, instance, backup set, or subclient level depending on the functionality of a given agent. This helps to narrow the search to a specific part of the data.
Depending on the agent, there are several additional options to customize your browse, including:
After selecting the necessary browse options, the browse window provides a list of data objects that meets the specified criteria. This window also provides the capability to select multiple or specific data object(s) that you wish to restore/recover.
Note that most of the Unicode / International characters are automatically displayed in the browse window. If these characters are not displayed, make sure that the necessary fonts or other software required to display these characters are installed on the computer in which the CommCell Console is displayed. For example, if you run the CommCell Console as a web-based application, make sure that the necessary fonts or other software required to display the characters are installed on the local computer from which the Console is run.
If necessary, you can also perform the following operations in the browse window, depending on whether the agent supports the operation:
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The following agents have different behavior due to the nature of their data and operations. See the appropriate topic for more information.
Except for the above agents controlling the browse time interval works as follows:
The browse operation provides you with two options, Exclude Data Before and Browse Data Before, which allow you to control the start and end points of the browse retrieval process. These features can be useful if you need to restore/recover:
| If you want to browse and restore previous versions of a data object only, you may find it more convenient to use the Version option as described in Browsing Multiple Versions of a File or Object. |
Although both options have their uses, the Browse Data Before option is generally used far more often than the Exclude Data Before option. Users are usually more interested in restoring the most recent data up to some date threshold than they are in omitting data from before some given date.
The Exclude Data Before option identifies the starting point of the index search and the Browse Data Before option identifies the ending point.
The following figure shows how the search process is affected by the Exclude Data Before and Browse Data Before options.
As shown in the figure, the Browse Data Before date, when specified alone, causes the search process to begin with the most recent full backup and end with the backup that occurred just prior to the specified date. The Exclude Data Before date, when specified alone, causes the search process to begin with either the backup that occurred just after the specified date and end with the most recent backup.
You can also use the Browse Data Before and Exclude Data Before options together to limit the search boundaries on both ends.
The specifications for both the Browse Data Before and Exclude Data Before options include not only the date, but the time-of-day (i.e., hours and minutes) as well.
Specifying the time is necessary when isolating a backup on a date on which two or more backups occurred. (Note that this condition can occur even if backups are scheduled only once a day. For example, someone may have launched a backup using the Run Immediately option in addition to a scheduled backup. Also, depending on the size of a backup and the time it is scheduled to begin, a backup can start on one date and complete on the next, since the backup need only span 12:00 midnight.)
In determining whether to include a backup in a search, the system uses the time that a backup completes. The Exclude Data Before option causes the system to begin its search on the backup that completed after the specified date and time, unless it encounters a full backup first. The Browse Data Before option causes the system to end its browse search using the most recent backup that completed before the specified date and time.
The following figure shows the minimum and maximum times that can be given for the Browse Data Before and Exclude Data Before options in order to define the search boundaries as shown. Notice that the point of delineation is the backup completion time, 2:25am in this case.
In the browses described previously, the searches are bounded by the most recent full backup. There may be times, however, when you want to browse data that is older than the most recent full backup. One way of accessing that data is to specify a Browse Data Before date that pre-dates the full backup. Remember, the Browse Data Before date establishes the ending point of the search. Consequently, using a Browse Data Before date that pre-dates the most recent full backup starts the search in the previous full backup cycle. This is only valid of course if the data in that full backup cycle has not expired.
The following illustration demonstrates the use of the Browse Data Before option to access data that was backed prior to the most recent full backup. Other searches including the default are shown for comparative purposes.
This figure shows that the:
The illustration shows the search boundaries that would be in effect if the date and time specified preceded the completion of the 5/10 backup. The search starts with the 5/9 backup and is bounded by the next most recent full backup.
Image browse displays the structure of the entity as it existed as of some specified time. An image restore operation restores the data or some specified portion thereof. (Remember, the two operations - browse, restore - are the same except that a restore returns the actual data while a browse displays only the structure.)
When you browse or restore data in the image mode, the system by default returns the requested data based on the latest image available. This is usually the information that most users are interested in. The system does this by using the current date and time as the effective date.
The following examples illustrate data retrieval:
Example 2 - Public Folder and Mailbox Example
Example 3 - Directory/Container Example
The image mode (i.e., searching through the current full backup cycle) may not meet your needs in all circumstances. It can only restore the latest version of an entity (i.e. file/directory/database/public folder/mailbox/folder/message). Further, if the requested entity was deleted before the most recent full backup, the default mode of operation cannot find the data.
In such situations, use either the no-image mode or the other browse capabilities provided by the system to control the search and retrieval process.
The no-image browse operation is useful for retrieving data that may have been deleted at some unknown time or retrieving a previous backup version of a data object. Rather than returning an image of the specified data object, a no-image browse returns all data objects that have existed, whether currently present or not, since the full backup of the specified backup cycle.
The no-image browse/restore is more inclusive than the image form of the operation. However, it is not suitable for all situations. Use the default image operation if you want to restore an entity to the state in which it existed as of a specified time. Use the no-image option if you do not need to preserve the structure of an entity.
The following examples illustrate no-image browse:
| The Type column in the browse window indicates whether a data object has been deleted. Note, however, that the type column is not supported by all Agents. |
As part of the default browse operation, the system allows you to browse and recover previously backed up/archived versions of a data object. You can access this feature by using the View All Versions option. The system responds by displaying the date-stamped versions of the selected entities that are available for recovery. You then select the version you want and recover it.
