Restore directly on remote file server

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#1

I backup a Windows Desktop on a Linux fileserver, and the Windows Desktop crashed. I’d like to restore files directly on the Linux fileserver using the CLI. I have the CLI downloaded and working, but I don’t understand how to interact with the backup directly.

I’ve read some of the documentation and there are commands to initialize repositories and whatnot, and I don’t want to do something wrong and ruin my backups.

I have the raw data on my linux fileserver, and I know the password I used to encrypt them, so now how do I access the underlying data directly?

File locations of backups on my Linux filesystem: /mnt/storage/backups/tdesk/c and /mnt/storage/backups/tdesk/d

#2

You create a directory on the Linux server and in there “duplicacy init” the same storage you used to backup to. Then you can “duplicacy restore” and it will restore files in this directory.
You could test with a new test storage you can create, so that you can gain confidence before doing it “for real”. OT: I really dislike the fact that in duplicacy language, the repository is the directory tree you backup, and not the place you backup to, which is the storage.

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#3

Thanks for the help… and I agree that the terminology is frustrating, since clearly I am confused by this. You suggest that I init the “same storage” that I used to back up to. I forgive my ignorance, but what does “same storage” mean?

Per your recommendation, I created a new directory on my Linux server, issued a “duplicacy init” command, but then it said I need 2 arguments.

Is there anyway to just browse an existing backed-up directory and restore files from it? That’s what I want to do. Pull a few specific files from my existing backup.

#4

Init command requires snapshot-Id, storage URL and whether the storage was encrypted.

You need to pass the same storage url and snapshot ID and -e as you did when you initialized that storage for backup.

Duplicacy will see that this storage already exists and will connect your empty local “repository” with that storage. Then you can do duplicacy list, duplicacy restore, etc.

For example, if you initialized your storage with duplicacy init -e 'myMacBackup' sftp://user@myhost.example.com — then that’s what you would do again in the empty directory.

Alternatively you can just copy the .duplicacy/preferences file from your existing setup to remote new folder (I.e. /tmp/temp_repo/.duplicacy/preferences. The end result of the init command is pretty much just adding the stuff to the .duplicacy/preferences file. Then duplicacy will work in /tmp/temp_repo

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