Restore Search service applications in SharePoint Server

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You can restore SharePoint Server search by using the SharePoint Central Administration website, Microsoft PowerShell, or SQL Server tools. The restore tool that you use depends on the kind of environment that you have deployed, your schedule requirements, and service level agreements that you have made with your organization.

Before you begin

There are situations in which you might have to restore a specific service application instead of restoring the complete farm. Some service applications — for example, the SharePoint Search service application, Business Data Connectivity service application, and the User Profile Service service application — provide data to other services and sites. As a result, users might experience some service interruption until the recovery process is completed.

Before you begin this operation, review the following information:

  • Backing up and restoring search does not affect the state of the farm. However, it does require resources. Therefore, backup and restore for search might affect farm performance while the backup is running. You can avoid performance issues by backing up search during hours when farm use is lowest.

  • You cannot restore the complete service application by using SQL Server tools. However, you can restore the databases that are associated with the service application.

Restore a thesaurus file

Thesaurus files are used to specify synonyms for words or phrases that occur in search queries. You create and maintain the thesaurus files in systems external to SharePoint Server before you import them into SharePoint Server to make them available to the search system. The thesaurus files are therefore not included in the default SharePoint Server search backup procedures, and also not in the search recovery procedures outlined below.

To restore a thesaurus file

  1. Follow one of the procedures below to restore the SharePoint Server Search service application.

  2. If necessary, restore the thesaurus file using the restore procedures for the external system you are using to create and maintain thesaurus files.

  3. Import the thesaurus file to the SharePoint Server search system by using the Import-SPEnterpriseSearchThesaurus PowerShell cmdlet as described in Deploy a thesaurus.

Use PowerShell to restore a SharePoint Search service application

You can use PowerShell to restore a service application.

To restore a Search service application by using PowerShell

  1. Verify that you have the following memberships:

    • securityadmin fixed server role on the SQL Server instance.

    • db_owner fixed database role on all databases that are to be updated.

    • Administrators group on the server on which you are running the PowerShell cmdlets.

    • Farm Administrators SharePoint group.

    An administrator can use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to grant permissions to use SharePoint Server cmdlets.

    Note

    If you do not have permissions, contact your Setup administrator or SQL Server administrator to request permissions. For additional information about PowerShell permissions, see Add-SPShellAdmin.

  2. Make sure that the server you are restoring to use the same drive mapping as the server where you created the backup.

  3. Start the SharePoint Management Shell.

  4. At the PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    Restore-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolder> -Item "<ServiceApplicationName>" -RestoreMethod Overwrite [-BackupId <GUID>] [-Verbose]

    Where:

    • <BackupFolder> is the path for the backup folder where the service application was backed up.

    • <ServiceApplicationName> is the name the service application.

    • _<GUID>_is the ID of the backup to use.

    To specify which backup to use, use the BackupId parameter. You can view the backups for the farm by typing the following: Get-SPBackupHistory -Directory <BackupFolder> -ShowBackup. If you do not specify the BackupId, the most recent backup will be used. You cannot restore a service application from a configuration-only backup.

    To restore all the service applications, at the PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    Restore-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolder> -Item "Farm\Shared Service Applications" -RestoreMethod Overwrite [-BackupId <GUID>] [-Verbose]

    Where:

    • <BackupFolder> is the path for the backup folder where the service application was backed up.

    • _<GUID>_is the ID of the backup to use.

    For more information, see Restore-SPFarm.

  5. When you restore a Search service application, it is automatically paused. To resume the Search service application when the restore has completed, type the following command:

    $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication <SearchServiceApplicationName>$ssa.ForceResume(0x02)

    Where:

    • <SearchServiceApplicationName> is the name the service application you want to resume.

Note

Index files are restored to one replica per index partition. After the restore has completed, the index for each replica is replicated to the other index replicas. During this process the search topology is fully functional for crawling and queries, but is not fault tolerant.

Depending on the size of the farm and the index, the process can take several hours and the index replicas appear as degraded in the Search Administration UI and in the output of the Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus Microsoft PowerShell cmdlet.