The following example demonstrates the use of this feature.
A default image browse of this entity returns:
In this example for iDataAgents, using the View All Versions option we can browse and restore any version of these files back to the 5/10 full backup. For example, for File A, we can restore the 5/10, 5/11, and 5/13 versions. Note that this feature is available only for individual data objects. It cannot be used to restore some previous version of a directory/container. If you need to restore a directory or container to some prior state, use the Browse Data Before and Exclude Data Before options as described in Controlling_the_Browse_Time_Interval.
When you restore all file versions simultaneously, the restore operation automatically appends a different number to the file name (for example: file,1.txt; file,2.txt; where "1" is the most recent version, "2" is the next recent version, etc.) so that each version remains unique. If the destination volume does not have the long namespace installed, the naming of these files will vary according to the available namespace.
File Archiver Agents also support the View All Versions option to browse and recover different versions of archived files. For these agents, if all versions of a file are recovered then the original file will remain a stub file and not be recovered. Upon recovery, the system appends a unique number to the file name (as mentioned above) to ensure that different versions of a file residing in the same location have a unique name.
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For the SharePoint Document iDataAgent, the View All Versions window in
the Backup Data Browse has different functionality.
• Versions of the List Items and documents backed up with option “Backup Latest Version” selected will only show the latest version of the object in the “View All Versions” window. To restore a past version of an object, you must perform a browse back in time. • Versions of the List Items and documents backed up with option “Backup All Versions” selected will display all backed up versions in the “View All Versions” window. |
When the properties of a file are changed, such as permissions, but not its contents, while the file will be backed up with the next incremental or differential backup, the View All Versions option will only display the latest version of the file.
File and NDS object
versions have slightly different meanings due to the differences between File System and NDS
backups.
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For Indexing based agents, you can perform a browse from the subclient level. See Browse Data - Support for a list of supported agents.
When the browse is initiated from the subclient, the specific data backed up by the associated subclient is available for browse and restore. This may be useful for troubleshooting and restoring purposes. Use the following steps to initiate a browse operation from the subclient :
You can browse and restore data associated with specific backup jobs. You can do this from the backup history window.
The find feature allows you to search the data protection archives for a given file or directory name or name pattern. Because find supports the capability of searching multiple indexes, unlike browse, you can search beyond the last full backup (or new index) as long as the data resides on an index that exists within the retention period. The find feature is accessible as a right-click option on the browse window, and for supported agents a non-browse find is available from the All Tasks menu. Depending on the agent, the Find option is accessible from either the backup set or archive set level, and for Exchange Compliance Archiver it is accessible from the agent level.
The multiple index (multi-cycle) find is activated when you select the Specify a Browse Time option in the Browse Options dialog box, and configure the Advanced Browse Options to Exclude Data Before a specific time. For more information, see Find a File/Directory/Object.
For Active Directory iDataAgent, the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) format should be used to find an object. For example, if you want to find the object "PIT-10001", which is in OU= PIT-Users and domain=Earth.loc; then the format would be CN= PIT-10001 at the location OU=PIT-Users, DC=Earth, DC=loc.
For information on the available criteria that can be used to refine the find operation, see Search Criteria.
The following list provides details of supported wildcard characters:
In addition to Find operation, you can also search the content of messages, attachments, files and/or documents. However, to do this, the data need to be content indexed. Content Indexing the data enables you to search the data based on various criteria. You can perform content indexing on both protected/archived data as well as file server/desktop data.
In order to perform a content indexing and search operation, do the following:
For detailed information, see Configuration - Content Indexing and Search.
Once the configurations are done, run a content indexing operation. For detailed information , see Operations - Content indexing and Search.
The content indexed data can later be searched using the following method:
Search from Search Console
The searched data can be used for restore and other data discovery operations. For comprehensive information on performing search operations, see Data Discovery and Search.
Certain options for Browse and Recovery operations can be set globally, in that it will occur for all browse and recovery operations provided the option is enabled. Use the Control Panel from the Tools menu on the CommCell Console to set the global options. Options that can be set are as follows:
To set these options, see Configure Browse/Search/Recovery Options.
All database iDataAgents, except for Lotus Notes Database iDataAgent, capture state information for the database at backup time. In the event of system failure, it is critical for administrators to know the current version of the database and any service packs that were installed on the system. If the database is upgraded, the next backup that is run automatically detects the new version that was used during backup. This version is then refreshed in the instance Properties dialog box and for the SQL Server iDataAgent, it is displayed during a browse operation.
For the Image Level iDataAgent, you can restore files/folders and/or volumes. If you want to restore only volumes (i.e., perform a Volume Level Restore), select the Volume Level Browse option from the Browse Options dialog box before the restore. To restore only files/folders, select the File Level Browse option from the Browse Options dialog box.
For Oracle and Oracle RAC iDataAgents, when you browse for backup data, you can use the Table View option to view the database tables of each user in a tree view and select multiple tables to restore them to a destination location. The table view option can be used only for those backups for which the Enable Table Browse option was enabled in the SubClient Properties dialog. For more information, see Table Restores. Note that you can view and restore the database tables of only user-defined users.
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During a Browse operation, if one of the following error conditions occurs, an accurate problem description will be reported in the Browse window. This is extremely useful for troubleshooting.