The Veeam Cookbook Series

A simple step by step no frills approach to achieving your goal

Recipe: Recovering Guest OS Files using the Web UI

Expected deliverables:

Individual guest OS files and folders recovered from a backup using the Veeam Backup & Replication Web UI.

Time to complete: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

  • A backup or replica with at least one successfully created restore point.
  • [For Linux Workloads] You can restore files only from supported File Systems like ext4, XFS and UFS
  • [For Windows Workloads] You can restore files only from supported File Systems: FAT, NTFS and ReFS
  • The guest OS file system must not be encrypted.
  • If you plan to restore files to a VMware VM, VMware Tools or OpenVM Tools must be installed on the target VM.
  • If you plan to restore files to a Hyper-V VM, Hyper-V Integration Services must be installed on the target VM.
  • Access to the Veeam Web UI with proper privileges.

Before you start:
File Level Restore requires a mount server to mount the workload disks. You can use (depending on operating system) one of these options, or leave the default Automatic Selection:

  • A Windows or Linux existing Mount Server
  • The original Linux machine to recover files from Linux workloads
  • Linux servers added to the backup infrastructure

Files can be recovered to the original location or downloaded as a .ZIP to the machine where the Web UI is open.

Assumptions:
You have a Veeam Backup and Replication server installed.

Method:

  1. Log in to the Veeam Web UI.
  2. In the management pane, select Backups.
  3. In the working area, select the workload whose files you want to recover, then click Restore Guest Files.
  4. In the Browse area:
    • Select a restore point.
    • Select a mount server (or keep the default).
    • Click Select.
  5. Browse the guest file system, right-click the files or folders you want to recover and select one of these options:
    • Restore > Keep (saves next to the originals with a RESTORED postfix)
    • Restore > Overwrite
    • Click Download to save them as a .ZIP to your machine.

Links to Resources:


Back to top

Copyright © 2025 Solutions Architects, Veeam Software.