Unable to restore backup

[naufil]

Hi everyone,
I am new to Restic and trying to find my way
Till now I am able to install restic and was able to take backup
I have taken backup of a vps and also 3 incremental backup after the full backup
All the backups are stored remotely on backup server using sftp.

The place where I am struck is restoring while restoring I am getting the below error,
can someone explain me what is happening. Simple explanation would be helpful as I am new to Restic

“ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/CentOS7/contents/images/2560x1600.jpg: Symlink: symlink /usr/share/backgrounds/day.jpg /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/CentOS7/contents/images/2560x1600.jpg: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/backgrounds: Symlink: symlink /usr/share/backgrounds /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/backgrounds: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/tmp: Symlink: symlink …/var/tmp /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/tmp: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/lock: Symlink: symlink …/run/lock /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/lock: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/mail: Symlink: symlink spool/mail /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/mail: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/run: Symlink: symlink …/run /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/run: file exists
Fatal: There were 768 errors”

command “export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=sftp://root@abc.nuftp.com:4233//home/backup/restic_repo”
command “restic restore 7dec73bd --target /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142”

[kapitainsky]

file exists and for some reason it was impossible to overwrite it e.g. permissions.

The recommended way is to restore to a temporary folder and then move the files you need out of there.

[naufil]

The recommended way is to restore to a temporary folder and then move the files you need out of there

.Are you trying to say that I restore the backup to a new folder and take the necessary files from the backup and copy paste it, to the restore location

I tried local backup still gettign the same error, if the problem is permission how to solve it.

ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/CentOS7/contents/images/2560x1600.jpg: Symlink: symlink /usr/share/backgrounds/day.jpg /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/CentOS7/contents/images/2560x1600.jpg: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/backgrounds: Symlink: symlink /usr/share/backgrounds /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/share/wallpapers/backgrounds: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/tmp: Symlink: symlink …/var/tmp /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/usr/tmp: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/lock: Symlink: symlink …/run/lock /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/lock: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/mail: Symlink: symlink spool/mail /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/mail: file exists
ignoring error for /vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/run: Symlink: symlink …/run /vz/root/7a56c3d4-3e49-4dd8-a32d-b6204c2a8a4a/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/vz/root/7b3009c9-1139-4c07-8b0d-adc6df7e8142/var/run: file exists
Fatal: There were 1536 errors

[kapitainsky]

The best practice is to restore to temporary empty folder

restic restore 7dec73bd --target /path/to/tempFolder

and only later move files where you want them to be.

It is similar issue like this one:

Help with full home directory restore linux (pop_os)

Hey, I have been using restic to backup my home directory on my laptop and just got a new laptop. I am backing up like this restic -r sftp:zac@pi:/backups/pop-os --verbose backup /home/zac --exclude-file=/home/zac/.restic_excludes .restic_excludes /home/zac/Downloads /home/zac/pCloudDrive /home/zac/Qt /home/zac/.local/share/trash I went to restore my home directory like so export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/home/zac/.restic_password export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=sftp:zac@pi:/backups/pop-os restic -vv…