Lost that important file? Chances are we have a backup! The CAEDM WebRestore client is used for restoring files from the tape library system. You may restore files from your home directory or from group directories of which you are a member.
Contents
What is backed up, and what is available to restore
CAEDM backs up the entire J Drive and all group spaces every night. CAEDM does not backup group scratch space folders.
Three versions of every file
CAEDM stores, on tape, the last three versions of every file currently on the J Drive, or group space. Every night, the CAEDM backup server looks at every file stored on the J Drive and group space to see if they have changed. If a file is seen as updated, a new backup copy is made of this file and saved to tape. However, if the backup server already has 3 copies of this file, the oldest one will be discarded to make room for the newest revision. This way there will always be three copies of each file. This process of checking for new versions only happens once a night, so if multiple revisions of a file occur during the day, the backup server would not be aware of those mid-day changes.
If a file is changed 3 days in a row, a new copy will be backed up every night, 3 days in a row. At this point, the backup for that file would only "go back" three days. In this case, it would not be possible to restore a version of that file from 4 days ago, or a week ago, because the last three versions of this particular file are from the last three days. If a file is only changed once a year, then the backups for that specific file would "go back" 3 years. CAEDM simply keeps the last 3 versions of every "active" file on tape, regardless of how long they have been around.
What about when files get deleted?
Once the backup server sees that a file has been deleted from the J Drive or a group space, the backup system no longer considers this deleted file an "active" file. The backup server now keeps only the most recent copy of that file on tape for 120 days. The previous two versions of the deleted file are discarded. After 120 days, the backup server also discards the most recent version of that file and keeps no record of it.
Realize that the backup server only checks for changes in files over night, so if a file is deleted and re-created during the middle of the day, the backup system would not be aware that the file was ever deleted, it would just see that the file had been altered, so it would continue to keep 3 copies of that file.
Using WebRestore
Getting to WebRestore
- Select "Restore My Files" from the "Files" menu on the CAEDM website
- Select the location of your files.
- "Home Directory" for your own files, or the specific group directory for group files.
- It may take 2-3 minutes for the WebRestore system to load the list of files in the backup.
- Select the files or directories(up to 5) you wish to restore.
- Click "Submit" to begin restoring the files and/or directories.
Additional notes
- WebRestore will take about an hour to restore your files. You will recieve an email notification once the files have been restored.
- There is currently a maximum of 5 files/directories, or 4GB which may be downloaded during a restore session.
- Your files will be restored to your J:/ Drive or group space in a folder named Caedm_Restored_Files.
- Each file has a few attributes.
- 'A' stands for an active file. This means that it is the most recent backup copy.
- 'I' stands for inactive. When an active copy is changed, then it is backed up, the active copy becomes an inactive copy and a new active copy is created.
- Each file has a time and date associated with the file, a time and date that indicate when the file was last backed up to the tape library server.
- If you have any more questions, please contact an administrator.
