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Restoring individual files from virtual machine backups

M
Userlevel 4

I’m very new to Veeam. We use VMware vSphere. I need to be able to backup an entire VM, and be able to restore just individual files from that backup. I thought that doing a “VMware Backup” type of job, with “Guest File Processing” enabled would allow me to do that (i.e., restore just one file from drive E:, as an example). But when I try “Restore Guest Files” on that VM, , I get “Unable to mount disk: unsupported disk type” when it goes to Browse.

 

Have I totally misunderstood what type of backup job I need to be doing, to be able to do an individual file restore of a Windows VM? What type of backup do I need to be doing then, to accomplish what I need? This type of backup looks like I can only restore the entire VM, like a bare metal recovery. Which is good, and I might need that, but I definitely need to be able to restore individual files. Do I need to make a backup job of type “Windows Computer”? I won’t need to push the Agent, because the VM is always connected.

Sorry for the newb questions.

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Best answer by MicoolPaul 9 November 2023, 21:53

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13 comments

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Hi, you’ve got the correct backup type, and guest processing isn’t even necessary for the feature to work 🙂 the problem you have is your mount server not being able to read the contents of the drive. Likely if your mount server is an older version of windows than the backed up server.

 

If you edit your backup repository that contains your backup and go to the mount server section, what is the OS of the server mounting the backup? And what is the OS of the server you’re backing up?

 

Examples that come to mind are ReFS partitions, as Microsoft have made a new version of ReFS with each release so if your mount server is windows server 2016 and your VM is 2019 then it can’t read the backup data when doing a file level recovery. Have also seen issues when deduplication is enabled on drives but the deduplication feature isn’t installed on the mount server.

 

Never fear if you have got the ReFS issue, you can add other servers as a mount server if this is your problem, if you’re doing a file level recovery then your production server would still be online and could even be used as a mount server.

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
SteveF
Userlevel 6
Badge +2

@MikeLeone these steps Browsing Machine Backups for Guest OS Files from our HelpCenter documentation may help you.

Twitter @sfirmes | Email: steve.firmes@veeam.com
M
Userlevel 4

Hi, you’ve got the correct backup type, and guest processing isn’t even necessary for the feature to work 🙂 the problem you have is your mount server not being able to read the contents of the drive. Likely if your mount server is an older version of windows than the backed up server.

 

If you edit your backup repository that contains your backup and go to the mount server section, what is the OS of the server mounting the backup? And what is the OS of the server you’re backing up?

 

Examples that come to mind are ReFS partitions, as Microsoft have made a new version of ReFS with each release so if your mount server is windows server 2016 and your VM is 2019 then it can’t read the backup data when doing a file level recovery. Have also seen issues when deduplication is enabled on drives but the deduplication feature isn’t installed on the mount server.

If by “mount server”, you mean my Veeam Backup server, you are absolutely correct. The Veeam server is Win 2016, and the VM is Win 2019.

 

 

Never fear if you have got the ReFS issue, you can add other servers as a mount server if this is your problem, if you’re doing a file level recovery then your production server would still be online and could even be used as a mount server.

 

 

So how would I go about that? Do I create a new Win 2019 (well, Win 2022, as I have Win 2022 VMs to be backed up). 

 

Thanks!

 

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Either create a new VM or server with 2022, or, just add a suitable server to Veeam as a managed server, and then reconfigure your backup repository to use it as a mount server. As you’ve got 2022 servers definitely use one of those to avoid this issue with them 🙂 any server that can handle the extra work would be sufficient such as a file & print server. A dedicated server/VM is nice but unless you’ve got datacenter licensing it’ll cost more to build a new VM

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
M
Userlevel 4

Either create a new VM or server with 2022, or, just add a suitable server to Veeam as a managed server, and then reconfigure your backup repository to use it as a mount server. As you’ve got 2022 servers definitely use one of those to avoid this issue with them 🙂 any server that can handle the extra work would be sufficient such as a file & print server. A dedicated server/VM is nice but unless you’ve got datacenter licensing it’ll cost more to build a new VM

OK, I’m off the next few days, but Tuesday I’ll roll out a new Win 2022 VM. How do I “add a suitable server to Veeam as a managed server, and then reconfigure your backup repository to use it as a mount server”? Where is that? My Backup repository is a Data Domain 6400 NAS device.

 

Thanks! I can see why you’re a Veeam legend! :-)

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/dsa_repository_mount_server.html?ver=120
 

On the screen where you select your mount server you can add a new server (which adds it as a managed server) and then you can choose it from the dropdown. If you’ve got internal firewalls between servers then be sure to check out the port requirements to ensure you understand what needs to be opened! And just in general it’s a good idea so you understand how the traffic will flow during a recovery 🙂

 

Hope that helps! Let us know if any further questions!

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
Moustafa_Hindawi
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hello @MikeLeone 

check Mount server requirements as below:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/mount_server.html?ver=120
 

usually the mount server is the Repo server, if you didn’t added a repo server , then it will be the Veeam server 

Moustafa Hindawi | Blogger | Nutanix Technology Champion | NCSE | NCM-MCI | VMCE | 2xVCAP-DTM & DCV | 2xVCP-NV & CMA | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moustafaadelmoustafa/ | My Blog: https://cloudwhales.co.uk/author/mhindawi/
M
Userlevel 4

Good news! I created a new Win 2022 VM; added it as a managed server; chose it as the mount server for my repository, and was able to successfully restore files from a Win 2019 VM image. So now I am good to go.

 

Thanks for all the help!

MicoolPaul
Userlevel 7
Badge +20

Good news! I created a new Win 2022 VM; added it as a managed server; chose it as the mount server for my repository, and was able to successfully restore files from a Win 2019 VM image. So now I am good to go.

 

Thanks for all the help!

Happy to help and glad you’ve got it all sorted 😁

Michael Paul - #VeeamLegend | #VeeamVanguard | Veeam Certified Architect | VMware vExpert | https://micoolpaul.com | Twitter: @MicoolPaul | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.bsky.social
Scott
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

I use my repo but you can restore files from older versions of Windows with no issue. Even the Mount server shouldn’t have to be 2022 but newer is better.

Also make sure you have the right permissions set for the restores. The Veeam operator doesn’t always have the right permissions to restore a file/folder to a specific location 😀 

Make sure you have the right account set up under guest OS credentials and run the test. I use Enterprise Manager and enable Indexing to make the backups searchable as well. 

 

 

Geoff Burke
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

I could be wrong but if my memory serves me correctly if your backed up server leveraged windows deduplication then you would want to enable feature that on the mount server too I believe.

VMCA2022, VMCE2023, CKA, CKAD, KCNA, LFCS, PCA,TARS
Geoff Burke
Userlevel 7
Badge +22

Just added that since I remember having a fun time before discovering this a while back.

VMCA2022, VMCE2023, CKA, CKAD, KCNA, LFCS, PCA,TARS
Scott
Userlevel 7
Badge +8

I could be wrong but if my memory serves me correctly if your backed up server leveraged windows deduplication then you would want to enable feature that on the mount server too I believe.

You are correct. 

When I started here I had 1 server I couldn’t restore from that someone was “TESTING” that feature on. If your Mount Server has it enabled you can restore to it.  Totally forgot about that “feature”

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