Restore Azure File Shares using REST API

Article
09/19/2024

This article explains how to restore an entire file share or specific files from a restore point created by Azure Backup by using the REST API.

By the end of this article, you learn how to perform the following operations using REST API:

View restore points for a backed-up Azure file share.
Restore a full Azure file share.
Restore individual files or folders.

Prerequisites

We assume that you already have a backed-up file share you want to restore. If you don’t, check Backup Azure file share using REST API to learn how to create one.

For this article, we use the following resources:

RecoveryServicesVault: azurefilesvault
Resource group: azurefiles
Storage Account: afsaccount
File Share: azurefiles

Fetch ContainerName and ProtectedItemName

For most of the restore related API calls, you need to pass values for the {containerName} and {protectedItemName} URI parameters. Use the ID attribute in the response body of the GET backupprotectableitems operation to retrieve values for these parameters. In our example, the ID of the file share we want to protect is:

"/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/storagecontainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectableItems/azurefileshare;azurefiles

So the values translate as follows:

{containername} - storagecontainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount
{protectedItemName} - azurefileshare;azurefiles

To restore any backed-up file share or files, first select a recovery point to perform the restore operation. The available recovery points of a backed-up item can be listed using the Recovery Point-List REST API call. It's a GET operation with all the relevant values.

GET https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupFabrics/{fabricName}/protectionContainers/{containerName}/protectedItems/{protectedItemName}/recoveryPoints?api-version=2019-05-13&$filter={$filter}

Set the URI values as follows:

{fabricName}: Azure
{vaultName}: azurefilesvault
{containername}: storagecontainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount
{protectedItemName}: azurefileshare;azurefiles
{ResourceGroupName}: azurefiles

The GET URI has all the required parameters. There's no need for another request body.

GET https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/recoveryPoints?api-version=2019-05-13

Example response for fetch recovery points

Once the GET URI is submitted, a 200 response is returned:

HTTP/1.1" 200 None
'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'
'Pragma': 'no-cache'
'Transfer-Encoding': 'chunked'
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'
'Expires': '-1'
'Vary': 'Accept-Encoding'
'X-Content-Type-Options': 'nosniff'
'x-ms-request-id': 'd68d7951-7d97-4c49-9a2d-7fbaab55233a'
'x-ms-client-request-id': '4edb5a58-47ea-11ea-a27a-0a580af41908, 4edb5a58-47ea-11ea-a27a-0a580af41908'
'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains'
'Server': 'Microsoft-IIS/10.0'
'X-Powered-By': 'ASP.NET'
'x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-reads': '11998'
'x-ms-correlation-request-id': 'd68d7951-7d97-4c49-9a2d-7fbaab55233a'
'x-ms-routing-request-id': 'CHINANORTH2:20200205T073708Z:d68d7951-7d97-4c49-9a2d-7fbaab55233a'
'Date': 'Wed, 05 Feb 2020 07:37:08 GMT'
{
“value”:[
  {
    "eTag": null,
    "id": "/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/recoveryPoints/932881138555802864",
    "location": null,
    "name": "932881138555802864",
    "properties": {
      "fileShareSnapshotUri": "https://afsaccount.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/azurefiles?sharesnapshot=2020-02-04T08:01:35.0000000Z",
      "objectType": "AzureFileShareRecoveryPoint",
      "recoveryPointSizeInGb": 1,
      "recoveryPointTime": "2020-02-04T08:01:35+00:00",
      "recoveryPointType": "FileSystemConsistent"
    },
    "resourceGroup": "azurefiles",
    "tags": null,
    "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupFabrics/protectionContainers/protectedItems/recoveryPoints"
  },
  {
    "eTag": null,
    "id": "/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/recoveryPoints/932878582606969225",
    "location": null,
    "name": "932878582606969225",
    "properties": {
      "fileShareSnapshotUri": "https://afsaccount.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/azurefiles?sharesnapshot=2020-02-03T08:05:30.0000000Z",
      "objectType": "AzureFileShareRecoveryPoint",
      "recoveryPointSizeInGb": 1,
      "recoveryPointTime": "2020-02-03T08:05:30+00:00",
      "recoveryPointType": "FileSystemConsistent"
    },
    "resourceGroup": "azurefiles",
    "tags": null,
    "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupFabrics/protectionContainers/protectedItems/recoveryPoints"
  },
  {
    "eTag": null,
    "id": "/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/recoveryPoints/932890167574511261",
    "location": null,
    "name": "932890167574511261",
    "properties": {
      "fileShareSnapshotUri": "https://afsaccount.file.core.chinacloudapi.cn/azurefiles?sharesnapshot=2020-02-02T08:03:50.0000000Z",
      "objectType": "AzureFileShareRecoveryPoint",
      "recoveryPointSizeInGb": 1,
      "recoveryPointTime": "2020-02-02T08:03:50+00:00",
      "recoveryPointType": "FileSystemConsistent"
    },
    "resourceGroup": "azurefiles",
    "tags": null,
    "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupFabrics/protectionContainers/protectedItems/recoveryPoints"
  },

