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Unable to restore from Incremental Backup

17 REPLIES 17
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Message 1 of 18
Neil_Cross
1598 Views, 17 Replies

Unable to restore from Incremental Backup

*This is not a restore to a live server* Using Vault Professional 2013.

 

I have a test server, and I'm testing our ability to restore our live backups in the event of a disaster.  Due to the monumental size of our Vault, we use incremental backups.  On a test server I have here, I have entered the Backup & Restore area and I'm presented with a greyed out option to use Incremental Restore with a message that says this:

 

"You cannot restore the incremental because the server has been modified.  Detail: '25/10/12 SERVER\AutodeskVault has made an administrative change to the server: Dispatch'

 

I've done no such thing.  I also haven't even had the opportunity yet to point it at the backup folder, the actual backup is therefore not the problem.

 

In fact, following getting that message, I have deleted the Master Vault, recreated a brand spanking new one, no joy.  I then reinstalled ADMS 2013, no joy.  I'm probably next going to trash the SQL instance and rebuild that from scratch but I'd rather not have to do any of this in the event of a real recovery scenario.  Is anyone able to shed some light on what this means? 

17 REPLIES 17
Message 2 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

'Incremental restore' option is a little confusing. It is a seldom-used feature that is probably not what you want.

 

It sounds like you want to do a full restore based on the incremental backup. To do this, you just need to choose 'full restore' and select the latest increment. ADMS console would locate the previous increments and original backup (located off the same root directory) - and restore them all appropriately.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Pual

Message 3 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Thanks - it makes perfect sense, but it didn't work unfortunately hence why I asked this question.  

 

We ran a full backup on saturday, and then further incremental backups on monday, tuesday and wednesday.  I tried choosing the full restore option, picked the incremental backup from Wednesday, and it said this was not a valid backup.  I then chose the full backup from Saturday, it said this was also not a valid backup.  

I've investigated the backup log, there are no reported errors in there.  I've attached it to this post.  The full backup begain on 20/10/12 and all further incremental backups are logged as completing without issue.  I've also attached a screen print of the messaged returned when attempting to restore.

Both the full backup folder, and each incremental folder contains the typical file and folder set you'd find in a valid backup.  Databases folder, FileStores, BackupContents.xml and BackupHistory.txt.  All databases are present in the folder and the filestore folder looks fine.  

 

The only reason I can think of for the failure to restore is that they're located through a UNC path, but my experience has shown that this usually returns a permissions error rather than a 'not a valid backup' error.  

Message 4 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: Neil_Cross

After completely rebuilding the test server, putting a new SQL instance on, new installation of ADMS 2013, I'm now getting the permissions error instead of the 'not a valid backup' error.  This is because my impersonation account is a local account.

Don't you just love this, when I go to the 'settings' to change the impersonation account... the ADMS application crashes each time.  FML.

Message 5 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

Given that you are also seeing this issue with a full backup, I can only assume that this is permissions related as you suggest. The validation of the backup package is just looking at simple things - like whether there is a 'databases' and 'filestores' subdirectory. It is possible that permissions are such that the files are simply not visible.

 

For a restore, both the SQL server service account and the ADMS user account (by default the local AutodeskVault user) need read permissions on the whole package. This is easiest if both users are domain users - but can be done by mirroring user accounts with the same passwords on the remote machine with the backup. Also remember to set permissions for both the share and the directory security.

 

Paul

Message 6 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: paul.gunn

Hi,

 

What specific error are you seeing when setting the impersonation user?

 

Paul

Message 7 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: paul.gunn

I can't even get to that bit.  I can get to the advanced settings tab, then when I click settings to launch that dialog... I get the attached, 1 then 2.  

Message 8 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: Neil_Cross

This is obviously something completely unrelated to the backup issue though.

 

*Rant notice* This always happens when working with Autodesk software, if you want to get a job done, there are always unecessary obstacles thrown at you to prevent getting it done quickly. *rant over* 🙂

Message 9 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

HI,

 

I've never seen that settings error before - that is pretty strange. Do you see this on your production machine?

 

One option (to avoid getting side-tracked) would be to create a local user on your remote machine (with the backup) and assign it permissions. This will work as long as that user shares the same password as the one on your server machine.

 

Your server's impersonation user and password are in the web.config file (just search for <identity ).

 

Sorry you are running into these issues. Getting permissions set up can be a pain in itself  - but the settings problems shouldn't have happened.

 

Paul

Message 10 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Randomly, I opened the global settings again, click a few of the other options in there to see if they worked or not... then tried settings again, and it worked Smiley Mad

So I've now changed my impersonation account to the domain administrator, but not even that has permissions to the backup!! The impersonation account on the live server is the default local user, it's only local accounts that have write access to the backup folder!! ARGH!

There's probably in the region of 2 million files in those backup folders, applying new permissions could take til the weekend to propagate down! 

Could I use the local account of the live server as the impersonation account on my test server to do the backup...? Providing that the local account on the live server has permissions to the component destinations on the test server...? This is way too much for this late in the week!

Message 11 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

I don't see any reason you couldn't use the same local account information as on your live server. As mentioned, as long as the username and password match up then WIndows is good to go with it.

 

Paul

Message 12 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Apparently I can't use a local account from another machine as the impersonation account, I was hoping it could magically authenticate these credentials but it can't.  I repeat, FML.

Anyway, why does the impersonation account even need rights to that backup?? As long as it can see it, copy from it, it's on an open share...! It's simply just copying from that area... not writing to it?

Message 13 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

It sounds like you just need to create a local account with the same username and password as the remote server. Windows will authenticate the user automatically (workgroup authentication).

 

In ADMS all file access (filestore and backup/restore) is done with the impersonation user - the exception is database backup and restore which requires the SQL service user. The reasoning is that using a common account avoids the need to have various administrators individually requiring access to the backup location.

 

Paul

Message 14 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: paul.gunn

But how can I create a local account on the local machine with the same username as the remote machine?

Local server name is UNIT1664

Remote server name is TW4

 

I create a user on local machine called AutodeskVault, and the same on the remote machine, it tries to authenticate against the remote machine as UNIT1664\AutodeskVault whereas the account with the same name on the remote machine is TW4\AutodeskVault...? Both accounts have the same name and password, but it won't authenticate as it isn't really the same account.  Or am I missing your point there? 

Message 15 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

I'm really puzzled why authentication is working from your live server but not your test machine. If you look at the security settings on the backup server, permissions should be just to the 'autodeskvault' account (i.e. windows doesn't really have a notion of security for a user on a specific different machine). So it isn't clear why one machine would work with these credentials and not the other.

 

It may be that setting up a domain account is the best bet here - even though (as you mention) it could take some time for propagation of permission.

 

Paul

Message 16 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: paul.gunn

How far down the backup structure do the permissions need to propagate? Do they need to just be at top level? Could I propagate down the entire structure but just do folders only, or do the permissions need to be against absolutely every object in the backup set?

Message 17 of 18
paul.gunn
in reply to: Neil_Cross

Hi,

 

Permissions for all files are needed in order to do the restore (as each file must be copied).

 

Paul

Message 18 of 18
Neil_Cross
in reply to: paul.gunn

I had a feeling you'd say that! Rather than chomp at the live backup, I'll just wait a day for it to copy the whole set locally, then apply the permissions locally.

Thanks for your help anyway Smiley Happy

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