UT | Extract files from old metadata

Product Unitrends

⚠️ WARNING: If you are not sure what is happening in this article, please consult a supervisor, L2, or a senior engineer before performing these steps.

Problem Need to retrieve specific/useful files from an older state of the appliance (e.g., config files, keys) that are not accessible through a standard restore, using an existing metadata backup.

Description Unitrends appliances periodically run metadata-only backups ("Meta" type) in addition to regular data backups. These metadata backups capture appliance state at a point in time and can be used to recover individual files (such as configuration files) from an earlier state without performing a full system restore.

To retrieve a file from an older state, the metadata backup corresponding to the desired point in time must first be identified, then extracted to a temporary directory on the appliance, from which the needed files can be manually copied.

Resolution

1. List available metadata backups Run the following command to list metadata backups for the target -t value:

   ./support.sh --bhc --meta -t 1038

This returns a list of metadata backups with their backup_no, timestamp, status, and other details. Identify the backup_no corresponding to the point in time you need.

Example output:

   56492 | 56573 |   1 |   3 | MSFPUT9060S |      |      | 2026-07-05 08:36:04 | Meta | Success | Internal |   10 |    0 |     0 | ???  | f

2. Extract the metadata backup Using the backup_no identified above, run:

   ./support.sh --extract <backup_no>

Example output:

   FILES successfully restored: 162
   start = -zWHERE=/backups/support_restore/56403/
   [root@MSFPUT9060S ~]#

3. Retrieve the needed files Navigate to the extraction directory shown in the output (e.g., /backups/support_restore/<backup_no>/) and copy the required files from the older appliance state. For example:

   /backups/support_restore/56403/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/keys

4. Clean up Once the needed files have been retrieved, remove the extraction directory to free up space and avoid leaving stale restored data on the appliance:

   rm -rf /backups/support_restore/<backup_no>/