ONTAP Recipes: Did you know you can…?
Easily restore individual files by attaching a virtual disk from primary backup using SnapCenter
You can attach one or more virtual disks from a primary backup to the parent VM (the same VM that the virtual disk was originally associated with and not a different VM). This makes it easier to restore one or more individual files from a drive instead of restoring the entire drive. You can detach the virtual disk after you have restored the files you need.
1. In the vCenter GUI, click "home icon" in the toolbar, and then select VMs and Templates from the drop-down list.
2. In the left navigation pane, right-click the VM, then select NetApp SnapCenter in the drop-down list, and then select Attach virtual disk in the secondary drop-down list.
3. On the Attach Virtual Disk pane, in the Backup section, select a backup.
You can filter the backup list by clicking "filter icon" and selecting a date and time range, or if you want backups that contain VMware snapshots, or if you want mounted back ups and selecting the location. Click OK.
4. On the Attach Virtual Disk pane, in the Selected Disks section, select one or more disks you want to attach and then click Attach.
5. Verify that the virtual disk is attached by performing the following:
a. Click " home icon" in the toolbar, and then select VMs and Templates from the drop-down list.
b. In the left Navigator pane, right-click a VM, then select Edit settings in the drop-down list.
c. In the Edit Settings box, click Manage other disks and then expand the list for each hard disk to see the list of disk files.
6. The Edit Settings page lists the disks on the VM. You can expand the details for each hard disk to see the list of attached virtual disks.
You can access the attached disks from the host operating system and then retrieve the needed information from the disks.
For more information, see the ONTAP 9 documentation center