Selecting a backup file to restore from

Applies to: VisualSVN Server 3.6 and later

When restoring a repository from a backup, you can select a full or an incremental backup file as a backup that you want to restore from. The selected backup file determines:

  • the repository that will be restored;
  • the state (restore point) to which the repository will be restored. The repository will be restored to the state that corresponds to the date and time when the selected backup file was created.

By default, the name of the backup file indicates both the name of the repository in the backup and the timestamp when the backup was created.

Deciding on a restore point

To restore a repository to its most up-to-date backed up state, select the latest backup file for this repository. This can be a full or an incremental backup file, whichever of them is the latest. Choosing an older backup file allows restoring the repository to that older state, which, for example, might be useful if the repository got corrupted later for any reason.

If you restore from a full backup file, only this full backup file is used. If you restore from an incremental backup file, the restoration procedure will use the selected incremental backup file and also will automatically use all the preceding backup files that are part of the same chain.

Note

To successfully restore from an incremental backup, all previous backups in its chain must be located in the same folder. This includes the nearest preceding full backup and all incremental backups up to the one you are restoring from.

VisualSVN Server automatically creates incremental backups in the same folder as the full backup. However, if you manually copy or move backup files, make sure to maintain this relative location, to avoid issues during restoration.

Restoring creates a new copy of the repository

Restoring from a backup does not roll back or overwrite repositories that already exist on the server, if any existing repository matches the one in the backup. Restoring creates a new copy of the repository from the backup. If you want to restore a repository to replace an existing repository that has the same name, you need to rename the existing repository first.

Example

Let us assume that your backup folder contains the following backup chain consisting of three backup files:

  • MyRepository-2024-03-13-010035-full.vsvnbak
    Full repository backup created on March 13, 2024 at 01:00:35 AM.
  • MyRepository-2024-03-15-230025-incremental.vsvnbak
    Incremental repository backup created on March 15, 2024 at 11:00:25 PM.
  • MyRepository-2024-03-16-230020-incremental.vsvnbak
    Incremental repository backup created on March 16, 2024 at 11:00:20 PM.

Typically, you need to select the most recent backup to restore. If this is the case, choosing the file MyRepository-2024-03-16-230020-incremental.vsvnbak will restore the repository as it was on March 16, 2024 at 11:00:20 PM.

Whereas selecting one of the older files will restore the repository to its state from March 13, 2024 at 01:00:35 AM or March 15, 2024 at 11:00:25 PM respectively.

Tip
For automated backups created by backup jobs, if you are unsure where the backups are stored, you can look it up in the properties of the respective job in VisualSVN Server Manager, on the Destination tab.

See also

KB106: Getting started with Backup and Restore

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