Restores¶

After you have successfully backed up a protected system, you can initiate a restore from the Restores page. Slide offers several restore options, including virtualization, file restore, and image export. Other restore options will be added in the future.

You can create a restore from the big blue "Create Restore" button or via the Snapshots page. Depending on the type of restore, a different dialog will walk you through the necessary steps.

Virtualization¶

A virtualization lets you instantly boot a backup as a virtual machine, either on your local Slide Box or in the Slide Cloud. This is incredibly useful for instantly getting the protected system back up and running in the event of a disaster or for testing purposes.

The "Create Virtual Machine" dialog lets you pick the protected system you'd like to restore, as well as a snapshot to restore from. You can also choose the virtualization location (local or cloud) and the virtualization settings (e.g. CPU, memory, and network).

Here's an overview of all settings in the "Basic" tab:

• Protected System: The protected system you'd like to restore.
• Snapshot: The snapshot you'd like to restore from.
• Location: The location where the virtual machine will be created. This is either the local Slide Box or the Slide Cloud. If the snapshot is not available in both locations, you can only choose the location where the snapshot is available.
• Purpose: The purpose of the virtual machine. Available options are:
  • Test (default): The virtual machine is for testing purposes. The machine will automatically be shutdown after 3 days, and will be destroyed after 2 weeks.
  • Disaster: The virtual machine is being created in a disaster scenario. The machine will automatically be shutdown after 3 weeks, and will be destroyed after 2 months.
• Network: The network the virtual machine will be connected to. Available options are:
  • NAT (default): The virtual machine will be connected to a dedicated network with its own IP space. The machine will have internet access, but is isolated from other virtual machines.
  • Bridge to local network (only available on the Slide Box): The virtual machine will be connected to the same network as the Slide Box.
  • None: The virtual machine will not be connected to any network.
• CPUs: The number of virtual CPUs the virtual machine will have.
• Memory: The amount of memory the virtual machine will have.

And a list of all settings in the "Advanced" tab:

• Network Interface Model: The network interface model the virtual machine will use. Available options are "Hypervisor Default", "Intel E1000" (default), and "Realtec RTL8139". The "Intel E1000" model is compatible with most versions of Windows.
• Disk Bus: The disk bus the virtual machine will use. Available options are "SATA" (default) and "VirtIO" (experimental). "SATA" is the most compatible and should be used for most cases. Using "VirtIO" requires injecting the VirtIO drivers, which has not been stable in all cases.
• Enable Administrator User: If enabled, allows the Windows Administrator user to log into the Windows VM in addition to the existing Windows users. This option is helpful if login is not working properly, e.g. due to issues with Windows Hello.

After you've filled out the form, click the "Create" button to start the virtualization. The virtual machine will be created, and you can access it by clicking on the link in the Restores page list.

From the virtualization sidebar, you control the virtual machine's power state (turn it off/on and pause/resume it) or access its remote console. To open the console, click the "Connect to VM" button, and either select "Connect via Web Console" or "Connect via VNC Client". The console is a VNC connection to the virtual machine, which lets you interact with the machine as if you were sitting in front of it.

Web Console¶

The Web Console will open a new tab and show the Windows Desktop in the browser, similar to here:

VNC¶

The VNC Client option will download a VNC connection file that you can open with a VNC client of your choice. This is useful if you prefer a standalone VNC client or if you want to use a VNC client that supports more features than the web based console. Suggested VNC clients are TightVNC or RealVNC Viewer.

After downloading either of these viewers, you'll be able to connect to a virtual machine by simply downloading the file and opening it with the viewer. The viewer will then connect to the virtual machine and show you the Windows Desktop. Here's an example of what it looks like in TightVNC:

Common Issues¶

Login with Windows Hello

Many newer laptops and workstations enable Windows login via PIN, Facial Recognition, or Fingerprint. This feature is known as Windows Hello and is a convenient way to log into your Windows machine without typing a password. It works by storing the credential information (PIN, etc.) in a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a special piece of hardware inside the computer that is required for Windows Hello to work.

