This is an archive version of the document. To get the most up-to-date information, see the current version.

Performing File-Level Restore

In case a disaster strikes, you can recover corrupted or missing files of an EC2 instance from a cloud-native snapshot or image-level backup. Veeam Backup for AWS allows you to download the necessary files and folders to a local machine or restore the files and folders to the source EC2 instance using the file-level recovery browser.

Important

You can restore files and folders from the following file systems:

  • Microsoft Windows systems — FAT, FAT32, NTFS.
  • Linux systems — ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Btrfs.

Veeam Backup for AWS supports file-level restore only for Microsoft Windows basic volumes.

How EC2 File-Level Restore Works

To recover files and folders of a backed-up EC2 instance, Veeam Backup for AWS performs the following steps:

  1. Launches a worker instance in either of the following AWS Regions:
  • To restore files and folders from a cloud-native snapshot or a snapshot replicas, Veeam Backup for AWS launches the worker instance in the AWS Region where the source EC2 snapshot or snapshot replica resides.
  • To restore files and folders from an image-level backup, Veeam Backup for AWS launches the worker instance in the AWS Region where the backup repository with backed-up data resides.
  1. Attaches and mounts EBS volumes of the EC2 instance to the worker instance.

EBS volumes are not physically extracted from the backup — Veeam Backup for AWS emulates their presence on the worker instance. The source backup itself remains in the read-only state.

  1. [This step applies only if you perform restore to the original location] Installs the Veeam restore tool to the source EC2 instance.
  2. Launches the file-level recovery browser.

The file-level recovery browser displays the file system tree of the backed-up EC2 instance. In the browser, you select the necessary files and folders to restore.

  1. Saves the selected files and folders to the local machine or restores them to the source EC2 instance if the Additional restore mode is enabled.
  2. Unmounts and detaches EBS volumes of the backed-up EC2 instance from the worker instance.
  3. [This step applies only if you perform restore to the original location] Removes the Veeam restore tool from the source EC2 instance if the Keep the restore tool at the target instance option is not selected.
  4. Removes the worker instance from Amazon EC2.

Before You Begin

To recover files and folders of an EC2 instance from a backup that is stored in the archive backup repository, you must retrieve the archived data manually before you begin the file-level recovery operation. For more information on data retrieval, see Retrieving Data From Archive.

Before you start file-level restore, check the following prerequisites:

  • The 443 port must be open on worker instances to allow inbound network access from the machine from which you plan to open the file-level recovery browser. To enable access for a worker instance, update the security group specified in worker instance settings to add an inbound rule. To learn how to add rules to security groups, see AWS Documentation.

How to Perform EC2 File-Level Restore

To recover files and folders of a protected EC2 instance, do the following:

  1. Launch the EC2 File-level Recovery wizard.
  2. Select a restore point.
  3. Choose a restore mode.
  4. Specify a restore reason.
  5. Finish working with the wizard — start a recovery session.
  6. Choose files and folders to recover.
  7. Stop the recovery session.