Restoring a Backup to a New Volume

You can restore a backup of a volume as a new volume using Block Volume.

You can restore a volume from any of your incremental or full volume backups. Both backup types enable you to restore the full volume contents to the point-in-time snapshot of the volume when the backup was taken. You don't need to keep the initial full backup or subsequent incremental backups in the backup chain and restore them in sequence, you only need to keep the backups taken for the times you care about. See Volume Backup Types for information about full and incremental backup types.

Required IAM Policy

To use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, you must be granted security access in a policy  by an administrator. This access is required whether you're using the Console or the REST API with an SDK, CLI, or other tool. If you get a message that you don’t have permission or are unauthorized, verify with your administrator what type of access you have and which compartment  to work in.

For administrators: The policy in Let volume admins manage block volumes, backups, and volume groups lets the specified group do everything with block volumes and backups.

Tip

When users create a backup from a volume or restore a volume from a backup, the volume and backup don't have to be in the same compartment . However, users must have access to both compartments.
If you're new to policies, see Getting Started with Policies and Common Policies. For reference material about writing policies for instances, cloud networks, or other Core Services API resources, see Details for the Core Services.

Using the Console

  1. Open the navigation menu and click Storage. Under Block Storage, click Block Volume Backups.

    A list of the block volume backups in the compartment you're viewing is displayed. If you don't see the one you're looking for, make sure you're viewing the correct compartment (select from the list on the left side of the page).

  2. Click the Actions menu (Actions Menu) for the block volume backup you want to restore.
  3. Click Create Block Volume.
  4. Enter a name for the block volume and choose the availability domain in which you want to restore it. Avoid entering confidential information.
  5. You can restore a block volume backup to a larger volume size. To do this, check Custom Block Volume Size (GB), and then specify the new size. You can only increase the size of the volume, you cannot decrease the size. If you restore the block volume backup to a larger size volume, you need to extend the volume's partition, see Extending the Partition for a Block Volume for more information.

  6. Optionally, you can select the appropriate backup policy for your requirements. See Policy-Based Backups for more information about backup policies.
  7. Optionally, you can encrypt the data in this volume using your own Vault encryption key. To use Vault for your encryption needs, select the Encrypt using Vault check box. Select the vault compartment and vault that contains the master encryption key that you want to use, and then select the master encryption key compartment and master encryption key.

  8. If you have permissions to create a resource, then you also have permissions to apply free-form tags to that resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permissions to use the tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource Tags. If you're not sure whether to apply tags, skip this option or ask an administrator. You can apply tags later.
  9. Click Create.

    The volume will be ready to attach once its icon no longer lists it as PROVISIONING in the volume list. For more information, see Attaching a Block Volume to an Instance.

Caution

If you want to attach a restored volume that has the original volume attached, be aware that some operating systems do not allow you to restore identical volumes. To resolve this, you should change the partition IDs before restoring the volume. How to change an operating system's partition ID varies by operating system; for instructions, see your operating system's documentation.

Using the API

The API used to restore a backup is CreateVolume. The API has an optional volumeBackupId parameter that you can use to define the backup from which the data should be restored on the newly created volume. For details, see CreateVolumeDetails Reference.

For information about using the API and signing requests, see REST API documentation and Security Credentials. For information about SDKs, see SDKs and the CLI.

For more information about backups, see Overview of Block Volume Backups and Creating a Manual Backup for a Block Volume.