Snapshots & Restore

Every successful backup creates a restic snapshot. Valvet provides a web-based snapshot browser for navigating, downloading, and restoring files.

Browsing Snapshots

From a node’s detail page, select a snapshot to open the file browser. You can:

• Navigate the full directory tree
• See file sizes and modification times
• Download individual files
• Download folders as tar archives (streamed, no size limit)

Restoring Files

Same-Node Restore

Restore files back to the original machine:

1. Browse to the file or folder in the snapshot browser
2. Click Restore
3. Choose the destination path on the node
4. The hub dispatches a restore command via WebSocket

Cross-Node Restore

Restore to a different enrolled node:

1. From the snapshot browser, click Restore
2. Select the target node from the dropdown
3. Choose the destination path
4. The hub coordinates the restore between the two nodes

Restore Jobs

Restore operations are tracked as jobs, visible in the Jobs section. You can monitor progress and see the result (success, partial, or failed).

Snapshot Lifecycle

Snapshots are managed by restic’s retention policy (configured per plan):

1. Backup completes → new snapshot created
2. Retention policy runs → old snapshots tagged for removal
3. Prune runs → unreferenced data deleted from repository

Snapshots are immutable and encrypted. The hub never has access to the actual backup data — it only coordinates operations.