Note

We recommend that you use Microsoft PowerShell when performing command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.

Use Central Administration to restore a SharePoint Search service application

Use the following procedure to restore a search service application by using the SharePoint Central Administration website.

To restore a Search service application by using Central Administration

  1. Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group.

  2. Make sure that the server you are restoring to use the same drive mapping as the server where you created the backup.

  3. Start Central Administration.

  4. In Central Administration, on the home page, in the Backup and Restore section, click Restore from a backup.

  5. On the Restore from Backup — Step 1 of 3: Select Backup to Restore page, select the backup job that contains the service application backup, or a farm-level backup, from the list of backups, and then click Next. You can view more details about each backup by clicking the (+) next to the backup.

    Note

    If the correct backup job does not appear, in the Backup Directory Location text box, type the path of the correct backup folder, and then click Refresh. > You cannot use a configuration-only backup to restore the farm.

  6. On the Restore from Backup — Step 2 of 3: Select Component to Restore page, expand Shared Services Applications, select the check box that is next to the Search service application, and then click Next. To restore all the service applications, select the Shared Services Applications node.

  7. On the Restore from Backup — Step 3 of 3: Select Restore Options page, in the Restore Component section, make sure that Farm\Shared Services Applications\<Service application> appears in the Restore the following component list.

    In the Restore Options section, under Type of restore, select the Same configuration option. A dialog will appear that asks you to confirm the operation. Click OK.

    Click Start Restore.

  8. You can view the general status of all recovery jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Job Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current recovery job in the lower part of the page in the Restore section. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are Timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take a several seconds for the recovery to start.

    If you receive any errors, you can review them in the Failure Message column of the Backup and Restore Job Status page. You can also find more details in the Sprestore.log file at the UNC path that you specified in step 3.

  9. When you restore a Search service application, it is automatically paused. To resume the Search service application when the restore has completed you need to use PowerShell:

    Verify that you are a member of the Administrators group on the server on which you are running the PowerShell cmdlets.

    An administrator can use the Add-SPShellAdmin cmdlet to grant permissions to use SharePoint Server cmdlets.

    Note

    If you do not have permissions, contact your Setup administrator or SQL Server administrator to request permissions. For additional information about PowerShell permissions, see Add-SPShellAdmin.

  10. Start the SharePoint Management Shell.

  11. At the PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

    $ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication <SearchServiceApplicationName>
$ssa.ForceResume(0x02)

    Where:

    • <SearchServiceApplicationName> is the name the service application you want to resume.

Note

Index files are restored to one replica per index partition. After the restore has completed, the index for each replica is replicated to the other index replicas. During this process the search topology is fully functional for crawling and queries, but is not fault tolerant. Depending on the size of the farm and the index, the process can take several hours. The index replicas appear as degraded in the Search Administration UI and in the output of the Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus Microsoft PowerShell cmdlet during the process.

Use SQL Server tools to restore the databases for a Search service application

You cannot restore the complete SharePoint Search service application by using SQL Server tools. However, you can use SQL Server tools to restore the databases that are associated with the service application. To restore the complete Search service application, use either PowerShell or Central Administration.

To restore the databases for a Search service application by using SQL Server tools

  1. Verify that the user account that you are using to restore the databases is a member of the SQL Server sysadmin fixed server role on the database server where each database is stored.

  2. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database server.

  3. In Object Explorer, expand Databases.

  4. Right-click the database that you want to restore, point to Tasks, point to Restore, and then click Database.

  5. In the Restore Database dialog, on the General page, select the database to restore to from the To database drop-down list.

  6. Select the restore source from the From database drop-down list.

  7. In the Select the backup sets to restore section area, select the check box next to the database.

  8. On the Options tab, select the recovery state from the Recover state section.

    For more information about which recovery type to use, see Recovery Models (SQL Server) .

  9. Click OK to restore the database.

  10. Repeat steps 1-9 for each database that is associated with the service application.

See also

Concepts

Back up Search service applications in SharePoint Server