Windows Hello credentials cannot be accessed by the backup process, and cannot be backed up. Due to this technical restriction, it is not possible to use Windows Hello to log into a VM restored from a backup, or a machine recreated from an image export. Instead, you will need to use a password to log into the virtual machine.

File Restore¶

A file restore lets you instantly browse files from a backup and download one or multiple files at a time. This is useful for quickly restoring a single file or folder from a backup without having to restore the entire system.

The "Create File Restore" dialog lets you pick the protected system you'd like to create a file restore from. You can pick the snapshot and the location (Slide Box or Slide Cloud) where the snapshot is available. After you've filled out the form, click the "Restore" button to start the file restore.

You'll see a sidebar with details about the restore, as well as options of how to access it. You can access the files via:

• Web Browser: A web based file browser that lets you download files directly from the browser.
• Windows Share (CIFS/SMB/Samba): A Windows share that you can access from your Windows, macOS, or Linux machine. This option is only available if the snapshot is available on the Slide Box.
• WebDAV: A WebDAV share that you can access from your Windows, macOS, or Linux machine.

Web Browser¶

After clicking the "Browse Files" button, you'll be taken to the web based file browser. Here you can navigate through the file system and download files or folders by clicking on them.

Downloading files is straight forward: click on the file or folder you'd like to download, and then click the "Download" button. The file will be downloaded to your local machine. If the file is a folder, the downloaded file is a ZIP archive containing the folder and all its contents.

If the snapshot you selected is located on the Slide Box, you'll see two options to download the file:

• Download via LAN: This option is faster, but requires that your machine is on the same network as the Slide Box.
• Download via Cloud Proxy: This option is slower, but works from anywhere in the world. It routes the download through the Slide Cloud, which can be slower than a direct connection, especially for large files or if the Slide Box has a poor uplink connection.

Windows Share¶

Accessing a file restore via a Windows share is only available if the snapshot is located on the Slide Box. You can access the share from any Windows, macOS, or Linux machine that supports the CIFS/SMB/Samba protocol. Here's how you connect to the share by mapping a drive in Windows Explorer:

In Windows Explorer, right-click on "This PC" and select "Map network drive". In the dialog that opens, enter the share path listed in the sidebar of the file restore into the "Folder" field. The share path may look something like this: \\smb-...slidebox.tech\fr_0jnh40ez0bee. The hostname resolves to the local IP address of the Slide Box.

When asked for credentials, use the credentials listed in the sidebar of the file restore:

Once you successfully mapped the share, you can access the files like you normally would in Windows Explorer. You can copy, move, or delete files, as well as create new files or folders.

WebDAV¶

Image Export¶

An image export lets you instantly export the disks corresponding to a backup as VHD/VHDX or raw disk image files. These disk image files can then be used when creating a virtual machine in an environment of your choosing. You may for instance choose to create a new VM in Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, QEMU/KVM, or VirtualBox and attach the exported images to it.

Supported image file formats:

• VHD: The older disk image format used by Hyper-V. It supports disks up to 2 TB in size.
• Fixed VHDX: The newer disk image format used by Hyper-V. It supports disks up to 64 TB in size. The size will match the size of the disk in the backup. Fixed VHDX is the recommended format for Hyper-V. If you do not have the storage space available for the entire disk, see Dynamic VHDX below.
• Dynamic VHDX: A VHDX disk image that grows as data is written to it. The initial size will be smaller than a Fixed VHDX, however, it depends on the amount of fragmentation and used data on the disk in the backup.
• Raw: A raw disk image file that can be used by most virtualization platforms. QEMU/KVM, VirtualBox, and VMware all support raw disk images.

The "Create Image Export" dialog lets you pick the protected system you'd like to create a file restore from. You can pick the snapshot and the location (Slide Box or Slide Cloud) where the snapshot is available. After you've filled out the form, click the "Restore" button to create the image export.

