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Performing File-Level Recovery

In this article

In case a disaster strikes, you can recover corrupted or missing files of a VM instance from a cloud-native snapshot or image-level backup. Veeam Backup for GCP allows you to download the necessary files and folders to a local machine using the File Level Recovery for Veeam Backup browser.

Important

You can recover files and folders from the following file systems only:

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

How File-Level Recovery Works

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

Launches a worker instance in either of the following GCP regions:

To restore files and folders from a cloud-native snapshot, the worker instance is launched in the region where the source VM instance resides.
To restore files and folders from an image-level backup, the worker instance is launched in the region where the storage bucket with backed-up data resides.

Attaches persistent disks of the VM instance to the worker instance.

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

Launches the File Level Recovery for Veeam Backup browser.

The File Level Recovery for Veeam Backup browser displays the file system tree of the backed-up VM instance. In the browser, you select the necessary files and folders to restore.

Saves the selected files and folders to the local machine.
Detaches the persistent disks from the worker instance.
Removes the worker instance from the GCP environment.

How to Perform File-Level Recovery

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

Important

Before you start file-level recovery, make sure that network settings are configured for each region where worker instances will be launched during the recovery process. For information on how to configure network settings, see Adding Worker Configurations.
Make sure the machine where you plan to open the File Level Recovery for Veeam Backup browser is allowed to access the worker instances over the internet. To enable internet access for a worker instance, update the firewall rule specified in the instance network settings to add an inbound rule for HTTPS traffic on the port 443. For information on how to update firewall rules, see Google Cloud documentation.