Restoring Microsoft SharePoint

• This article is for Windows only

Summary:

Carbonite Safe Server Backup (CSSB) supports Content Recovery, Web Application Recovery and Disaster Recovery for Microsoft SharePoint. You can restore your data to the original backed up computer or to a different computer.

Solution:

Content Recovery

Content recovery applies to being prepared for accidental updates or deletions of data, usually by end users such as deleting documents, tasks, calender items, etc. Content recovery can be done by restoring Web application's Content databases. Since CSSB does not support Roll-forward restores, if the restore is targeted to the original location, changes done after a backup will be lost. Therefore, one can restore the respective Web application's content databases to an alternate location and use third party tools to extract the required object.

Web Application Recovery

A web application recovery would be required in case of accidental deletion or corruption of the content databases. To recover a deleted or corrupted web application's content database to the original server, select the appropriate database files from the SharePoint server backup.

Restore Requirements

The following requirements must be met, whether restoring to the original computer or to an alternate computer:

• The amandabackup / CarboniteUser user must have full access to the folder where the backups are stored.
  • For cloud backups, this is the chosen Download Folder.
  • For local backups, this is the folder where the backups are stored on the local disk.
    • If the backups are stored in a network location, amandabackup / CarboniteUser must have access to the network folder. Please refer to How to Use External or Mapped Network Drives with CSSB.
• Likewise, the amandabackup/ CarboniteUser user must have full access to the folder(s) to which the backups are being restored.

Restore Requirements for all SharePoint Restores

• SharePoint includes a Microsoft SQL Server component.
  • The MSSQL component must be running, unless the rebuild system databases option is checked. Please see this Knowledge Base article for more information.

Additional Requirements

All Restore Requirements must be met before starting the restore.

Requirements for all SharePoint Restores to the Original Computer

• All SharePoint databases must be in the Normal state prior to restore.
  • Stability can be verified from the SQL Management Studio. The Properties menu for each database will display its current state.
• The following services must be started.
  • Windows SharePoint VSS Writer
  • Windows SharePoint Services Tracing
  • The applicable OSearch and SPSearch VSS Writer services must be enabled. The name of the controlling service depends on which version of SharePoint is installed.
    • For SharePoint 2010
      • The SPSearch VSS Writer is controlled by the SharePoint Foundation Search V4 service.
      • The OSearch VSS Writer is controlled by the SharePoint Server Search 14 service.
    • For SharePoint 2007
      • The SPSearch VSS Writer is controlled by the Windows SharePoint Services Search service.
      • The OSearch VSS Writer is controlled by the Office SharePoint Server Search service.

Requirements for SharePoint Restores to An Alternate Computer

• The new computer must run the same version of SharePoint, with the same Service Packs, and the same embedded SQL Server as the original computer.
• The host name of the new computer must be exactly the same as the original computer.
• The instance name must exactly match the instance name from the original server.
• SharePoint must be installed to the same location as when the backup was run.
• All databases and log file locations must also match the original configuration.

Restore Locations

Carbonite Safe Server Backup allows SharePoint databases to be restored to their original location or to an alternate location. CSSB does not support Roll-forward restores for SharePoint. If a restore is targeted to the original location, any changes made to the database after the backup was performed will be lost.

Restoring to the Original Computer

If Carbonite Safe Server Backup is already installed on your computer, you can open the user interface and begin restoring your data to your computer. Within the Restore page, Carbonite Safe Server Backup provides two options to restore Microsoft SharePoint:

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Restoring to a Different Computer

Backed up data can be restored to a different computer than the one it originated from. This process is mostly used to create a clone of the original system. It is recommended that you install the same Windows Operating System (with the same service packs) on the restore computer as was installed on the original computer. This procedure requires some additional steps before you can launch the actual restore process. The steps are as follows:

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