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Restoring EBS snapshots
Updated over 9 months ago

Snapshots are incremental backups, which means that only the data blocks that have changed since your most recent snapshot will be backed up. Upon restoring a snapshot, the entire point-in-time copy is restored. When you delete a snapshot, only the data exclusive to that snapshot is eliminated.

You can choose one of the following approaches to restore a snapshot from Druva Cloud:


❗ Important

File Level Search and File Level Restore are currently not supported directly from Druva Cloud. You will first have to restore the AMI snapshot and then proceed with File Level Search on the new snapshot.


Restoring Snapshots as an Instance

Druva CloudRanger boots up an EC2 instance using predefined parameters and then attaches the snapshots to be restored as a volume to that instance.

To restore a snapshot as an instance:

  1. Log into your management console and navigate to Resources > EBS.

  2. Navigate to the Backups tab and select the snapshot that you wish to restore.


πŸ“ Note
​Set the Location filter to Druva Cloud to view all backups on Druva Cloud.


3. On the backup details page, click Restore. Alternatively, select the snapshot from the Backup page, and then click Restore.

4. On the Restore dialog, select the Restore as an Instance option to launch an instance from the snapshot.


The Restore as an instance page displays an overview of the instance, the snapshot Location & Security, as well as the associated Tags.

The latest available instance settings are pre-populated. Click the edit icon to modify the settings based on your business requirements:

Field

Description

General

Image ID

The ID of the associated AMI.

Name
​

By default, Druva CloudRanger displays the name of the original EC2 instance, and if unavailable, the instance ID is used as the name.
You can choose to modify the default instance name.

Architecture

Select the processor architecture for the instance, for example, i386.

Instance Type

Select an instance type of the restored EC2 instance. By default, Druva CloudRanger selects the original EC2 instance type.


πŸ“ Note
​Not all instance types are supported in all regions. If you run into issues with the restore, verify that the selected instances are supported for that region.


For more information, refer to the AWS documentation.

Block Device Mappings

The Device Name and IDof the Snapshot to be restored.
Use the add and delete icons to add or delete new devices and snapshot IDs.

Association

Backup

The associated snapshot name.

Resource

By default, this is the name of the original EC2 instance, and if unavailable, the instance ID is used as the name.

Associate As

Select A Copy of if the associated resource is a replica of the original instance.

Alternatively, Select A Replacement of if the associated resource is a replacement of the original instance.
If you select this option, you may choose to:

  • Add to the same backup policy of original resource: Select this option to add the restored instance to the original backup policy so it continues to be backed up based on the existing policy schedule.

  • Move backups from the original to the replaced instance: Selecting this option allows you to move the existing backups to the replacement so they continue to be listed under the new instance.

5. Click Next.

6. Review the Location & Security settings that are pre-populated. Click the edit icon to modify the settings, as applicable:

Field

Description

Location

Account

The Druva CloudRanger Account that the backed-up snapshot is associated with.

Region

The AWS Region where the backed-up snapshot is stored.

VPC

A virtual private cloud (VPC) where you want the restored EC2 instance to run.

Subnet

Subnet of the VPC where you want the restored EC2 instance to run.

Virtualization

Virtualization type for the restored EC2 instance.

Security

Key Name

The backup encryption target key for the EC2 instance.
If you plan on remotely connecting to the restored EC2 instance, select a key pair created in your account.

Instance Profile

Instance profile for the restored EC2 instance.

Security Groups

Security group for the restored EC2 instance.

7. Click Next.

8. Review the instance Tags. Tags act as metadata to help identify and organize your AWS resources. You can assign new key:value pairs to the restored instance:

  • Key: This section displays the tag keys that have been specified for the source EC2 instance or the AMI.

  • Value: The Value will depend on the Key specified.
    ​Key: Created by Policy; Value:New
    ​Key: Origin
    ; Value: Origin ID

9. Click Finish.

The restored snapshot volumes will now be available on the Restores page.
​

Restoring Snapshots to a Volume

Druva CloudRanger allows you can restore a snapshot to a new unattached EBS volume, in an Availability Zone of your choice.


πŸ“ Note
​When restoring a volume from an EBS snapshot, Druva CloudRanger restores the volume disk signature. However, if the original disk is attached to the EC2 instance. mounting a restored volume as an additional disk may trigger an error.

In such cases, AWS detects a conflict due to duplicate disk signatures when attempting to mount volumes using the same disk signature. The restored disk then appears as invalid on the OS of the EC2 Instance.As a workaround, mount the restored volume to another EC2 Instance to access the data.



To restore a snapshot to a volume:

  1. Log into your management console and navigate to Resources > EBS.

  2. Navigate to the Backups tab and select the snapshot that you wish to restore.


πŸ“ Note
​Set the Location filter to Druva Cloud to view all backups on Druva Cloud.


On the backup details page, click Restore. Alternatively, select the snapshot from the Backup page, and then click Restore.

3. On the Restore dialog, select the Restore as a volume option.

You may modify the volume settings and Tags based on your business requirements:

Field

Description

Account

The Druva CloudRanger Account that the backed-up snapshot is associated with.

Region

The AWS Region where the backed-up snapshot is stored.

Volume Name

Specify a name for the volume ( mandatory ).

Volume Size

The volume size in GB.
The value here must be greater than or equal to the backup data size of the snapshot.

Volume Type

Volume type, for example General Purpose SSD.
For more information, see Amazon EBS Volume Types.

Tags

Key

This section displays the tag keys that have been specified for the source EC2 instance or the AMI.
Tags act as metadata to help identify and organize your AWS resources.

Value

The Value will depend on the Key specified.
​Key: Created by Policy; Value: New
​Key: Origin; Value: Origin ID

4. Click Finish.

The restored snapshot volumes will now be available on the Restores page.
​

Restoring Point-in-time Backups with File Level Recovery

With the file-level recovery functionality, you can initiate a recovery instance within Druva’s environment and choose the files you want to recover.

This launches an instance and runs Druva's FLR agent, which virtually mounts the chosen point-in-time backup and serves a browsable view of files/folders to restore. Upon initiating a restore, the FLR instance zips the selected files into a single zip archive, which are accessible via the S3 bucket in your source AWS account.

Before you begin

​To enable this feature, you will need to update your AWS Access Role by deploying the latest CloudFormation template for each account in which you intend to set up schedules. For more information, see Update Existing AWS Access Roles in Druva.

Procedure

To initiate a file-level recovery:

  1. Log into your management console and navigate to Resources > EBS.

  2. Navigate to the Backups tab and select the snapshot that you wish to restore.


πŸ“ Note
​Set the Location filter to Druva Cloud to view all backups on Druva Cloud.


3. On the backup details page, click Restore. Alternatively, select the snapshot from the Backup page, and then click Restore.
​

4. On the Restore dialog, select File level recovery.

The restore once initiated launches an instance in Druva’s managed infrastructure.

5. Navigate to the browse view presented and select the file(s) to be restored.


πŸ“ Note
​Once initiated, the instance is created only with the selected files and folders, and the instance is discarded after 2 hours.


6. Navigate to your Jobs Restore page to track the restore job.

A link to the restored files is presented on the Restores tab, which will redirect you to the file location within the S3 bucket of your AWS account.


Once the instance becomes available, locate the archived files for downloading. You may also download a directory with one click using the download icons on the right, which will download the archive with a .zip extension.

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