On This Page
Introduction
Backing Up Windows Small Business Server 2003
Restoring Your Server
Backing Up and Restoring Individual Files and Folders
Backing Up and Restoring E-mail
Backing Up and Restoring Windows SharePoint Services Files and List Items
Introduction
Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 provides a reliable way to perform regular server backups to a tape drive, external hard drive, or network share. The Backup Configuration Wizard allows you to easily configure your backup. After a system failure or other disaster, you can restore your server from your latest successful backup. You can use the Backup Configuration Wizard to configure storage for individual files and e-mail messages, so that they can be restored in the event they are permanently deleted, without restoring the entire server. You can also configure backup of your company Web site, so that you can easily restore files and list items to the site.
IMPORTANT: All the step-by-step instructions included in this document were developed by using the Start menu that appears by default when you install your operating system. If you have modified your Start menu, the steps might differ slightly.
Backing Up Windows Small Business Server 2003
Windows Small Business Server 2003 provides a reliable way to perform regular server backups for small companies. To schedule and implement a backup, run the Backup Configuration Wizard from the To Do List or from the Manage Backup taskpad in Server Management.
The Backup Configuration Wizard enables you to specify the following:
-
The location for the backup files, either tape or hard disk. We recommend backing up to tape, but the wizard can back up to local, remote, or removable hard disks.
-
Which local folders should be excluded from the backup.
-
The days and time that the backup occurs. By default, the server is backed up at 11:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. You can modify the schedule to suit your business needs.
-
Whether an on-site user will be reminded to change backup tapes and clean the tape drive.
-
The number of days that deleted e-mail messages are retained.
-
The amount of disk space to reserve for saving snapshots of \Users Shared Folders.
After a backup has been completed:
Backup results are displayed in the Manage Backup taskpad in Server Management. The results show whether the backup succeeded or failed, and you can view the backup log. This information is also available in the server status reports.
Note: Unlike earlier versions, Windows Small Business Server 2003 does not require an emergency repair disk.
You can run the Backup Configuration Wizard again to modify settings. Shortcuts to common settings are available on the Manage Backup taskpad in Server Management.
After you run the Backup Configuration Wizard, you can run a manual, unscheduled backup of your server if necessary. Use the following procedure to perform a manual backup of your server.
Note: If you run backup software made by a company other than Microsoft, refer to the documentation included with that software to configure server backup. This document only applies to Windows Small Business Server 2003 Backup.
Restoring Your Server
After a system failure or other disaster, you can restore your server from your latest successful backup. In the event of a software failure, you can restore to the same computer or you can restore to new hardware. You can also restore individual files and e-mail messages if they were permanently deleted.
WARNING: If you are restoring to a different computer than that which was originally running Windows Small Business Server 2003, make sure that the following items are the same on the original and the new computer:
-
SCSI controller. You can restore to a computer that has an IDE controller if the original computer had SCSI.
-
Motherboard chip set.
-
Number of processors.
-
Hard disk size. The new computer's hard disk should contain matching volumes the same size or larger than those on the original computer.
-
Drive letter of the boot partition.
We recommend restoring to the same brand and model of the original computer.
IMPORTANT: If you upgraded your server from Small Business Server 2000, you need to create a floppy disk to use when you boot from the CD before you begin the restore. To create the disk, copy Winnt.sif and Winnt.bat from the \SBSSUPPORT\UpgradeRestore folder on Windows Small Business Server 2003 Disc 3 to a floppy disk. In Winnt.sif, be sure that TargetPath under [Unattended] is set to the same installation directory used before the restore. The default in Small Business Server 2000 is TargetPath=Winnt. In Winnt.bat, be sure that the drive letter is the same as the drive letter of your CD drive. The default is D:\.
IMPORTANT: Before restoring your server, disconnect any external disk drives, such as USB or IEEE 1394 drives, from the server.
In the event of a system failure, use the following procedures to restore your server from the latest successful backup. You must perform the following tasks in order:
-
Install the operating system.
-
Restore the server from backup media.
-
Verify the success of the restore and rejoin client computers to the network.
-
To install the operating system
IMPORTANT: It is recommended that you do not use this procedure to migrate the operating system to new hardware, because having both the original hardware and the new hardware on the network can cause name-resolution conflicts, network-service conflicts, and other problems.
-
If you did not upgrade from Small Business Server 2000, turn on the computer and insert the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Disc or the DVD (if available) into the drive. When a message appears prompting you to boot from the CD, press any key.
