You can restore specific files and folders from a vSphere VM backup using the vSphere Agent. For example, you can restore individual files from a My Documents folder or restore the entire My Documents folder instead of restoring the VM or VMDK where the folder resides.
Note: If you are restoring files and folders using the vSphere Recovery Agent, see Restore files and folders using a vSphere Recovery Agent.
You can only restore files and folders when both the vSphere Agent and vault versions are 7.00 or later. Files and folders can be restored from safesets that were created using vSphere Agent version 6.90 or later and version 6.x vaults, but only after both the Agent and vault are upgraded to version 7.00 or later.
You can restore specific files and folders from a VM backup using the following steps:
1. Using Portal, from a vSphere backup, select a VMDK with files and folders you want to restore and share the VMDK. This process provides a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path (CIFS share) for accessing the VMDK on the machine where you want to restore files.
For more information, see Share a VMDK from a vSphere backup.
2. Access the shared VMDK on the machine where you want to restore files. You can access the CIFS share on any supported Windows host, or on a Linux host with the Samba client.
Note: Samba is an installable option with some Linux distributions, or you can download the open-source software from www.samba.org.
The preferred method of accessing shared VMDKs on supported Windows operating system is to use the Dynamic Disk Tool (provided with the vSphere Agent). If the shared VMDK is a Windows dynamic disk, you must use the Dynamic Disk Tool to access files and folders on the disk. If you do not use this tool, not all data will be accessible.
Note: The Dynamic Disk Tool is a Windows-based application. It can only be used to mount supported Windows file systems. You cannot use the Dynamic Disk Tool to mount Linux or other file systems. For a list of supported Windows versions, see the release notes.
For more information, see Access a shared VMDK and restore files.
3. Copy files and folders from the shared VMDK to the desired location.