Archive and Restore jobs are now built into ShareBrowser and Slingshot to help users efficiently manage storage by archiving files/folders to remote SMB or S3 storage and restoring them when needed.
This feature is focused on freeing up local storage while ensuring files remain accessible for future use, with robust controls for permissions, metadata, and job management.
Requirements
- EVO 7.1.0.154 or later
- ShareBrowser 7.1
- A compatible S3 or SMB archive
Archive compatibility
To use ShareBrowser's built in archive and restore features, you will need one of the following:
- SNS Trio
- A third-party cloud archive which works with EVO's replication jobs using an S3 alias (i.e. Amazon, Storj, Backblaze, Wasabi)
- An SMB share
Configure on EVO
The first step is to configure archive settings on your EVO. Depending on your archive destination, this will require you to either mount a remote SMB Share or create an SNS Trio, or S3 alias
If using an SMB share, this can be mounted as a remote share on under Shares -> Remote Shares:
Important note when using SMB shares: The hostname/IP used when remote mounting the destination will be retained by ShareBrowser. In order to restore from this share, EVO will expect it at the same hostname/IP. DNS may be a consideration here.
If using an SNS Trio or S3 Cloud location, this should be created as an alias.
Go to Slingshot -> Settings -> Alias:
Note: The alias must be non-private and created by the administrator for archive/restore functionality
Next, navigate to Slingshot -> Archive/Restore:
Click the Archive box to edit archive settings and fill out as needed:
- Destination: Here you choose SNS Trio, S3 or SMB depending on the type
- Alias/Share: Here you choose the previously created alias or the remote mounted SMB share
- Path: If changing this from the default given EVO ID name, a new folder will be created in the chosen path with the EVO ID.
- Archive group: The chosen group will have the ability to archive files and folders to which they have access. This must be a local EVO group, although it can contain users from AD/LDAP.
- Advanced settings: You can choose whether to further verify the data after transfer, decide if you want to delete the source once verification is complete, and adjust the logging level
Once the archive is configured, click Restore to edit the restore settings:
- Verification: This will check the file integrity after a file is restored with the archived version
- Log level: This can be raised if needed for troubleshooting. Logs are written to the same location as replication logs
- Restore group: The chosen group will have the ability to restore files and folders to which they have access. This must be a local EVO group, although it can contain users from AD/LDAP.
Once the archive and restore settings are complete, archiving and restoring can be turned on by toggling the jobs on.
Turning these off will immediately stop archive/restore jobs, failing any currently running tasks and pausing any queued tasks.
In ShareBrowser
Archiving
Any user that's part of the assigned archive group should have a new option in the right-click context menu for Archive:
A user will see the following message with the added section if the file will be deleted after the archive.
When a file is sent to archive, progress will be available in ShareBrowser and the job will be available to follow or cancel in Slingshot -> Archive/Restore.
Once an archive is complete, a ShareBrowser refresh may be needed to reflect a file's current status:
After archiving, files will have a tape icon over the thumbnail.
Any folders that still exist will have an icon noting they're partially archived:
Once they're removed, they will appear fully archived:
After archiving, a file will contain read-only Slingshot archive metadata that cannot be changed from ShareBrowser unless overwritten by a subsequent archive.
Note: Versioning is NOT supported, so if a file is sent to an archive more than once, this metadata will be rewritten and only the last version of the file will be restored.
Restoring
To restore a file, a member of the chosen restore group will have the ability to right-click and restore a file or folder that has been archived.
If the files that are restoring have not been deleted, then the user will see the following message:
Deleting
When deleting files that have been archived, a user will see the following notice:
Note: After a file is removed all users will see the archived files for which they have permission to the parent folders.
Hiding archived files
In ShareBrowser Settings -> General there is an option to show archived files that have been deleted. To hide files that have been archived, uncheck this box:
Important things to note
- Shares must be mounted: To archive and restore in ShareBrowser, the shares you are archiving/restoring to/from must be mounted in ShareBrowser as well as on EVO, since Slingshot is performing the operations.
- All S3 is not created equal: ShareBrowser archiving supports the S3 cloud aliases currently supported by replication jobs. This does not mean that any S3 API-based archiving will be functional. Basic testing was done with Amazon, Backblaze, Wasabi, and Storj.
- Glacier is not supported: Deep archiving is not currently available and will time out. To restore from Amazon Glacier, you must first change the storage class of the requested files.
- Files cannot be un-archived: Once a file is marked as archived in ShareBrowser, it cannot be unmarked, and will be assumed to live where it was sent for archive.
- It is impossible to remove an alias selected as an archive destination: Another archive must first be configured in the archive settings.
- BACKUP SHAREBROWSER DATABASES: The default daily backup location for EVO is in sys-management and the backups are scheduled to be deleted every 4 weeks. This location should further be backed up for disaster recovery especially when dealing with long-living assets in archive.