Guidelines for restoring SnapManager backups

Guidelines before restoring snapshots

Follow these general guidelines before you restore a SnapManager backup set:

Caution
Do not perform a SnapManager Restore with your Domino servers running. Performing a restore with your Domino servers running causes database corruption.

Before you implement any restore process, take a snapshot of the file system you are restoring. That way, in the unlikely event that something catastrophic happens during a restore, you have a recent snapshot of the file system prior to the restore.
If you want to roll forward all the transactions up to the most current time, use an up-to-the-minute restore.
Note
If you do anything to change a Database Instance ID (DBIID), you need to take an immediate backup after you change the DBIID, or you cannot do an up-to-the-minute restore. This is because when you change a DBIID for any reason, the corresponding transaction log IDs are not updated unless you take an immediate snapshot of the Data directory. For example, running compact -j would be a scenario where the DBIID changes.
If you want to recover the Data directory as it was at a particular point in time, for example the point in time when the most recent backup was created, use a point-in-time restore.
If you are recovering a snapshot from an offline archive, you can only do a point-in-time restore. That is, you can recover the Data directory only to the state it was in at the time the backup set was created.
For example, if you created a backup set a week ago, archived it to tape last night, and restored it this morning, the Domino Data directory after the restore this morning is in the same state it was in a week ago. For additional information, see Archiving to Other Types of Media.

Guidelines when restoring a snapshot

When you use SnapManager to restore a virtual disk on a volume containing multiple virtual disks, SnapManager does not rename the snapshot of that volume used for the backup after it performs the restore. Also, it does not rename the related SnapInfo directory.

If you use SnapManager to restore a backup that is not the most recent one, that backup's sequential backup sets are still available for future restore.

SnapManager Restore uses the Domino recovery process to play forward transaction logs into the restored Data directory. Before allowing a restore operation to proceed, SnapManager checks that the selected backup set was verified through the use of Domino APIs. (See Data organization in SnapManager backup sets.)

Follow these guidelines when restoring a SnapManager backup set:

Store the Domino Data directory on a separate virtual disk from the one storing the Data directory.
This method of storage brings the disk back to the state it was in at the time the snapshot was taken.
You should always restore from the most recent snapshot, DominoSnap__Win2Kservername__Dominoserver_Recent, where Dominoserver is the host name of the Domino server.
If you renamed the Domino database since the backup was made, you cannot recover it from a backup taken before the database was renamed.
- If you rename a database, make sure that you back it up as soon as possible.
- If you must recover a database from a backup taken before the database was renamed, rename the database back to its old name, then recover it from the backup.
- If you use a snapshot that is not the most recent snapshot to do a point-in-time restore, all snapshots taken prior to the one you restored become point-in-time restorable only.