The recovery point is identified with the {name} field in the response above.

Use this restore option to restore the complete file share in the original or an alternate location. Triggering restore is a POST request and you can perform this operation using the trigger restore REST API.

POST https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupFabrics/{fabricName}/protectionContainers/{containerName}/protectedItems/{protectedItemName}/recoveryPoints/{recoveryPointId}/restore?api-version=2019-05-13

The values {containerName} and {protectedItemName} are as set here and recoveryPointID is the {name} field of the recovery point mentioned above.

POST https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare%3Bazurefiles/recoveryPoints/932886657837421071/restore?api-version=2019-05-13'

Create request body

To trigger a restore for an Azure file share, the following are the components of the request body:

Name	Type	Description
Properties	AzureFileShareRestoreRequest	RestoreRequestResource properties

For the complete list of definitions of the request body and other details, refer to the trigger Restore REST API document.

Restore to original location

Request body example for restore to original location

The following request body defines properties required to trigger an Azure file share restore:

{
   "properties":{
      "objectType":"AzureFileShareRestoreRequest",
      "recoveryType":"OriginalLocation",
      "sourceResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/AzureFiles/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/afsaccount",
      "copyOptions":"Overwrite",
      "restoreRequestType":"FullShareRestore"
}
}

Restore to alternate location

Specify the following parameters for alternate location recovery:

targetResourceId: The storage account to which the backed-up content is restored. The target storage account must be in the same location as the vault.
name: The file share within the target storage account to which the backed-up content is restored.
targetFolderPath: The folder under the file share to which data is restored.

Request body example for restore to alternate location

The following request body restores the azurefiles file share in the afsaccount storage account to the azurefiles1 file share in the afaccount1 storage account.

{
   "properties":{
      "objectType":"AzureFileShareRestoreRequest",
      "recoveryType":"AlternateLocation",
      "sourceResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/AzureFiles/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/afsaccount",
      "copyOptions":"Overwrite",
      "restoreRequestType":"FullShareRestore",
      "restoreFileSpecs":[
         {
            "targetFolderPath":"restoredata"
}
],
      "targetDetails":{
         "name":"azurefiles1",
         "targetResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/AzureFiles/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/afaccount1"
}
}
}

Response

The triggering of a restore operation is an asynchronous operation. This operation creates another operation that needs to be tracked separately. It returns two responses: 202 (Accepted) when another operation is created, and 200 (OK) when that operation completes.

Response example

Once you submit the POST URI for triggering a restore, the initial response is 202 (Accepted) with a location header or Azure-async-header.

