Restore AFS files from the TSM backup

How to recover AFS files from the TSM backup

With a graphical user interface

  1. Log in to a Linux machine with AFS and get an AFS token. If you are an IPP user, you can log in to machine toks01.bc.rzg.mpg.de. Other Linux machines with AFS should also work.

  2. Start /afs/ipp/@sys/bin/adsm. You have to make sure to have your X11 display correctly set.

  3. Click on Restore on the upper right of the window.

  4. If you want to recover one file or a few files which you just lost, proceed to step 5.

  5. If you want to recover one file or a few files which you lost before the last backup (typically, before last night), then the file is probably still in the backup, but it is marked inactive. In this case, first you need to select from the top menu: View -> Display active/inactive files. Then proceed to step 5.

  6. Click on the + sign next to File level on the left hand side of the window, then open the folder and subfolder where the file(s) you lost were located.

  7. Mark the files you want to recover by clicking on the grey square to the left of the file name. You can also mark a whole folder.

  8. Click on the Restore button (on the top left). You must then specify the location where you want to restore the files to. (Do not just choose original location: it will not work because the original location refers to the temporary mount point of the volume at backup time, which you cannot access.) After that, click on OK and wait until the program finishes getting the files.

On the command line

  1. Log in to a Linux machine with AFS and get an AFS token.

  2. Start /afs/ipp/@sys/bin/adsmc

  3. Use TSM client commands to query and restore files, for example:

    query filespace                      # shows your backup mountpoint
query backup <path>                  # path = <mountpoint>/
query backup <path> -subdir=yes      # list your files recursively
restore <path> <new location>        # restore backup to specified location
restore -pick <path> <new location>  # pick from previous file versions

  4. For more details, options and examples, see the IBM documentation
    for performing incremental backups
    for quering backups
    for restoring backups.