We have recently changed to a new Backup system, called Legato Networker Backup (also known as Solstice Backup). Users will usually only need to use this software on those (very rare!) occasions when they accidentally delete files they still wish to keep. The new backup suite allows users to retrieve these files for themselves, without recourse to Manchester Computing.
Files are generally backed up every night, so if a file is more than a day old we hopefully will have a backup copy of it. We keep backup copies of files for up to one calendar quarter, after which the tapes are overwritten and the backup copies are no longer available. The index files are only kept on-line for 1 month, however, so if you wish to retrieve a backup that is more than 1 month old, you will need to contact Manchester Computing to do this.
Legato Networker Backup is also used for restoring those files that were originally on the UniTree Archive system on the CS6400 service. These files will be available for retrieval until 31/10/97, after which they will be overwritten.
There are two interfaces for the system:
The command you type to invoke the GUI interface is:
nwrecover &
This presents you with a window, entitled 'Solstice Backup Recover'. By default, the 'directory tree' shown will be your MIDAS home directory, for example:
The process of recovering a file consists of three stages in general:
(a) Browse the index of files for the required file name(s). In practice, this means 'double clicking' on folders to view the directories and subdirectories. As with MS Windows "File Manager", the directories are displayed on the left-hand side of the screen and the files on the right-hand side.
(b) Once the file you wish to recover is displayed, you should Mark the file(s) for recovery by clicking in the little box to the left of the file name(s). It is also possible to mark directories (by clicking on the box next to the directory name) for recovery.
(c) Having marked the appropriate file(s), you then need to start the recovery by clicking on the Start button. The following screen will be displayed, asking you what you wish to do in the event of file name conflict (that is, you may have a file with the same name as one that is to be retrieved, and the system needs to know what you wish to do).
Once you have instructed the system what you wish to do, the following screen is displayed, telling you that the cartridge containing the data is being loaded. A message may appear saying that the requested files are not available on-line. This is nothing to worry about, it just means that the system is going to have to load up a different cartridge from the one that is currently on-line.
The recovery may take several minutes, as the robot has to locate the correct cartridge in the Digital Linear Tape (DLT) Library, load that cartridge and then spool to the correct location in order to retrieve the file(s). If you are recovering several files, they may of course be located on several different cartridges, and recovering these will obviously take longer.
When the file(s) have been successfully recovered, the following message is displayed in the 'Recover Status' window.
In the above window, one file was recovered successfully. Once you have received this 'recovery successful' message, you can click on the Cancel button to return to the main window. If you have finished recovering files, you can now exit from the program by selecting Exit from the File menu.
This interface also allows you to recover your files to a location other than from where they were deleted (that is, they can be recovered to another directory). You do this by selecting the Relocate option from the Options menu, which allows you to specify a different directory into which you can retrieve your file(s).
If you are marking several files in different directories for recovery, you can see all those marked by selecting Show Marked from the Mark menu before you Start the recovery.
It may be that you do not wish to retrieve the latest backup copy of your file, but an earlier version from before a specific date. In order to retrieve a file from an older version of the backup, you must first select the file. You do this by clicking on the little 'file' icon next to the file name (it goes dark when selected). The name of the file also appears at the top of the screen in the 'Selection' box. Once selected, you need to use the Versions command from the View menu. This presents you with a list of backups, taken on different dates, from which to choose. Mark the version you require by clicking on the 'Mark' box to the left of the version information, then select 'OK' when done. Proceed as normal.
There are fuller details given of this interface and its use available on-line by typing:
man nwrecover
If you are running on a standard Unix "line mode" interface (that is, without X-windows access) then it is still possible to recover commands using the Solstice recover command. The format of the command is:
recover
or recover [options] path_name
If you just specify recover, you are placed in an interactive session. The prompt changes to:
recover>
and the interface looks just like the normal UNIX file system. You can use commands such as ls, cd, pwd, etc., to move around the file system. In this manner, you move to the directory which contained the file(s) which you accidentally deleted and then you can list the 'backup' files by typing ls. Wildcards, etc., can be used in the usual manner.
When you can see the names of the file(s) you want to recover, you must add them to the recover list by typing:
add file_ids
You can now move to other locations and add other files to the recover list as required. To see the contents of the recover list at any time, just type:
list
When you are satisfied that all the files you wish to recover are in the list, type:
recover
to bring the files back on-line. When you have finished, type quit at the recover> prompt to return to UNIX.