HTTP/1.1" 202
'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'
'Pragma': 'no-cache'
'Expires': '-1'
'Location': 'https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/operationResults/68ccfbc1-a64f-4b29-b955-314b5790cfa9?api-version=2019-05-13'
'Retry-After': '60'
'Azure-AsyncOperation': 'https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare;azurefiles/operationsStatus/68ccfbc1-a64f-4b29-b955-314b5790cfa9?api-version=2019-05-13'
'X-Content-Type-Options': 'nosniff'
'x-ms-request-id': '2426777d-c5ec-44b6-a324-384f8947460c'
'x-ms-client-request-id': '3c743096-47eb-11ea-ae90-0a580af41908, 3c743096-47eb-11ea-ae90-0a580af41908'
'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains'
'X-Powered-By': 'ASP.NET'
'x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-writes': '1198'
'x-ms-correlation-request-id': '2426777d-c5ec-44b6-a324-384f8947460c'
'x-ms-routing-request-id': 'CHINANORTH2:20200205T074347Z:2426777d-c5ec-44b6-a324-384f8947460c'
'Date': 'Wed, 05 Feb 2020 07:43:47 GMT'

Then track the resulting operation using the location header or the Azure-AsyncOperation header with a GET command.

GET https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupOperations/68ccfbc1-a64f-4b29-b955-314b5790cfa9?api-version=2016-12-01

Once the operation completes, it returns 200 (OK) with the ID of the resulting restore job in the response body.

HTTP/1.1" 200
'Cache-Control': 'no-cache'
'Pragma': 'no-cache'
'Transfer-Encoding': 'chunked'
'Content-Type': 'application/json'
'Content-Encoding': 'gzip'
'Expires': '-1'
'Vary': 'Accept-Encoding'
'X-Content-Type-Options': 'nosniff'
'x-ms-request-id': '41ee89b2-3be4-40d8-8ff6-f5592c2571e3'
'x-ms-client-request-id': '3c743096-47eb-11ea-ae90-0a580af41908, 3c743096-47eb-11ea-ae90-0a580af41908'
'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains'
'Server': 'Microsoft-IIS/10.0'
'X-Powered-By': 'ASP.NET'
'x-ms-ratelimit-remaining-subscription-reads': '11998'
'x-ms-correlation-request-id': '41ee89b2-3be4-40d8-8ff6-f5592c2571e3'
'x-ms-routing-request-id': 'CHINANORTH2:20200205T074348Z:41ee89b2-3be4-40d8-8ff6-f5592c2571e3'
'Date': 'Wed, 05 Feb 2020 07:43:47 GMT'
{
  "id": "/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupJobs/a7e97e42-4e54-4d4b-b449-26fcf946f42c",
  "location": null,
  "name": "a7e97e42-4e54-4d4b-b449-26fcf946f42c",
  "properties": {
    "actionsInfo": [
      "Cancellable"
    ],
    "activityId": "3c743096-47eb-11ea-ae90-0a580af41908",
    "backupManagementType": "AzureStorage",
    "duration": "0:00:01.863098",
    "endTime": null,
    "entityFriendlyName": "azurefiles",
    "errorDetails": null,
    "extendedInfo": {
      "dynamicErrorMessage": null,
      "propertyBag": {},
      "tasksList": []
    },
    "jobType": "AzureStorageJob",
    "operation": "Restore",
    "startTime": "2020-02-05T07:43:47.144961+00:00",
    "status": "InProgress",
    "storageAccountName": "afsaccount",
    "storageAccountVersion": "Storage"
  },
  "resourceGroup": "azurefiles",
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupJobs"
}

For alternate location recovery, the response body will be like this:

{
  "id": "/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupJobs/7e0ee41e-6e31-4728-a25c-98ff6b777641",
  "location": null,
  "name": "7e0ee41e-6e31-4728-a25c-98ff6b777641",
  "properties": {
    "actionsInfo": [
      "Cancellable"
    ],
    "activityId": "6077be6e-483a-11ea-a915-0a580af4ad72",
    "backupManagementType": "AzureStorage",
    "duration": "0:00:02.171965",
    "endTime": null,
    "entityFriendlyName": "azurefiles",
    "errorDetails": null,
    "extendedInfo": {
      "dynamicErrorMessage": null,
      "propertyBag": {
        "Data Transferred (in MB)": "0",
        "Job Type": "Recover to an alternate file share",
        "Number Of Failed Files": "0",
        "Number Of Restored Files": "0",
        "Number Of Skipped Files": "0",
        "RestoreDestination": "afaccount1/azurefiles1/restoredata",
        "Source File Share Name": "azurefiles",
        "Source Storage Account Name": "afsaccount",
        "Target File Share Name": "azurefiles1",
        "Target Storage Account Name": "afaccount1"
      },
      "tasksList": []
    },
    "jobType": "AzureStorageJob",
    "operation": "Restore",
    "startTime": "2020-02-05T17:10:18.106532+00:00",
    "status": "InProgress",
    "storageAccountName": "afsaccount",
    "storageAccountVersion": "ClassicCompute"
  },
  "resourceGroup": "azurefiles",
  "tags": null,
  "type": "Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/backupJobs"
}

