windows server backup using powershell

Question

I want to test backups after completion by confirming that I can recover a sentinel file.

We all know that a frequent backup, and later storage, copy in a different environment provides extra security. For that purpose, our backup storage server, named Vault, keeps multiple extra copies of our daily backups.

Testing sample code:

$Backup  = '\\localhost\d$\Vault\One'
$ex      =""
try{
    # I have no clue how to get the servers from Get-WBBackupSet, so, resort to parsing the error
    # Get-WBBackupSet error response when multiple backups are stored:
    #Backups of multiple computers are in the backup storage location. The computers for which backups are present are:
    #bdc iis myblue quickbooks sqlserver <redacted> .
    #Please specify the computer that you want to manage backups for.

    $servers=@{}
    Get-WBBackupSet -BackupTarget $BackupTarget
  } catch {
    $m=($_ -split "`r`n")[0]
    $ix=$m.IndexOf(":")
    $l=$m.Substring($ix+1)
    $ix=$l.IndexOf(" . ")
    $Servers=$($l.Substring(0,$ix).split(" "))|? {$_ -ne ''} }

    $servers | %{
      $BackupSet = Get-WBBackupSet -BackupTarget $BackupTarget -MachineName $_
      Write-host "  $("$_".PadRight(12))$($($BackupSet.BackupTime).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm tt ddd"))"
      $BackupSet.Volume | ? { $_.MountPath -ne '' } | % {
        $V=$_
        Write-Host $($v.VolumeLabel.PadRight(12)) $($v.MountPath.PadRight(6)) " `
          "$(($_.FreeSpace/1GB).tostring("n2").PadLeft(8))Gb  $(($_.TotalSpace/1GB).ToString("n2").PadLeft(8))Gb "

        Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath   -VolumeInBackup $_ -BackupSet $BackupSet
      }
  }

I can't get Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath to work to recover a well-known sentinel file stored on each volume:

"\\localhost\d$\Vault\One"
  admin        2020-03-13 07:00 PM Fri
                  C:         21.38GB     59.46GB

Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath : an attempt to retrieve the properties for the backup set
                               failed because the backup set is not in the catalog.

at "C:\Repos\PowerShell\BackupStatus.ps1":... char:13
+             Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath   -VolumeInBackup $_ -Backup ...
+             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath], Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.Exception,Microsoft.Windows.ServerBackup.Commands.GetWBBackupVolumeBrowsePath

Where or how to reference a catalog? Using WBbackup, I can open and retrieve a single file from Vault, but I have about 25 servers' backups to check!!!

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 17 '20 at 17:45

Get-BackupSet by itself will return all backup sets in your system catalog. You should be able to use any of those, but Get-WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath seems to require a backup set to be in your system catalog (and not another path) to be able to mount it interactively which it's doing in the background.

You can restore a file directly without a WBBackupVolumeBrowsePath though, and check the restore for errors:

Start-WBFileRecovery -BackupSet $BackupSet -FilePathToRecover "C:\Dir1" -Recursive -FileRecoveryOption CreateCopyIfExists -Force

windows server backup using powershell

1 Answers1