To restore a file from backup, Telnet or SSH to your Virtual Server, and then run the command "getback filename(s)". The filename(s) represent a single file or list of files which you are interested in restoring from backup. The getback will search the backup archives, find all matches, and display them to you. You can then select the desired backup and commence its restoration.

For example, if you are interested in reviewing all backups BWSD has made of the file "~/www/htdocs/index.html", you would simply type:

If you are interested in reviewing all backups BWSD has made of multiple files, you would simply type:

You can also look at backup copies of entire directories -- for example,

When the getback program is run, a date-sorted list is presented of possible sources to restore the file(s) from. The online (primary and secondary) backup sources as well as all of the tape backup sources are all listed. If an online source is selected, the file(s) are restored immediately. Any existing file(s) under the same name will be moved to a different filename with the form of filename.DDMonYY. Where DDMonYY is the current date.

If a tape backup is selected, an e-mail message is sent to the BWSD Support Staff requesting the backup be restored from tape (which usually takes up to 2 business days). Where restoring the file from an online copy (on disk) is provided free of charge, restoring file(s) from tape backup is subject to a tape retrieval fee (please see the fee schedule for current charges).

About the BWSD Backups

The Primary Backup: The primary backup is made to a separate drive on the same machine. This backup is not compressed and is roughly 0-24 hours old. You can access this using the getback retrieval utility or by simply changing your current working directory to "/backup/home/[login name]".

The Secondary Backup: The secondary backup is a compressed tar archive of the primary backup (just before it is overwritten). Therefore, the secondary backup can be anywhere from 24-48 hours old. The secondary backup is stored to a third disk (the system volume). It is important to store backups on separate disk spindles in case of drive failure.

The Tertiary Backup: The tertiary backup is made to our Exabyte Mammonth 10-tape changer. BWSD has 5 magazines of tapes (for a total of 50 tapes). Each magazine has the capacity of holding 2 complete backups of all of our servers. Therefore, it is possible that the tape backup system holds anywhere from 1-10 copies of your data (depending upon how long your account has been with us) -- the multiple tape backup copies typically span in age from 2 days (the latest) to 2 months (the oldest).