Since the backup job is a long running operation, it should be tracked as explained in the monitor jobs using REST API document.

Item level recovery using REST API

You can use this restore option to restore individual files or folders in the original or an alternate location.

POST https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroupName}/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/{vaultName}/backupFabrics/{fabricName}/protectionContainers/{containerName}/protectedItems/{protectedItemName}/recoveryPoints/{recoveryPointId}/restore?api-version=2019-05-13

The values {containerName} and {protectedItemName} are as set here and recoveryPointID is the {name} field of the recovery point mentioned above.

POST https://management.chinacloudapi.cn/Subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.RecoveryServices/vaults/azurefilesvault/backupFabrics/Azure/protectionContainers/StorageContainer;storage;azurefiles;afsaccount/protectedItems/AzureFileShare%3Bazurefiles/recoveryPoints/932886657837421071/restore?api-version=2019-05-13'

Create request body for item-level recovery using REST API

To trigger a restore for an Azure file share, the following are the components of the request body:

Name	Type	Description
Properties	AzureFileShareRestoreRequest	RestoreRequestResource properties

For the complete list of definitions of the request body and other details, refer to the trigger Restore REST API document.

Restore to original location for item-level recovery using REST API

The following request body is to restore the Restoretest.txt file in the azurefiles file share in the afsaccount storage account.

Create Request Body

{
   "properties":{
      "objectType":"AzureFileShareRestoreRequest",
      "copyOptions":"Overwrite",
      "recoveryType":"OriginalLocation",
      "restoreFileSpecs":[
         {
            "fileSpecType":"File",
            "path":"RestoreTest.txt",
            "targetFolderPath":null
}
],
      "restoreRequestType":"ItemLevelRestore",
      "sourceResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/azurefiles/providers/Microsoft.storage/storageAccounts/afsaccount",
      "targetDetails":null
}
}

Restore to alternate location for item-level recovery using REST API

The following request body is to restore the Restoretest.txt file in the azurefiles file share in the afsaccount storage account to the restoredata folder of the azurefiles1 file share in the afaccount1 storage account.

Create request body

{
   "properties":{
      "objectType":"AzureFileShareRestoreRequest",
      "recoveryType":"AlternateLocation",
      "sourceResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/AzureFiles/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/afsaccount",
      "copyOptions":"Overwrite",
      "restoreRequestType":"ItemLevelRestore",
      "restoreFileSpecs":[
         {
            "path":"Restore/RestoreTest.txt",
            "fileSpecType":"File",
            "targetFolderPath":"restoredata"
}
],
      "targetDetails":{
         "name":"azurefiles1",
         "targetResourceId":"/subscriptions/ef4ab5a7-c2c0-4304-af80-af49f48af3d1/resourceGroups/AzureFiles/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/afaccount1"
}
}
}

The response should be handled in the same way as explained above for full share restores.

Next steps

Learn how to manage Azure file shares backup using REST API.

Restore Azure File Shares using REST API

Prerequisites

Fetch ContainerName and ProtectedItemName

Fetch recovery points for backed up Azure file share

Example response for fetch recovery points

Full share recovery using REST API

Create request body

Restore to original location

Request body example for restore to original location

Restore to alternate location

Request body example for restore to alternate location

Response

Response example

Item level recovery using REST API

Create request body for item-level recovery using REST API

Restore to original location for item-level recovery using REST API

Restore to alternate location for item-level recovery using REST API

Next steps

Additional resources