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Restore deleted Placeholder (after moving)

Messner_Michi
Level 3

Hi,

Big problem.

After a sahre migration to an other partition, we also moved the placeholder using FSAutil.exe -pm ...

All worked, but unfortunately on the last robocopy /Mir was enabled so all shortcuts has been removed from the new partation. At the moment there are not placeholder shortcuts even on the old than on the new path.

What can I do ?

I tried to recreate the shortcuts using fsautil -c-f -s but not all shortcuts came back and a lot in a wrong path ?!?

A solution could be getting them back from our backup system (Veritas NET Backup). But how can I restore only the placeholder not that the wohle file will be recalled otherwhise the space on disk is not enough (archived files take about 700GB)

 

Thanks for supporting me

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Hi, 

EV only knows about the location where the items were archived from as it does not perform moved item updates for FSA.  The backup would be correct as it contains the valid location at the point of the backup.  The only way to get the items back to the location where they exist currently in the backup, as a PH file, is to move them manually from where EV recreates them with FSAUtility.   A move on the same volume will not cause a recall of the items. The recreate shortcut option does not allow you to target a new folder location and only goes to the original location.   

The other option would be to restore the data to the current location using the -t command, however this would restore full files and not the shortcuts.  The files would then have to be archived and converted to PH files using the archiving task.  

Regards, 

Patrick 

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12 REPLIES 12

plaudone1
Level 6
Employee

Hi Messner_Michi,

The PH files will only get restored to the original path they were archived from as FSA does not perfom moved item updates for shortcuts that are moved.  If a shortcut was moved from one folder to another on the same volume then the recreate/restore would go to the original location and not the current location.  If you were to look in the original location the files should be there since a -f was used to force the recreation.  

The only way to get the items back to the structure they were in during the migration you would need to move the items manaully or restore from backup.  Since the database should be updated with the new paths and archive point location you should not have any issues with the restore causing duplicate archive messages. 

 

Regards, 

Patrick 

Thanks for your answer,

could you please tell me how I perform a restore from the backup ? I tried that, the file was restored but compleatly with the full size on disk. As policy type for restore I have selected VMware. Are there some special settings to recover only the shortcut ? 

 

 

Hi,

If the shortcut was backed up it should restore as a shortcut unless something is causing the file to be recalled after it is restored.  This could be AV on the file server.  The file should be about 4K if it is a shortcut.  

If you could run a test restore to a folder on the file server with a Dtrace on the EVPlaceholderService process that would show if the file is being recalled after the restore.  The command line option in the following would be the best option - https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.TECH38122.

Regards,

Patrick 

Hi,

attached you can find the log, what is really strange, after restoring the files is having the icon of an archived file, but it has the full size, not only 4k like they have normaly

2017-05-22 17_31_13-svipcadmin11 - Remote Desktop Connection.png

2017-05-22 17_31_48-svipcadmin11 - Remote Desktop Connection.png

If the file is offline but full size then it needs to have the offline bit removed so that EV can interact with it properly.  Attributes are probably APO or PO when they should be APLO or PLO.  Support has a powersell script that can repair these so that they can be converted into proper placeholders.  

A backup/restore should not typically cause this issue and they may have been this way in the backup from the original location.  

Also, the following key should be updated so that the last entries have a ; in between instead of a , 

ExcludedExes   (SZ) EVPlaceholderService.exe;beremote.exe;MsMpEng.exe;explorer.exe,msseces.exe

Hello agin,

I have replaced the "," with ";" for the exclude registry, but still the same issue that the restore of the placeholder restores the complete file. I also see on the NetBackup that the size of the file is the complete one not the 4k of a shortcut.

bkp.png

What can I do ?

I cant restore everything with the full size I have not that much sapce free on disk

 

Hi, 

The registry setting was only a side note and will not resolve the issue.  Since the items are full size in the backup they need to be corrected on the target if they are offline and do not have EV reparse data.  

I have attached a powershell script that can be run to correct the issue.  Copy the file to the file server and open Powershell to the directory that contains the file.  Execute psa.ps1 and then enter the top folder in the path that needs to be checked...i.e E:\Share\folder1.  Type N to recall files as we only want to correct the PH files.  This will inspect the files to verify the state.  If they are offline, but do not contain EV information the offline bit will be removed.  

Once the script is complete you can ran the FSA task that targets this volume in shortcut only mode to convert all the items to shortcuts and recover space.  

Regards,

Patrick 

Hi Patrick,

thanks again for your support

I run the script with the following result

2017-05-23 15_03_36-svipcadmin11 - Remote Desktop Connection.png

The files are showing still offiline, I attached also the log of the script

2017-05-23 15_08_06-svipcadmin11 - Remote Desktop Connection.png

is this normal ?

in the mean time i startet the FSA in shortcut only mode to see what happens there

Hi,

has someone an idea what I could do ?

is it possible to push the archiving process ?  I mean that after my restore from netbackup i run the archiving process and immediately the shortcut will be created so that the space on disk will not ecnrease to much ? I repeat i have only 100GB of free space on that partition and about 700GB of archived data, so I cant just restore everything and wait a few days until all will be archived and removed from fileserver automatically

 

 

Hi, 

You can run FSA utility to recreate the PH files on the target.  You will need to use the force switch to overwrite any existing files.  NOTE: There is a potential for partial data loss here if the items have been retrieved and updated, but not re-archived.  The archived copy would replace the modified copy.  

The command would be the following and the -l 0(zero) logs errors and success returns: 

fsautility -c -s \\server\share\folder -f -l 0  

Regards,

Patrick 

Hi,

I tried this but the problem is that not all placeholder are in the right path

for ex. \01Installation\01Offers\... are replaced in \01Installationen\01Angebote

could be that the folder was renamed after archiving the files (for sure not in the last month) but maybe in the last year... if I look in the backup from last week (where everthing was OK) the folder name is \\01Installation\01Offers

is there a solution to get them back in the right folder ?

Hi, 

EV only knows about the location where the items were archived from as it does not perform moved item updates for FSA.  The backup would be correct as it contains the valid location at the point of the backup.  The only way to get the items back to the location where they exist currently in the backup, as a PH file, is to move them manually from where EV recreates them with FSAUtility.   A move on the same volume will not cause a recall of the items. The recreate shortcut option does not allow you to target a new folder location and only goes to the original location.   

The other option would be to restore the data to the current location using the -t command, however this would restore full files and not the shortcuts.  The files would then have to be archived and converted to PH files using the archiving task.  

Regards, 

Patrick