Recovering Data from RDS

Backup & Retention Policy

General information on our backup and retention policies can be found here: Backup & Retention Policy

There are two methods for recovering data from the RDS:

1. Data was modified within the last 4 days: it can be recovered by users.
   See Data Recovery Guides for Users for further information.
2. Data was modified more than 4 days ago: it will need to be recovered from the backup tapes by the Advanced Research Computing team.
   See Data Recovery from Backup Tapes for further information.

Data Recovery Guides for Users

The following guides explain how you can use the snapshot (Linux/BlueBEAR) or “previous version” (Windows) features to recover files from the Research Data Store.
Snapshots of files are usually available for 4 days, e.g. if you made changes on a Friday you could still recover the original file on the following Monday.

Windows Linux (BlueBEAR)

System Requirements on Windows

• Windows 10, University-managed device.

• University VPN service (if working off-campus).

Process

In the example below we are trying to restore a subfolder from the Research Data Store \\its-rds.bham.ac.uk\2017\ghumraak-01:

1. Open up File Explorer.

2. Navigate to the folder which contains the file or subfolder you would like to restore.

   

3. Right click on the subfolder you wish to restore (Folder A in this example) and select ‘Restore previous versions’ from the context menu:

   

4. Click on the ‘Previous Versions’ tab in the window that pops up:

   

5. In the ‘Folder versions’ list, select the version you would like to restore. Click the ‘Open’ button to check out the contents to make sure it is the correct version.

   

   Warning

   The file or folder will replace the current version on your computer, and the replacement cannot be undone. If you need to keep a copy of the original folder then you must rename the original folder before continuing to restore the contents.

   

6. You can either:

   1. click on ‘Restore’ to restore the whole subfolder; or…
   2. click on ‘Open’ and choose the files you want to restore by selecting the file(s), clicking on your right hand mouse button and selecting ‘Copy’, navigate to the folder you want to copy the files to and then clicking on your right hand mouse button and selecting ‘Paste’.

System Requirements on Linux

• SSH client to connect to BlueBEAR e.g. via BEAR Portal, PuTTY (Windows) or macOS’s Terminal application.

• University VPN service (if working off-campus).

Process

In the example below we are trying to restore files from the Research Data Store directory /rds/projects/2017/ghumraak-01.

1. Once you’ve logged into BlueBEAR, navigate to the .snapshots directory, which exists in the parent directory (i.e. one level up) from your project’s directory, e.g:

   cd /rds/projects/2017/.snapshots
   

   This .snapshots directory will contain subdirectories for each of the available backups, e.g. @GMT-2021.05.14-02.00.54.

2. Execute the ll command (a longer version of ls) to see a list of the available snapshots.

   

3. Navigate to the date of the folder which you think contains the data to be recovered. For this example, the folder chosen is /rds/projects/2017/.snapshots/@GMT-2021.05.14-02.00.54/ghumraak-01/Folder A:

   cd "/rds/projects/2017/.snapshots/@GMT-2021.05.14-02.00.54/ghumraak-01/Folder A"
   

   

4. Copy the files that are required to either (a) the original folder or (b) a new folder.

   Warning

   The file or folder will replace the current version on your computer, and the replacement cannot be undone. If you need to keep a copy of the original folder then you must rename the original folder before continuing to restore the files/folders.

   1. To copy a specific file to the original location:

      cp "Pop up screenshot.PNG" "/rds/projects/2017/ghumraak-01/Folder A"
      

   2. Once you have created a new folder e.g. Folder A Recovered, you can copy the whole folder:

      mkdir -p "/rds/projects/2017/ghumraak-01/Folder A Recovered"
      cp -r "/rds/projects/2017/.snapshots/@GMT-2021.05.14-02.00.54/ghumraak-01/Folder A" "/rds/projects/2017/ghumraak-01/Folder A Recovered"
      

      Info

      Passing the -r option to the cp command will copy the directory recursively. (See https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/cp.1.html for further info.)

      You can then review the files in the new folder:

Note

Since 2018 all projects are now named with the the PI’s username-initial, followed by the project name: /rds/projects/USERNAME_INITIAL/PROJECT_NAME,

For example, if your username was skywalker and your project was called father-issue then the directory path would be:

/rds/projects/s/skywalker-father-issue

Data Recovery from Backup Tapes

This process requires involvement from the Advanced Research Computing team.
Data recovery from the backup tapes can take several days and requests should therefore be submitted early. Information on time-frames can be found in our Backup & Retention Policy.

To request data recovery from the backup tapes, please submit an Other BEAR Request ticket.

Further Assistance

If you need further help, please raise an Other BEAR Request ticket on the Service Desk.

If you need to report a fault with the service, please raise a Report a Fault with BEAR ticket on the Service Desk.