Back up and restore an entire farm (Search Server 2008)

Applies To: Microsoft Search Server 2008

Topic Last Modified: 2008-07-22

Draft content This article was published for an earlier version of this product and is being published without changes for this release.

There are several methods you can use to back up and restore data for Microsoft Search Server 2008. Key factors to consider in determining which tools to use include:

• Backup type supported (full, differential, incremental).

• Completeness of recovery and types of objects that can be recovered.

• Complexity of managing solution.

• Ability of solution to adapt to the maintenance window and database size.

Back up and restore a server farm

Before beginning any backup or recovery procedure, be sure you have read and understand the guidelines and requirements specified in Prepare to back up and restore a farm (Search Server 2008).

You can back up and restore data for Search Server 2008 by using any of the following mechanisms:

• Back up a farm by using built-in tools (Search Server 2008)

  Restore a farm by using built-in tools (Search Server 2008)

  You can use the tools included with Search Server 2008 to back up and restore the server farm. The Central Administration Web site offers a simple, UI-based method to manage farm backup and recovery and to view job history and status. The Stsadm command-line tool offers a faster and more flexible command-line-based approach to farm backup and recovery. You can use the Stsadm command-line tool in conjunction with Windows Scheduler to schedule delayed or periodic backups.

• Back up a farm by using SQL Server tools (Search Server 2008)

  Restore a farm by using SQL Server tools (Search Server 2008)

  You can use SQL Server 2005 to get a full-fidelity, complete backup of the databases used by Search Server 2008 in the server farm. You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local server computer that is running SQL Server. Using SQL Server 2005, it is also possible to implement alternative backup strategies such as database mirroring or log shipping.

For more information about choosing a specific backup and recovery method, see Choose backup and recovery tools (Office SharePoint Server)

See Also

Concepts

Back up and restore a farm (Search Server 2008)
Back up and restore Web applications by using built-in tools (Search Server 2008)
Back up and restore site collections by using built-in tools (Search Server 2008)
Back up and restore databases (Search Server 2008)