It is not possible to restore backups, which were made with the command line option, on a different (second) computer.
While backups made with GUI option can be restored on a second computer, this does not work with backups made with Duplicati.CommandLine.exe.
Backups made with Duplicati.CommandLine.exe sometimes (!) can be restored using GUI on the computer, where the backup was made. Sometimes I get a database error and database has to be recreated.
Edit:
in the meantime I noticed, that I have to Recreate (delete and repair) database on the second computer before trying to restore files. Repair only is not sufficient.
After Recreate database it is possible to restore the most current backup.
Additionally I changed Data retention from 7D:1D to 7D:0s. With these settings commandline and GUI backups and restore seem to work alternately.
The GUI job is probably using a different local database than the CommandLine job. Remember, these two methods of using Duplicati are not linked at all - they are completely independent. (It may be possible to configure both a GUI job and a command line job to use the same database - I’m not really sure.)
If you like the GUI for configuring jobs but you want to be able to trigger them from the command line, then I suggest using duplicati-client instead of the included CommandLine.exe.
You should definitely use Recreate. Repair could potentially alter files on the back end, which you don’t want when trying to do a restore from an alternate computer. Recreate deletes the local database so the back end is considered authoritative.
Use the same database path (–dbpath), however make sure both usage methods aren’t using the DB at the same time, or problems might arise. Easiest way to get a GUI-compatible CLI job is to run Export As Command-line. That’s a backup command, but can be manually edited into another command if desired.
Is this practicing for disaster recovery, an attempt to sync files (there are better tools), or something else?
After testing a lot I think backup and recovery now works as desired - even recovery on a second computer works (just in case of a hardware desaster of the main computer).
I use command-line option to backup files, when computer is shut down. So it´s probably no problem in combination with WebGUI.
Sorry for late reply. Unfortunately e-mail notification does not work for me - I don´t know the reason.
Well, now I think I know the reason: e-mail notifications are turned off by default - I changed my settings now.
You won’t have to worry about setting up and using the proper database because the partial temporary database gets created automatically (it can take awhile, so try to get file choices right), then discarded.
Testing such DR is useful safety, as it is possible to be surprised by unfortunate DB creation problems.
A direct restore on second computer has no chance of messing up DB on original, however don’t test procedures in mid-backup, because remote files will be changing, and there’s no telling what you’ll get.
That´s the way I tested restoring my data on a second computer. In this description of the restore process one very important step is missing however. Before you can restore data you have to Recreate data base. I think, someone should add this information to this restore receipe.
Manual recreate should not be needed at all (as explained above) for “Direct restore from backup files”.
It’s only needed for a permanent move to another computer, e.g. if you intend to continue backup there.
If you are finding you need a DB recreate (as opposed to taking automatic one), please describe steps.