About data recovery
In the event your data protection strategy fails, the product family enables several strategies for file-level recovery. The recovery approach depends on the protection strategy you used.
File recovery from Edge snapshots at the branch
When snapshots are taken at the branch using Windows VSS in conjunction with RHSP, each snapshot is available to the Windows host as a separate drive. In order to recover a file, browse to the drive associated with the desired snapshot, locate the file, and restore it.
File recovery from the backup application catalog file at the branch
When backups are taken at the branch using a backup application such as Symantec® NetBackup™ or IBM Tivoli® Storage Manager, you access and restore files directly from the backup server. We recommend that you restore the files to a different location in case you need to resort to the current files.
Recover individual files from a data center snapshot (virtual disk files)
To recover individual files from a storage array snapshot of a LUN containing virtual disk (VMDK) files, present the snapshot to a VMware ESX server, attach the VMDK to an existing VM running the same operating system (or an operating system that reads the file system used inside the VMDKs in question). If the snapshot is of a LUN containing VHD or VHDX virtual disk files from a datastore used by an Edge deployed on Hyper-V, present the snapshot to a Hyper-V server and attach the virtual disk accordingly. You can then browse the file system to retrieve the files stored inside the VM.
Recover individual files from a data center snapshot (individual files)
To recover individual files from a storage array snapshot of a LUN containing individual files, present the snapshot to a server running the same operating system (or an operating system that reads the file system used on the LUN). You can then browse the file system to retrieve the files.
File recovery from a backup application at the data center
You can back up snapshots taken at the data center with a backup application or through Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) dumps. In this case, file recovery remains unchanged from the existing workflow. Use the backup application to restore the file. You can send the file to the branch office location.
Alternatively, you can take the LUN offline from the branch office and inject the file directly into the LUN at the data center. However, we do not recommend this procedure because it requires taking the entire LUN down for the duration of the procedure.
File recovery from Windows VSS at the branch
You can enable Windows VSS and previous versions can also be enabled at the branch on a product LUN no matter which main backup option you implement. When using Windows VSS, you can directly access the drive, navigate to the previous version tab, and recover deleted, damaged or overwritten files.
Windows uses its default VSS software provider to back up the previous 64 versions of each file. In addition to restoring individual files to a previous version, VSS also provides the ability to restore an entire volume.
Consult Riverbed Support for guidance if you want to employ this strategy.