Restore From Vembu Client GUI
MS SharePoint Restore
Need for SharePoint backup and restore
- When a site collection is deleted in a SharePoint environment (intentionally/accidentally) and if needed for later use.
- When a site collection is modified and its original/previous state is needed.
- When a redundant copy of business-critical site-collection is required.
- When losing a portal site and in need of re-creating a new one with original site-collections.
Restoring SharePoint site collections in Windows involves two major steps
- Restoring SharePoint data from the backup server to a local drive.
- Restoring *.dat file to the actual site-collection in a production environment.
Restoring SharePoint data from the backup server to a local drive
- Click restore option in the top menu.
- Choose the MS SQL backup you wish to restore from the list of backups displayed and click on the ‘Restore’ option alongside the backup.
Step 1- Select version to restore
A tree listing various backup time-stamps with the full backup as its parent node will be displayed. This list generated is based on incremental and retention configured. If an additional full backup is configured, then there will be more than one parent node list based on the configuration.
- Select the time-stamp from which you want to restore data and proceed to select SharePoint sites.
Step 2- Select SharePoint Sites
- You can either select entire backup or select specific SharePoint Sites for restore and proceed.
Step 3- Select Restore settings
Password- If the backup is password protected, provide the respective password.
Restore machine- The client machine where backup data has to be restored.
Restore deleted files- This gives 3 options to choose from
- Skip deleted files (restore backup data skipping deleted files)
- Deleted files only (Restore deleted files alone)
- Include deleted files (Restore backup data along with deleted files)
Restore to(This gives two optional locations to choose from)
- Original location- This option is available, if the backup is restored to the same machine where data is restored to its original folder location.
If the source file is already present in restore location, then the restored file will be saved with an extension ‘*.sg’ |
- Alternate location- This option allows users to restore the backup to a different location, where backup data is restored in its original folder structure.
Advanced Options
When backup data is restored, it is possible that source files are already present in restore location. In this case, OnlineBackup will retain source files by default and restore files by renaming with a *.sg extension.
'Advanced Settings' allow alternate options to change this, they are:
- Rename the restored file with *.SG extension and keep existing files(This is the default option selected).
- Rename the existing file with *.SG extension and restore the backup file as it is.
- Overwrite the existing file with a restored file. (If the existing file is different from backed-up file restored, the contents of source files will be lost. Choose this option, if you are sure that current file can be overwritten).
Step 4- Run Restore
Once all options are chosen, review the configuration provided and click Restore Now. Review restore progress and make sure it gets completed successfully.
Restored Files
Once restore completes successfully, the restored files will be stored in the following naming pattern:
<Restore_Path>\<Temporary_Dump_Location>\<Backup_Name>\<Portal_Site_Name>\<Site_Collection_Name>\<Site_Collection_Name>.dat
Portal site name and Site collection name will be modified as per the following rules and will be used as a file/folder name |
- The character colon (:) in the portal site URL will be replaced with "@".
- The Characters \<>/*?"| and space characters in the portal site/site collection will be replaced with an underscore(_). Other characters will remain the same.
- "http://" or "https://" will be removed.
Example
Take portal URL: "http://winserver3:9090"
One of the site collections under it: "http://winserver3:9090/sites/first-No.1site"
Restore path: "C:/Restore"
Backup name: "MyShareBackup"
The restored file will be of the following name:
C:\Restore\MyShareBackup\winserver3@9090\winserver3@9090_sites_first-No.1site\winserver3@9090_sites_first-No.1site.dat
Restore file for a site collection will have a ".dat" extension |
Restoring *.dat file to the actual site-collection in a production environment
Step 1- Open Command prompt and Set the path
Open command prompt and change directory path to the folder where the 'STSADM.exe' tool exists.
Default locations of STSADM tool
For WSS2.0/MOSS2003- "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60\BIN\" folder.
For WSS3.0/MOSS2007- "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN\" folder.
For MS SharePoint 2010- "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN\" folder.
Step 2- Restore *.dat to site-collection
The restored ‘*.dat’ file can be restored to a site-collection in two strategies:
Read caution before proceeding with the restore process. |
Restore strategy 1- Restore to the same site-collection which is active or deleted
- Enter the following command in a command prompt:
stsadm.exe -o restore -url <Site_Collection_URL> -filename <Backup_File_Name> -overwrite
Where <Site_collection_URL> is the name of site-collection in which data will be restored.
<Backup_File_Name> is the ‘*.dat’ filename to be restored, provided with its path.
If there is an active site of the same name, then the above command execution will overwrite existing site-collection completely. (i.e) It will replace sub-sites, contacts, events, documents, etc. |
If the site is deleted already, executing the above command will restore the site to the state at which it is backed up.
Restore strategy 2- Restore to a non-existing/new site-collection
- Step 1- Create Site
- Enter following command in command prompt:
stsadm.exe -o createsiteinnewdb -url <New_Site_Collection_URL> -databasename <New_Database_Name> -ownerlogin <Site_Collection_Owner> -owneremail <Email_Of_Site_Collection_Owner>
Where <New_Site_Collection_URL> is the name of site you wish to process restore.
<New_Database_Name> is the new database to be created.
<Site_collection_owner> is the owner for the site collection to be created.
<Email_of_site_collection_owner> is the owner email of site collection.
The above command will create a new site collection in the new database specified.
- Step 2- Restore site
Now run following command in command prompt to initiate restore:
stsadm.exe -o restore -url <New_Site_Collection_URL> -filename <Backup_File_Name> -overwrite
The above command will restore site-collection to the newly created site. Try accessing the newly created site once restore completes to confirm restore was successful. |
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Example
Assume a portal named ‘P1’ with 3 site collections namely S1, S2 and S3 are backed up. Now the user is trying to restore S1 as S4 to the same portal P1.
This will create duplication of the site collection in the same database and is not permitted. Thus the duplicate entry will be deleted, making the restored site inaccessible.
However, restoring a site collection to the same portal can be done in two ways:
- Restore to same site collection ‘S1’(Overwriting).
- Restore to a site collection ‘S4’, but by creating a new database and restoring it.
Limitations
- Restoring default site-collections in WSS2.0/SPS2003 is not permitted and any such attempt is strictly not recommended.
- Restoring SharePoint 'Central Administration' may not bring the original Central Administration's UI and its functionalities.
- Though configured at the server level or as an entire portal site, the backup will only be done at the site collection level. Hence, to restore a portal site, on the whole, each site-collection has to be restored one by one using the STSADM tool.