Back up logs (Office SharePoint Server 2007)

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

A system-wide strategy for data protection should include backing up the logs in which data related to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is recorded. This data can be useful for performance analysis, troubleshooting, monitoring compliance with service level agreements, and legal, regulatory, or business reasons. Therefore, protect this data as part of the routine maintenance by backing up the logs.

Each kind of log that is listed below is labeled in the following manner to indicate how important it is to back up this kind of log:

  • [Essential] means that the log contains data that is essential to the environment. The data would be lost if a disk failure or other problem occurred.

  • [Recommended] means that the log contains data that is useful in most environments for troubleshooting, operational, legal, or other needs.

  • [Optional] means that the log contains data that you might want to preserve, depending upon your IT policies.

[Essential] Back up transaction logs

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 transaction logs record all changes that were made to a database since the last checkpoint or full backup. These logs contain required data for restoring the farm.

It is recommended that you back up and truncate these logs every five to 10 minutes. You can use the SQL Server 2005 tools to back up the transaction log. For more information, see Creating Transaction Log Backups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124881) in the SQL Server 2005 documentation.

Transaction logs are not automatically backed up when you back up the farm, Web application, or databases by using either the SharePoint Central Administration Web site or the Stsadm command-line tool. Therefore, you must manually backup and shrink the log. For more information, see Creating Transaction Log Backups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124881) in the SQL Server 2005 documentation.

How transaction log size affects farm backup times

When you back up Office SharePoint Server 2007, the size of the transaction log can affect how long the backup operation takes. Because the transaction log records all changes to a database since the last checkpoint or full backup, the log can grow very large over time. If the transaction log has grown very large, backups might take a very long time. For more information about keeping the transaction log from growing too large, see How to stop the transaction log of a SQL Server database from growing unexpectedly (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=111458).

The recommended way to truncate the transaction log if you are using a full recovery model is to back up the log. SQL Server 2005 automatically truncates the inactive parts of the transaction log when you back up the log. It is also recommended that you pre-grow the transaction log to avoid auto-growing the log. For more information about growing the transaction log, see Managing the Size of the Transaction Log File (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124882). For more information about using a full recovery model, see Backup Under the Full Recovery Model (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127985). For more information about using a simple recovery model, see Backup Under the Simple Recovery Model (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127987).

We do not recommend that you manually shrink the transaction log size or manually truncate the log by using the Truncate method.

Internet Information Services (IIS) logs record information about user activity including: who has visited the site, what the visitor viewed, and when the information was last viewed. You can use the logs to assess content popularity or to discover information bottlenecks. For more information about how to back up IIS log files, see Saving Log Files (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124883).

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) e-mail logs provide information about incoming and outgoing e-mail traffic for the farm. For more information about e-mail in Office SharePoint Server 2007, see Plan communication (Office SharePoint Server).

SMTP e-mail logs can be recorded in two forms: a text file, and a database log. For text files, you back up the files. For database logs, you back up the databases by using SQL Server 2005 tools. You can view information about the format and location in the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager snap-in. For more information about SMTP e-mail logs, see Enabling protocol logging (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=124884).

Note

Security policies and other policies in the organization might require that DBAs back up or restore the databases that contain the logs.

[Optional] Back up usage reports

Usage analysis enables you to track how Web sites are being used. Log files are created daily to track usage. For more information about usage analysis, see Enable usage analysis processing (Office SharePoint Server)in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Central Administration Help.

The location of the log directory is a farm-level setting, and the directory that is specified in this setting must exist on all servers in the farm.

Important

You must be a member of the Farm Administrators SharePoint group to complete the following procedure.

Back up usage reports

  1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Operations page, in the Logging and Reporting section, click Usage analysis processing.

  2. On the Usage Analysis Processing page, record the location for the files in the Log file location text box.

  3. You can copy the files or the directory to a safe location.

[Optional] Back up diagnostic logs

Diagnostic logs provide detailed information about the operation of the farm. You can configure the level of detail that is logged. For more information about how to configure diagnostic logging, see Configure diagnostic logging (Office SharePoint Server) in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 Central Administration help.

Back up diagnostic logs

  1. On the SharePoint Central Administration Web site, on the Operations page, in the Logging and Reporting section, click Diagnostic logging.

  2. On the Diagnostic Logging page, in the Trace Log section, record the location for the files in the Path text box.

  3. You can copy the files or the directory to a safe location.

[Optional] Back up Windows event logs

The Windows event log provides a set of event logs that the system, system components, and applications use to record events. These logs contain detailed information about the operation of your servers, the farm, and related technologies. You can archive these logs so that you preserve this information. For more information about how to archive these logs, see Archive an event log (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=127989) in the Windows Server 2003 Help collection.

See Also

Concepts

Configure diagnostic logging (Office SharePoint Server)
Enable usage analysis processing (Office SharePoint Server)
Back up and restore a farm (Office SharePoint Server 2007)