Can I browse my server's recovery points from my pc?

[ebak]

Hi all,

I am using SSR2011 to backup files & folders from a Windows server.

The recovery points (.v2i files) are stored on a NAS which can be accessed not only from the server itself but also from client computers (access to the NAS is controlled by setting up proper user permission).

If a client computer user needs to recover just a few files, is there any way to let him browse the content of the recovery points and restore the files he needs? I am aware that he *could* ask the server admin to log on to the server, open the SSR2011 application, mount the recovery point as a drive and then share the drive to the user over the network.

In the old days one could use v2ibrowser.exe to browse recovery points from a client computer but it appears that this option has been removed.

Any ideas?

/ebak

[criley]

It's not clear if you are doing file & folder level backups or full volume-level backups - please clarify.

If full volume-level backups - yes, this can be done.

As long as the user has access to the files via windows, they can either mount the recovery point as a volume in windows or use the recovery point browser.

[ebak]

I am backing up full drives by selecting the recommended method when creating a new job.

Yes, the user can access the .v2i and .iv2i files via Windows Explorer.

I understand that when sitting in front of the server on which SSR2011 is installed, it is possible to mount the .v2i files as drives and then share them over the network. But how can the user access the content of the .v2i files from his own computer? Will he have to install the full SSR2011 on his computer in order to do this and, if so, does this require an additional license? Or is there some kind of free recovery point browser available for this purpose?

[criley]

SSR will need to be installed on the end user's machine in order to restore data / mount the recovery points.

Another option is to enable google search engine support. End users can then use Google Desktop to search for files inside recovery points. Please see the admin guide for more details.

[ebak]

Can SSR be installed on the user's machine without having to spend an addtional license? Will the solution you suggest work with the trial version only? I'd like to know before I advise my customer to do this.

You are right that the SSR admin guide's says that Google Desktop may be used to browse the files inside the recovery points. Howeverm, Google Desktop has not been available for download since September 2011 so this is not an option for me or my customer who do not have it installed already. Google's blog page confirms this: http://googledesktop.blogspot.dk/2011/09/google-desktop-update.html or http://desktop.google.com.

In the SSR 2011 software, there is still an option to enable Google Desktop searches, and I expect this to be removed in the new version, or, hopefully, top be replaced by something similar or better.

[criley]

I've just checked on this and the google search option is being removed from the next version of SSR.

You can install SSR into evaluation mode which gives you 60 days to trial/test things.

[mustard_man]

Requirement - permissions on the NAs to browse files and Desktop/ PC requiring same or higher version of Symantec System recovery .. hope that helps ..Mark this as resolved ?