A recovery point is a collection of snapshots taken of individual disk volumes and stored in the repository. Snapshots capture and store the state of a disk volume at a given point in time while the applications that generate the data are still in use. In Rapid Recovery, you can force a snapshot, temporarily pause snapshots, and view lists of current recovery points in the repository as well as delete them if needed. Recovery points are used to restore protected machines or to mount to a local file system.
The snapshots that are captured by Rapid Recovery are done so at the block level and are application aware. This means that all open transactions and rolling transaction logs are completed and caches are flushed to disk before creating the snapshot.
Rapid Recovery uses a low-level volume filter driver, which attaches to the mounted volumes and then tracks all block-level changes for the next impending snapshot. Microsoft Volume Shadow Services (VSS) is used to facilitate application crash consistent snapshots.
Complete the steps in the following procedure to view the full list of recovery points for a protected machine. For more information on viewing specific recovery points, see Viewing recovery points for a machine.
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NOTE: If you are protecting data from a DAG or CCR server cluster, the associated recovery points do not appear at the cluster level. They are only visible at the node or machine level. |
- In the Rapid Recovery Core Console, navigate to the protected machine for which you want to view recovery points.
- From the menu at the top of the page, click Recovery Points.
The Recovery Points page appears, showing a Recovery Points Summary pane and a Recovery Points pane.
You can view summary information about the recovery points for the machine as described in the following table.
Table 76: Recovery point summary information
Total recovery points |
Lists the total number of recovery points saved to the repository for this machine. |
Total protected data |
Indicates the amount of storage space used in the repository for these recovery points. |
Repository |
Lists the name of the repository in which these recovery points are stored. |
Repository status |
Graphically displays the amount of space consumed by the recovery points. Shows percentage of the repository used, the amount of space, and the total space of the repository. Click on the graph to see the amount of space remaining. |
You can view information about the recovery points for the machine as described in the following table.
- Optionally, expand a recovery point to view the protected volumes.
Once a recovery point is captured for a protected SQL or Exchange server, the application displays a corresponding color status indicator in the Recovery Points grid. This grid appears in the Recovery Points pane when viewing recovery points for a specific machine. The color that displays is based on the check settings for the protected machine and the success or failure of those checks, as described in the following tables.
Recovery status point colors for Exchange databases
The following table lists the status indicators that display for Exchange databases.
Table 78: Exchange database status indicators
White |
Indicates that an Exchange database is not detected within the recovery point, volume, or volume group. |
Yellow |
Indicates that the Exchange database mountability checks have not yet been run. |
Red |
Indicates that either the mountability or checksum checks failed on at least one database. |
Green |
Indicates that the recovery point contains one or more database, and that mountability checks are enabled, and that mountability check passed or that the checksum check passed. |
Recovery status point colors for SQL databases
The following table lists the status indicators that display for SQL databases.
Table 79: SQL database status indicators
White |
Indicates that a SQL database is not detected within the recovery point, volume, or volume group. |
Yellow |
SQL database was offline, indicating that attachability checks were not possible and have not been performed. |
Red |
Indicates that the attachability check failed, or SQL database is offline. |
Green |
Indicates that the attachability check passed. |
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NOTE: Recovery points that do not have an Exchange or SQL database associated with it appear with a white status indicator. In situations where both an Exchange and SQL database exists for the recovery point, the most severe status indicator displays for the recovery point. |
In Rapid Recovery, you can mount a recovery point from the Core Console to access stored data through a local file system.
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NOTE: When mounting recovery points from data restored from a machine that has data deduplication enabled, you must also enable deduplication on the Core server. |
- From the Rapid Recovery Core Console, navigate to the machine that you want to mount to a local file system.
The Summary page appears for the selected protected machine.
- From the navigation links at the top of the page, lick the Recovery Points menu.
The Recovery Points page appears for the selected machine.
- Optionally, in the Recovery Points pane, from the list of recovery points, click the right arrow symbol to expand the recovery point detail, showing volumes included in the recovery point.
- In the row for the recovery point that you want to mount, click the (More) drop-down menu and select Mount.
The Mount Wizard appears, displaying the Volumes page.
- On the Volumes page, select each volume of the recovery point that you want to mount, and then click Next.
The Mount Options page of the wizard appears.
- In theMount Options page, edit the settings for mounting a recovery point as described in the following table.
Table 80: Mount Options settings
Destination and other options
Local folder |
Choose from one of the following options:
Mount to the next available drive letter. This option will provide an alphabetic designation (for example, F:\) for the volume you want to mount, using the next available letter. This option is only accessible if you selected a single volume in step 5.
Mount to a drive letter. This option assigns the alphabetic designation you select (for example, Z:\) for the volume you want to mount. The letter must not already be in use. This option is only accessible if you selected a single volume in step 5.
Mount to a folder. Specify the path used to access the mounted recovery point. For example, select C:\ProgramData\AppRecovery\MountPoints\MountPoint1 . |
Mount type |
Specify the way to access data for the mounted recovery point:
- Read-only
- Read-only with previous writes
- Writable
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Create a Windows share for this mount |
Optionally, select this check box to specify if the mounted recovery point can be shared, and then set access rights to it, including the Share name and Allowed groups. |
- Click Finish to mount the recovery point.
- Optionally, while the task is in process, you can view its progress from the Running Tasks drop-down menu on the Core Console, or you can view detailed information on the Events page. For more information about monitoring Rapid Recovery events, see Viewing events using tasks, alerts, and journal pages.