Snapshot Mount

Definition

Trilio allows you to view or download a file from the snapshot. Any changes to the files or directories when snapshot is mounted are temporary and are discarded when the snapshot is unmounted. Mounting is a faster way to restore a single or multiple files. To mount a snapshot follow these steps.

Trilio ships with a ubuntu based file manager image. This image includes a web based file manager application that helps with browsing and download files when snapshot is mounted. Before you create a File Manager instance, File Manager (a.k.a Recovery Manager) image needs to be uploaded to the Glance.

Ask the Openstack administrator about the name and location of the File Recovery image.

Spin up a File Recovery Manager

To be able to mount a Snapshot a File Recovery Manager needs to be available in the tenant.

The File Recovery Manager is a normal Openstack instance, which requires at least 40GB boot disk.

It is recommended to provide the File Recovery Manager instance with a Floating IP and appropriate Security Groups. Appropriate would be to restrict access to ports 80, 443, and 22.

It is recommended to spin up the file recovery manager using a cloud-init User Data script or Key Pairs to configure SSH access.

The size of the Snapshot to mount has direct impact on the RAM needed by the File Recovery Manager. A 1TB backup for example requires 32GB RAM to mount successfully.

Mounting a Snapshot

Mounting a Snapshot to a File Recovery Manager provides read access to all data that is located on the in the mounted Snapshot.

Unmount any mounted Snapshot once there is no further need to keep it mounted. Mounted Snapshots will not be purged by the Retention policy.

It is possible to run the mounting process against any Openstack instance. During this process will the instance be rebooted.

Always mount Snapshots to File Recovery Manager instances only.

Using Horizon

There are 2 possibilities to mount a Snapshot in Horizon.

Through the Snapshot list

To mount a Snapshot through the Snapshot list follow these steps:

  1. Login to Horizon

  2. Navigate to Backups

  3. Navigate to Workloads

  4. Identify the workload that contains the Snapshot to mount

  5. Click the workload name to enter the Workload overview

  6. Navigate to the Snapshots tab

  7. Identify the searched Snapshot in the Snapshot list

  8. Click the small arrow in the line of the Snapshot next to "One Click Restore" to open the submenu

  9. Click "Mount Snapshot"

  10. Choose the File Recovery Manager instance to mount to

  11. Confirm by clicking "Mount"

Should all instances of the project be listed and there is a File Recovery Manager instance existing verify together with the administrator that the File Recovery Manager image has the following property set:

tvault_recovery_manager=yes

Through the File Search results

To mount a Snapshot through the File Search results follow these steps:

  1. Login to Horizon

  2. Navigate to Backups

  3. Navigate to Workloads

  4. Identify the workload that contains the Snapshot to mount

  5. Click the workload name to enter the Workload overview

  6. Navigate to the File Search tab

  7. Identify the Snapshot to be mounted

  8. Click "Mount Snapshot" for the chosen Snapshot

  9. Choose the File Recovery Manager instance to mount to

  10. Confirm by clicking "Mount"

Should all instances of the project be listed and there is a File Recovery Manager instance existing verify together with the administrator that the File Recovery Manager image has the following property set:

tvault_recovery_manager=yes

Using CLI

workloadmgr snapshot-mount <snapshot_id> <mount_vm_id>
  • <snapshot_id> ➡️ ID of the Snapshot to be mounted

  • <mount_vm_id> ➡️ ID of the File Recovery Manager instance to mount the Snapshot to.

Accessing the File Recovery Manager

The File Recovery Manager is a normal Openstack instance running a webserver. It can be accessed through

  • the Openstack VNC console (requires password access)

  • SSH

  • HTTP on port 80

The Webserver provides a File Commander application, which will show the mounted Snapshot and provides the possibility to navigate through it and download Files as necessary.

When using SSH or the Openstack VNC console can the mounted Snapshot be found under:

/home/ubuntu/tvault-mounts/mounts/

Identifying mounted Snapshots

Sometimes a Snapshot is mounted for a longer time and it needs to be identified, which Snapshots are mounted.

Using Horizon

There are 2 possibilities to identify mounted Snapshots inside Horizon.

From the File Recovery Manager instance Metadata

  1. Login to Horizon

  2. Navigate to Compute

  3. Navigate to Instances

  4. Identify the File Recovery Manager Instance

  5. Click on the Name of the File Recovery Manager Instance to bring up its details

  6. On the Overview tab look for Metadata

  7. Identify the value for mounted_snapshot_url

The mounted_snapshot_url contains the Snapshot ID of the Snapshot that has been mounted last.

This value only gets updated, when a new Snapshot is mounted.

From the Snapshot list

  1. Login to Horizon

  2. Navigate to Backups

  3. Navigate to Workloads

  4. Identify the workload that contains the Snapshot to mount

  5. Click the workload name to enter the Workload overview

  6. Navigate to the Snapshots tab

  7. Search for the Snapshot that has the option "Unmount Snapshot"

Using CLI

workloadmgr snapshot-mounted-list [--workloadid <workloadid>]
  • --workloadid <workloadid> ➡️ Restrict the list to snapshots in the provided workload

Unmounting a Snapshot

Once a mounted Snapshot is no longer needed it is possible and recommended to unmount the snapshot.

Unmounting a Snapshot frees the File Recovery Manager instance to mount the next Snapshot and allows Trilio retention policy to purge the former mounted Snapshot.

Deleting the File Recovery Manager instance will not update the Trilio appliance. The Snapshot will be considered mounted until an unmount command has been received.

Using Horizon

  1. Login to Horizon

  2. Navigate to Backups

  3. Navigate to Workloads

  4. Identify the workload that contains the Snapshot to mount

  5. Click the workload name to enter the Workload overview

  6. Navigate to the Snapshots tab

  7. Search for the Snapshot that has the option "Unmount Snapshot"

  8. Click "Unmount Snapshot"

Using the CLI

workloadmgr snapshot-dismount <snapshot_id>
  • <snapshot_id> ➡️ ID of the snapshot to unmount.

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