Restoring hard-link local backups

You restore from hard-link local backups the same way that you restore from full backups, using the restore task.

You restore from hard-link local backups the same way that you restore from full backups, using the restore task. If you used hard-link local backups to back up to external media, you need to take some additional steps.

Transferring backups to and from remote storage

When a full hard-link local backup exists, you can transfer the backup to other storage media, such as tape or a locally-mounted NFS directory. Transferring hard-link local backups to other storage media may copy the data files associated with the hard file links.

You can use a different directory when you return the backup files to the hard-link local backup host. However, you must also change the backupDir parameter value in the configuration file before restoring the backup.

Complete the following steps to restore hard-link local backups from external media:

If the original backup directory no longer exists on one or more local backup host nodes, re-create the directory.

The directory structure into which you restore hard-link backup files must be identical to what existed when the backup was created. For example, if you created hard-link local backups at the following backup directory, you can then re-create that directory structure:
```
/home/dbadmin/backups/localbak
```
Copy the backup files to their original backup directory, as specified for each node in the configuration file. For more information, refer to [Mapping].
Restore the backup, using one of three options:
1. To restore the latest version of the backup, move the backup files to the following directory:
```
/home/dbadmin/backups/localbak/node_name/snapshotname
```
2. To restore a different backup version, move the backup files to this directory:
```
/home/dbadmin/backups/localbak/node_name/snapshotname_archivedate_timestamp
```
When the backup files are returned to their original backup directory, use the original configuration file to invoke vbr. Verify that the configuration file specifies hardLinkLocal = true. Then restore the backup as follows:
```
$ vbr --task restore --config-file localbak.ini
```