Restore single files from host backup (pxar) on cli non-interactive

[l_fish]

Hi!

I've set up a Proxmox backup server instance (pbs1) for testing and created a host backup from another maschine (server1) with the following command:

server1# proxmox-backup-client backup root.pxar:/ --repository user1@pbs@pbs1:datastore1

This works fine, snapshots are created as expected. Now I want to restore single files from a snapshot. I know, that I could use the GUI to download single files or an interactive restore with proxmox-backup-client catalog shell ... but I need a non-interactive (scriptable) way to restore specific files. Something like:

proxmox-backup-client restore host/server1/2020-09-01T08:49:06Z root.pxar FILE(S)_TO_RESTORE /target/path/

where FILE(S)_TO_RESTORE would be a pattern / glob of the files to restore.

Maybe I missed something. Is there any solution for this?


Best regards,
Lars

 

[dylanw]

Hi Lars,

Currently, the best way I can think of to achieve what you described (i.e. a scriptable way to restore single files from a pxar archive), would be to use proxmox-backup-client mount (see Mounting of archives via fuse).
Note: the command currently has a bug, which has rendered it unusable. However, I have submitted a patch that fixes it, so I will report back as soon as it's been integrated!
In the meantime, if you would prefer something closer to what you described, you can also submit a feature request over at bugzilla.

 

[l_fish]

Hi dylanw,

I wasn't aware of the mount command, thank you for that hint! It will be interesting to see how performance is on very large backups. I will try it as soon as it is usable again.

A single files restore command would be a bit more handy than mounting and IMHO it is a functionality one would expect from a backup solution especially since proxmox-backup-client supports it already interactively via the cataloge shell command. So therefore i opened a feature request: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2996

 

[dylanw]

Hi Lars,

Just writing to let you know that the mount option, mentioned in my previous message is working again.

 

[l_fish]

Hi dylanw,

thats good news, thank you! I can confirm: mount option is working now (with proxmox-backup-client 0.8.16) and it is fast enough for my use cases. So I will be using that now.

 

[Brian Read]

Hi Lars,

Currently, the best way I can think of to achieve what you described (i.e. a scriptable way to restore single files from a pxar archive), would be to use proxmox-backup-client mount (see Mounting of archives via fuse).
Note: the command currently has a bug, which has rendered it unusable. However, I have submitted a patch that fixes it, so I will report back as soon as it's been integrated!
In the meantime, if you would prefer something closer to what you described, you can also submit a feature request over at bugzilla.

That link to the docs for the fuse mounting is not working - have you got a better one?

 

[dylanw]

Yeah we restructured the documentation since posting it.
Here's the current link: https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/backup-client.html#mounting-of-archives-via-fuse

 

[Brian Read]

aha - thanks

proxmox-backup-client mount host/backup-client/2020-01-29T11:29:22Z root.pxar /mnt/mountpoint

Could you expand the description of this command? It is not clear to me if "host" and "backup-client" are part of the snapshot name or needs the host and the "backup-client" in the snapshot reference.

 

[dylanw]

You can find more information on that in the terminology section of the docs [1]. Here "host" is the backup type, "backup-client" is the hostname of the system, and the time relates to the backup time. This is how snapshots are referenced in PBS.

[1] https://pbs.proxmox.com/docs/terminology.html#backup-snapshot

 

[Brian Read]

Ok, thanks that is very useful, I am getting failure when I try it, but I'll post in a new thread...

 

[ylijumala]

I suppose scriptable restore is not implemented yet. At least restore command does not allow for patterns etc.

I came up with the following Expect script which should be adaptable with minor modifications to this purpose until this feature is available in the client itself. Run like this: restore.exp <snapshot> <archive.pxar> <file pattern> <restore directory path>

#!/usr/bin/expect -f

set force_conservative 1;
if {$force_conservative} {
    set send_slow {1 .1}
    proc send {ignore arg} {
        sleep .1
        exp_send -s -- $arg
    }
}

global OPTS;
set OPTS(snap)  [lindex $argv 0];
set OPTS(arch)  [lindex $argv 1];
set OPTS(files) [lindex $argv 2];
set OPTS(dir)   [lindex $argv 3];
set prompt {pxar:\/ > };
set timeout -1;

spawn proxmox-backup-client shell $OPTS(snap) $OPTS(arch)
match_max 100000
expect -exact "Starting interactive shell\r"
expect -re $prompt
send -- "find $OPTS(files) --select\r"
expect -re $prompt
send -- "restore-selected $OPTS(dir)\r"
expect -re $prompt
send -- "exit\r"
expect eof