Chapter 12. Restoring an XFS file system from backup
As a system administrator, you can use the xfsrestore utility to restore XFS backup created with the xfsdump utility and stored in a file or on a tape.
12.1. Features of restoring XFS from backup
The xfsrestore utility restores file systems from backups produced by xfsdump. The xfsrestore utility has two modes:
- The simple mode enables users to restore an entire file system from a level 0 dump. This is the default mode.
- The cumulative mode enables file system restoration from an incremental backup: that is, level 1 to level 9.
A unique session ID or session label identifies each backup. Restoring a backup from a tape containing multiple backups requires its corresponding session ID or label.
To extract, add, or delete specific files from a backup, enter the xfsrestore interactive mode. The interactive mode provides a set of commands to manipulate the backup files.
Additional resources
-
xfsrestore(8)man page on your system
12.2. Restoring an XFS file system from backup with xfsrestore
This procedure describes how to restore the content of an XFS file system from a file or tape backup.
Prerequisites
- A file or tape backup of XFS file systems, as described in Backing up an XFS file system.
- A storage device where you can restore the backup.
Procedure
The command to restore the backup varies depending on whether you are restoring from a full backup or an incremental one, or are restoring multiple backups from a single tape device:
# xfsrestore [-r] [-S session-id] [-L session-label] [-i] -f backup-location restoration-path-
Replace backup-location with the location of the backup. This can be a regular file, a tape drive, or a remote tape device. For example,
/backup-files/Data.xfsdumpfor a file or/dev/st0for a tape drive. -
Replace restoration-path with the path to the directory where you want to restore the file system. For example,
/mnt/data/. -
To restore a file system from an incremental (level 1 to level 9) backup, add the
-roption. To restore a backup from a tape device that contains multiple backups, specify the backup using the
-Sor-Loptions.The
-Soption lets you choose a backup by its session ID, while the-Loption lets you choose by the session label. To obtain the session ID and session labels, use thexfsrestore -Icommand.Replace session-id with the session ID of the backup. For example,
b74a3586-e52e-4a4a-8775-c3334fa8ea2c. Replace session-label with the session label of the backup. For example,my_backup_session_label.To use
xfsrestoreinteractively, use the-ioption.The interactive dialog begins after
xfsrestorefinishes reading the specified device. Available commands in the interactivexfsrestoreshell includecd,ls,add,delete, andextract; for a complete list of commands, use thehelpcommand.
-
Replace backup-location with the location of the backup. This can be a regular file, a tape drive, or a remote tape device. For example,
Example 12.1. Restoring Multiple XFS File Systems
To restore the XFS backup files and save their content into directories under
/mnt/:# xfsrestore -f /backup-files/boot.xfsdump /mnt/boot/ # xfsrestore -f /backup-files/data.xfsdump /mnt/data/
To restore from a tape device containing multiple backups, specify each backup by its session label or session ID:
# xfsrestore -L "backup_boot" -f /dev/st0 /mnt/boot/ # xfsrestore -S "45e9af35-efd2-4244-87bc-4762e476cbab" \ -f /dev/st0 /mnt/data/
Additional resources
-
xfsrestore(8)man page on your system
12.3. Informational messages when restoring an XFS backup from a tape
When restoring a backup from a tape with backups from multiple file systems, the xfsrestore utility might issue messages. The messages inform you whether a match of the requested backup has been found when xfsrestore examines each backup on the tape in sequential order. For example:
xfsrestore: preparing drive xfsrestore: examining media file 0 xfsrestore: inventory session uuid (8590224e-3c93-469c-a311-fc8f23029b2a) does not match the media header's session uuid (7eda9f86-f1e9-4dfd-b1d4-c50467912408) xfsrestore: examining media file 1 xfsrestore: inventory session uuid (8590224e-3c93-469c-a311-fc8f23029b2a) does not match the media header's session uuid (7eda9f86-f1e9-4dfd-b1d4-c50467912408) [...]
The informational messages keep appearing until the matching backup is found.
