Overview
Ironcore Backup Solution (IBS) offers three restore paths depending on the recovery scenario:- VM-Level Restore brings back a full virtual machine, optionally on a new host and with a new name.
- Live-Restore registers and powers on the VM in seconds — the remaining blocks stream on demand while the OS is running.
- File-Level Restore opens a snapshot in a read-only browser and recovers individual files or directories.
Prerequisites
- An active Polystack account with project membership
- At least one snapshot available in a datastore your project can read
- For VM restore, a target compute host with adequate resources
Compare Restore Methods
Live-Restore a VM
Live-restore powers on the VM the moment the snapshot manifest is read. Blocks are pulled from the datastore on demand as the guest OS accesses them.- Dashboard
- CLI
Open the snapshot
Navigate to Backup Solution > Snapshots and open the snapshot
you want to restore.
Click Live-Restore
On the snapshot detail page, click Live-Restore.
Choose the target host
Select the Target host from the dropdown. The Dashboard filters for
compute hosts that have enough RAM and disk headroom.
Choose target storage
Select the Target storage backend for the new VM disk.
Optionally rename
Provide a new VM name and ID if the original is still present.
Start the restore
Click Start. The Dashboard shows two progress bars — guest
availability and background restore.
VM transitions to Running within seconds. Background restore continues to completion.
Standard VM-Level Restore
A full restore reconstructs every block before powering the VM on. Use this when you want the new VM to start from a fully-resident disk image.- Dashboard
- CLI
Open the snapshot
Navigate to the snapshot in Backup Solution > Snapshots.
Click Restore VM
On the snapshot detail page, click Restore VM.
Set restore options
Pick the target host, storage backend, and a new VM name or ID. Leave
Live unchecked.
Start the restore
Click Start.
VM transitions to Stopped when restore completes. Power on manually when ready.
File-Level Restore
Recover a single file, directory, or archive without restoring the full VM.- Dashboard
- CLI
Open the snapshot file browser
Open the snapshot and click File Browser.
Navigate to the path
Browse the directory tree or use the search bar to find a file by name
or content.
Select and download
Select one or more files. Click Download to receive the selection
as a ZIP, a Zstandard-compressed tarball, or a single file.
The browser begins streaming the requested files.
The file browser opens the snapshot read-only and decrypts chunks on demand.
Original metadata (owner, permissions, modification time) is preserved in
every download format.
Container Restore
- Dashboard
- CLI
Open the snapshot
Open the container snapshot in Backup Solution > Snapshots.
Click Restore Container
On the snapshot detail page, click Restore Container.
Set target options
Pick the target host and storage backend. Optionally rename the container.
Start the restore
Click Start.
The container is restored with the original filesystem state.
Host File Restore
Restore one or more files from a physical host backup back to the host or to a different machine.Restore /etc/nginx from a host backup to a different machine
Restore Time Estimates
These ranges are typical for a modern 10 GbE network with healthy datastores. Actual times vary with deduplication hit rate, network throughput, and target storage speed.Troubleshooting
Live-Restore is slow despite high network capacity
Live-Restore is slow despite high network capacity
Check whether the target storage backend is healthy and not saturated. Also
confirm the workload running on the guest is not generating heavy random IO
— live-restore prioritises guest IO requests over background restore.
File browser fails with `decryption error`
File browser fails with `decryption error`
The snapshot was created with an encryption key your project does not have
access to. Contact the backup administrator to grant access to the key or
to provide a paperkey-restored credential.
Restored VM does not boot
Restored VM does not boot
Boot order, virtio drivers, or storage backend differences between the source
and target hosts can prevent first boot. Open the VM console and inspect the
boot loader. Re-attach the original storage type if mismatched.
`destination not writable`
`destination not writable`
The target host or storage is full or read-only. Free space or change the
target storage backend.
Next Steps
Monitoring Jobs
Track running restore tasks and review history
Verification and Validation
Verify backups before relying on them in a restore scenario
Troubleshooting
Diagnose restore errors and unexpected behaviour
How It Works
Conceptual overview of the restore pipeline