Accessing the Restore Interface
Navigate to the client detail page and click the Restore tab. The interface displays all available recovery points (backup archives) across all repositories for this client.
Browsing Archives
Each archive entry shows the archive name, repository, creation date, file count, size, and duration. Archives are sorted by date with the most recent at the top.
Click on an archive to open the file browser:
- Tree view — Hierarchical display of directories and files
- Lazy loading — Directories load on-demand when expanded (fast even for large archives)
- File metadata — Size, modification time, and permissions for each file
- Breadcrumb navigation — Jump quickly to parent directories
- Checkbox selection — Select individual files or entire directories
Searching for Files
Search Within an Archive
Open an archive in the file browser and use the Search box to filter by filename or pattern (e.g., nginx.conf, *.log). Search is case-insensitive and matches against the full path.
Global File Search
Click Global Search on the Restore tab to search for a file across all archives in all repositories. This is useful when you don't know which backup contains the file you need, or when you want to find every version of a file across multiple backups.
Restore Methods
1. Restore to Original Location
Restores files to their original paths on the client machine. Permissions, ownership, and timestamps are preserved from the backup.
Best for: Recovering accidentally deleted files, disaster recovery, rolling back configuration changes.
2. Restore to Alternate Directory
Restores files to a different path on the client (e.g., /tmp/restore). The original directory structure is preserved under the alternate path.
Best for: Reviewing files before restoring to production, extracting specific files for inspection, comparing with current versions.
3. Download as tar.gz
Downloads selected files directly to your browser as a compressed archive. Files are not restored to the client machine.
Best for: Restoring files to a different computer, downloading backups for offline analysis, creating a local copy without modifying the client.
Database Restores
If a backup archive contains database dumps (from the MySQL or PostgreSQL plugin), you can restore databases directly from the restore interface. Select the archive, click Restore Database, choose which databases to restore, and enter the target database credentials. See the Plugins guide for details.
Monitoring Restores
Restore jobs appear on the Queue page where you can track progress, view status, and check for errors. You'll also receive notifications if you have them configured.