Here's an overview of all settings in the "Basic" tab:

• Protected System: The protected system you'd like to restore.
• Snapshot: The snapshot you'd like to restore from.
• Location: The location where the virtual machine will be created. This is either the local Slide Box or the Slide Cloud. If the snapshot is not available in both locations, you can only choose the location where the snapshot is available.
• Format: The format of the image export. See above for details on supported image file formats.

And a list of all settings in the "Advanced" tab:

• Enable Administrator User: If enabled, allows the Windows Administrator user to log into the Windows VM in addition to the existing Windows users. This option is helpful if login is not working properly, e.g. due to issues with Windows Hello.

After you've filled out the form, click the "Create" button to start the image export. Once the image export is complete, you'll be redirected to the Restores page with a sidebar showing the details about the image export:

The sidebar shows you links to the disk image files (VHD, VHDX, raw) that were created during the export. For local image exports (Slide Box), you can download the images either via LAN or through the Cloud Proxy. For cloud image exports, you can only download the images directly from the Slide Cloud.

If you are in the same network as the Slide Box, downloading the image files via LAN is the fastest option, as it doesn't route the download through the Cloud Proxy.

Restoring to Hyper-V¶

To create a new Virtual Machine in Hyper-V, you can use either VHD or VHDX image files. VHDX is the recommended and newer format.

After exporting the image in the Slide Console, first download the image file to your Hyper-V host using one of the links in the image export sidebar:

After you've downloaded the disk images, you can create a new Virtual Machine in Hyper-V and attach the disk image to it. To do this, open the Hyper-V Manager, right-click on your Hyper-V host, and select "New" -> "Virtual Machine". This will open the New Virtual Machine Wizard:

Walk through the wizard, selecting the options that fit your environment. When you get to the "Connect Virtual Hard Disk" step, select "Use an existing virtual hard disk" and browse to the downloaded VHDX file(s):

After you've attached the disk image, you can finish the wizard and start the Virtual Machine. The Virtual Machine will boot from the disk image, and you'll be able to interact with it as if it were a physical machine.

Re-enabling the Slide Agent¶

The Slide Agent service is disabled in Image Exports. To re-enable the agent and continue backups:

• In the restored system, open Services.msc.
• Find the Slide Agent service, right-click it, and open Properties.
• Change Startup Type from Disabled to Automatic and click Apply.
• Click Start and verify the service status changes to Running.

Bare Metal Restore from an Image Export¶

Slide does not offer its own Bare Metal Restore (BMR) tool yet. In the meantime, Image Export files are able to be restored to physical hardware via 3rd party imaging tools that support VHD, VHDX, or raw disk image files. In this example we will use two open source tools:

• Rescuezilla - a user-friendly version of the Clonezilla disk imaging tool.
• Etcher - to burn Rescuezilla to a USB drive.

Preparation:

1. Install Etcher and use it to burn the Rescuezilla ISO to a USB drive.
2. Perform an Image Export and download the image file, then make it available to Rescuezilla - either by placing it in a Windows share you can access from the target system, or by copying to a USB drive you can attach to the target system.

Steps:

1. Plug the Rescuezilla USB into your target system, and boot into Rescuezilla. You may need to select the "Graphical fallback" option if booting fails.
2. Select Restore.
3. If you have your restore images in an attached drive, select "Connected directly to my computer". If you have the restore images in a share, select "Shared over a network", and enter your share's location, username, and password.

   

4. Select the image file containing your restore's OS drive.

   

5. Select the target system's drive to transfer the image to. You will overwrite any data on the drive you restore to, so be careful.

   

6. Start the transfer.

   

7. After the process finishes, reboot, and verify you can login to the restored system.
8. If you have additional volumes to restore, you can either use Rescuezilla again (by selecting a different image file and target drive), or else copy data via the restored system (e.g. by opening diskmgmt.msc, selecting "Action" then "Attach VHD", then copying from the restore volume to a new local volume).

   

9. If this is an actual recovery scenario (not a test), and you want to continue backups on the system you restored, you'll need to re-enable the Slide Agent.