AVVI Granular Restore

[KentB]

I have a policy for VM's that performs a full B2D on weekends and duplicates this backup set to tape for offsite storage.  The policy also includes nightly differential backups.

I am trying to perform a granular restore from a differential backup.  The job is requesting the full backup as expected, but it is requesting the backup set that has been duplicated to tape and is now offsite.  The whole purpose of the duplication is to keep a set onsite for restores.

Can I specify the full backup set to use for the restore?

Failing that, should I perform the full backup to tape and then duplicate to disk?  Does the order matter (i.e. does the granular restore just look for the last full backup)?

Thanks,

[Colin_Weaver]

Is the differential set you are restoring from on disk or on tape?

Did the differential backup overwrite the full on disk because you duplicated the full to tape so thought you did not need it?

Note I am trying ot setup a test environmentt for somethign realted to this - but due to other usage of my test servers there will be a delay on these planned tests

C.

[KentB]

Is the differential set you are restoring from on disk or on tape?
It is on tape.

Did the differential backup overwrite the full on disk because you duplicated the full to tape so thought you did not need it?
The full on disk is still there.

[KentB]

I did some testing to see if the order of the backup/duplicate makes a difference.

Test 1:
B2D then duplicate to tape => The restore from a differential backup requested the backup set that was on tape.  On the restore selection screen, the B2D backup set is listed as the most recent.

Test 2:
B2D then duplicate to tape => The restore from a differential backup requested the backup set that was on tape.  On the restore selection screen, the B2T backup set is listed as the most recent.

Test 3:
B2T then duplicate to disk => The restore from a differential backup requested the backup set that was on tape.  On the restore selection screen, the B2T backup set is listed as the most recent.

Test 4:
B2T then duplicate to disk => The restore from a differential backup requested the backup set that was on tape.  On the restore selection screen, the B2D backup set is listed as the most recent.

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I have not done anymore testing so I don't know if it will ever ask for the disk based backup set.  So, unless an answer is found, I am going to abandon the two stage backup.

[Colin_Weaver]

Apart from the visible order of your restore selections (which I assume is not manually controlled by you or if it is controleld by you hwo did you do it?), what is the difference between Test 1 and Test 2 (and for the matter between Test 3 and Test 4)

[KentB]

Sorry for the late reply; holidays ...

There were no differences.  I ran each test job twice.  While trying to figure this out, I noticed that the visible order of the backup sets seemed to vary, so I ran each test job twice to see if the order made a difference for the restore.  And if the order was random or something controllable by the order of the duplication.  As for why the visible order for each of the tests actually changed on the second run, your guess is probably better than mine.

So a better way to classify the tests:

Test 1 => Test 1 - run 1

Test 2 => Test 1 - run 2

Test 3 => Test 2 - run 1

Test 4 => Test 2 - run 2
 

[Colin_Weaver]

I think you may have to log a formal technical support case as this looks liek it needs more in depth investigation than we can really do on the forums.