Manual restore (without SaintBackup)

Files in the repository are standard mariabackup backups compressed as zip. If the license expires or the software will not open, you can still restore on your own.

What you need

• The repository folder: %ProgramData%\SaintBackup\center\storage\<agent-id> (Linux: /var/lib/saintbackup/center/storage/…).
• mariabackup with the same major.minor as the source server.
• Any zip extraction tool (Windows Explorer, 7-Zip, unzip).

Fast path: use the prepared copy

The _prepared\full_NNNNN folder is already merged up to the latest incremental. Copy it somewhere else, then continue from the copy-back step.

Build from the zips

1. Extract the most recent full backup before the point in time you need:

   mkdir D:\restore\full
   tar -xf 20261108_0200_full_00400.zip -C D:\restore\full

2. Prepare the full backup:

   mariabackup --prepare --target-dir=D:\restore\full

3. For each incremental, in strict numeric order, extract it and merge it in:

   mkdir D:\restore\inc1
   tar -xf 20261108_0230_inc_00401.zip -C D:\restore\inc1
   mariabackup --prepare --target-dir=D:\restore\full --incremental-dir=D:\restore\inc1

Each command must end with the line completed OK!.

Copy into the datadir (copy-back)

Use this when restoring an entire server into a new or stopped MariaDB:

1. Stop MariaDB and make sure the datadir is empty (rename the old datadir to keep it).
2. Run:

   mariabackup --copy-back --target-dir=D:\restore\full --datadir="C:\Program Files\MariaDB 11.4\data"

3. Linux: sudo chown -R mysql:mysql /var/lib/mysql.
4. Start MariaDB.

Restore a single database

1. Add the step mariabackup --prepare --export --target-dir=D:\restore\full.
2. On the target server, create a new database and run the CREATE TABLE statements in _schema\<db>.sql (each statement is separated by a -- ;;-- line).
3. For each InnoDB table:

   ALTER TABLE `ten_bang` DISCARD TABLESPACE;
   -- copy ten_bang.ibd and ten_bang.cfg into the new database's folder in the datadir
   ALTER TABLE `ten_bang` IMPORT TABLESPACE;

4. MyISAM/Aria tables: copy .frm/.MYD/.MYI (or .MAD/.MAI) into the database folder, then run FLUSH TABLES;