(a) Example session using the line mode 'interactive' method.
Below is an example session of recovering the file pat2 from the directory pat. The instructions typed by our user are shown in bold:
CS6400_zzalsas> recover
recover: Using nsrhost (backup.mcc.ac.uk) as server for cs6400.mcc.ac.uk
recover: Current working directory is /home/cs6400a/zzalsas/
recover> cd pat
recover> ls
pat1 pat1a pat2
recover> add pat2
1 file(s) marked for recovery
recover> list
/home/cs6400a/zzalsas/pat/pat2 @ Fri Oct 25 09:31:34 1996
1 file(s) marked for recovery
recover> recover
Recovering 1 file into its original location
Total estimated disk space needed for recover is 304 KB.
Not all needed volumes are online (all offline):
cs6400_SB.0955
Proceed with recover command at this time? [y] y
Requesting 1 file, this may take a while...
./pat2
Received 1 file from NSR server 'cs6400'
recover> quit
CS6400_zzalsas>
(b) Recover a single file with known path name, using the line mode 'non-interactive' method.
If you are just recovering one file, and you know the path_name of that file, then you can recover it directly by using the -a option. Below is a recovery of the file pat1a, again from the subdirectory pat, initiated from the $HOME directory.
CS6400_zzalsas> recover a ./pat/pat1a
recover: Using nrshost (backup.mcc.ac.uk) as server for cs6400.mcc.ac.uk
Recovering 1 file into its original location
Total estimated disk space needed for recover is 304 KB.
Requesting 1 file, this may take a while...
./pat1a
Received 1 file from NSR server 'cs6400'
CS6400_zzalsas>
The file has been recovered ... let's check that it really is there.
CS6400_zzalsas> cd pat
CS6400_pat> ls
pat1 pat1a pat2
Both of the above examples have been fairly simple and straightforward. It is also possible to recover files to a different directory from the one they were originally in (using the -d option which specifies a destination directory). If working interactively, the relocate command is used instead.
You can force recovered files to overwrite any existing files by using the -f option if you are using a non-interactive command, or you can use the force command if working interactively. These options are described in detail in the man pages, type:
man recover
for details. It is possible to recover files other than the latest "backed up" version by using the versions and changetime commands if working interactively, or the -t option if working non-interactively. Again, you are referred to the on-line manual pages for fuller details of these commands and options.
User files which were on the 'old' UniTree archive on the CS6400 have been moved to this 'new' Legato Networker backup system. They will remain available until 31 October 1997, when they will be deleted. Owners of these files are requested either to delete those which are no longer required, or move those still needed before the above date.
In order to retrieve the files, start nwrecover as described in Section 2.1. The retrieval follows the same process as described in Section 2.1.1, except that, before selecting the files, the 'Browse Time' is altered to Friday, 1 November 1996. You do this by clicking on the Change menu item, followed by 'Browse Time ...'. You then select the date 1/11/96 (using the Previous button to change month, if necessary). Once selected, click on 'OK'.
Having done the above, click on the 'Selection' box and type:
/unitree/<your_userid>
where <your_userid> is your CS6400 userid. A list of your UniTree files should now appear. Select the files as detailed in Section 2.1.1 and proceed as usual.
The directory /unitree is a symbolic link to /work, and so, when the files are retrieved, they are retrieved into /work/<your_userid>.
Note
It is recommended that you create this directory yourself before starting the recovery process, if it does not already exist; thus:
mkdir /work/<your_userid>
nwrecover
The reason for this is that, if the Backup system creates it for you, it is created with only eXecute permission, and this does not allow you to list the contents of the directory. You can, however, copy the file(s) from there to another directory (for example, to your home directory) using:
cp /work/<userid>/<file-names> $HOME
Proceed as described in Section 2.2, but using the -t option to alter the 'Browse Time'. Note that the date given is in the form mm/dd/yy (see example below).
For example, suppose our user, abcdefg, has a UniTree-archived directory called, important-files. To retrieve this in a single line command, he would type:
recover -a -t 11/01/96 /unitree/abcdefg/important-files
The file will be recovered into the /work directory as:
/work/abcdefg/important-files
Once again, please follow the advise given in the Note in Section 3.1 above.
If you have any problems using this system, then please contact us.
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