Avamar - How to retrieve the system_info area files from an Avamar backup

Summary: In this article you will find the steps to retrieve the system_info area files from an Avamar backup

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Symptoms

In some cases, during Avamar Backup/Restore troubleshooting, we need to retrieve a backup info metadata - system_info area files.

Cause

Avamar saves the entire backup information for a specific backup in the gsan component along with the backups in the .system_info directory

 

Each backup will contain a '.system_info' directory

 

The following information is available in the '.system_info' directory.

  • 1. Entire session Log
  • 2. Work Order
  • 3. The filesystems of the client being backed up
  • 4. Backup statistics log for the session
  • 5. File statistics
  • 6. errors along with error code

 

Resolution

To extract the '.system_info' directory, restore the backup metadata directory using the syntax:

From any system with access to the Avamar server, in this example it is from a Windows PC: 
  • avtar.exe -x --server=<Avamar server FQDN or IP> --id=<MC user name> --ap=<MC user's password> --path=<domain>/<client name> --labelnum=<Label number> --target=<Path at local disk> ".system_info" --internal

     
Example directly connected to the Utility node via SSH: 
  • avtar -x --path=<domain>/<client name> --labelnum=<Label number> --target=./​​​​​ .system_info --internal

Notes:

  • If a backup label is not specified the '.system_info' directory of the latest backup is extracted.
  • Since the directory is hidden, we need to use the --internal flag to restore it as shown above.

 

The following files will be restored into the target path once the '.system_info' directory is restored:

-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   1376 Nov  3 15:15 archive_info
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   4272 Nov  3 15:15 archive_info.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    295 Nov  3 15:15 encodings.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    100 Nov  3 15:15 errors
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin  15835 Nov  3 15:15 filestats
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    175 Nov  3 15:15 groups
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    282 Nov  3 15:15 locale.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   1221 Nov  3 15:15 machine.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin 262144 Nov  3 15:15 mbr0.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin      0 Nov  3 15:15 mounts
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    271 Nov  3 15:15 partitiontables.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin  11889 Nov  3 15:15 sessionlog
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin  82666 Nov  3 15:15 statsfile
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin    243 Nov  3 15:15 users
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   8192 Nov  3 15:15 vbr0-0.bin
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   1088 Nov  3 15:15 volumes.xml
-rw-r--r--  1 admin admin   2860 Nov  3 15:15 workorder


 

    Additional Information

    Some utility of the information contained in the .system_info directory:

    • The session log can be used to troubleshoot if the logs from the client machine are not available/accessible.
    • The same can be used along with the work order details to resolve issues.
    • The file stats and the backup stats can be used to troubleshoot slow backups
    • The file system files [such as volumes.xml, machine.xml, partitiontables.xml, CriticalVolumeMapping.xml, BackupComponentsDocument.xml] contain information that can be used to re-create clients in the case of DR Restore (BMR).

    Affected Products

    Avamar
    Article Properties
    Article Number: 000102778
    Article Type: Solution
    Last Modified: 28 May 2023
    Version:  5
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