-Or-
If you upgraded from Small Business Server 2000, ensure that the computer BIOS is set to boot from CD (for information about how to do this, see the documentation from your computer manufacturer). Insert the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive and the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Disc 1 into the CD drive, and then turn on the computer. When a message appears prompting you to boot from the CD, press any key.
-
When the Welcome to Setup page appears, press ENTER.
-
On the Windows Licensing page, read the agreement, and then press F8.
-
Select the partition where you want to restore your operating system. If you have not yet partitioned your disk drive, you must do so at this time. Follow the instructions in the wizard.
Note: Select the partition where you want to restore your operating system. If you have not yet partitioned your disk drive, you must do so at this time. Follow the instructions in the wizard.
The partition to which you restore your operating system must have the same drive letter as it did prior to the restore.
-
Select NTFS as the file system for the partition.
-
Setup copies temporary files to a Windows installation folder on your computer. This takes a few minutes. After copying is complete, Setup restarts your computer, and the Installing Windows portion of the operating system installation begins.
-
On the Regional and Language Options page, customize your regional and language options if necessary.
-
On the Personalize Your Software page, enter the information you want for each field.
-
On the Your Product Key page, enter your product key.
-
On the Computer Name and Administrator Password page, enter the same administrator password that you used previously.
Note: It is strongly recommended that you enter a standard computer name and an administrator password (do not leave these fields blank). A standard computer name is a unique name of up to 15 characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, and the hyphen (-).
-
On the Date and Time Settings page, verify the information.
The Finalizing Windows portion of the operating system installation begins. After the operating system is installed, your computer restarts.
If you are unable to confirm the success of the restore, click Start, click Server Management, click the Information Center link, and then click Community Website or Technical Support to get information about your problem.
Backing Up and Restoring Individual Files and Folders
By default, the server is configured to take a regularly scheduled snapshot of the shared folders on the server so that users can recover files in the event they are deleted or a version is overwritten by using the Backup Wizard. Files can be recovered if they are stored in \Users Shared Folders on the computer running Windows Small Business Server 2003 or in other shared folders on the same volume.
When you enable periodic snapshots of the server, a snapshot is taken at 7:00 A.M. and 12:00 noon. When you recover a file, the version you recover is the version that was saved to the server when the most recent snapshot was taken. The amount of disk space you reserve will be used to retain files for all network users. There must be at least 310 megabytes (MB) of available disk space to enable this feature. The default amount of disk space reserved is 10 percent of the hard disk.
If \Users Shared Folders is deleted or renamed, this selection is unavailable. If this folder has been renamed, change the name back to Users. If \Users Shared Folders has been deleted by mistake, rerun Windows Small Business Server 2003 Setup and reinstall the Administration component. For information about how to rerun Setup, see "To modify your Windows Small Business Server installation" in Windows Small Business Server 2003 Help.
Note: In addition to recovering deleted files, users can also access previous versions of a file.
-
To restore individual files
If a user accidentally deletes a file and you have enabled My Documents redirection, and you allocated space for deleted files when you configured your backup, try to restore the file from the client computer by using the following procedure.
-
On the client computer, right-click My Documents, and then click Properties. The properties dialog box appears.
-
On the Previous Versions tab, double-click the most recent version of the folder that contains the file that you want to recover. A list of files appears.
-
Select the file that you want to recover, and then click Restore.
CAUTION: Restoring a previous version will delete the current version. If you restore a previous version of a folder, the folder will be restored to its state at the date and time of the version you selected. Any changes that have been made to files in the folder since that time will be lost. If you do not want to delete the current version of a file or folder, copy the previous version to a different location.
Note: You can also recover documents deleted from the shared folder on the server if you have not enabled My Documents redirection. By default, this folder is located at \\Servername\Users\Username. If there is no Previous Versions tab, this feature is not configured. You can configure this feature by running the Backup Configuration Wizard.
If the accidentally deleted file is not on a server share, or you cannot recover the file using the preceding method, you might need to recover the file from your backup by using the following procedure.
To complete this procedure, you must be logged on as a member of the Domain Admins security group.
Note: Do not recover files through a Remote Desktop session.
Backing Up and Restoring E-mail
Users can recover messages deleted from the Deleted Items folder in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. You can specify the number of days to retain e-mail messages by using the Backup Wizard. The default is 30 days. This only applies to e-mail stored by using Microsoft Exchange Server, which includes e-mail delivered using the Microsoft Connector for POP3 Mailboxes.
Backing Up and Restoring Windows SharePoint Services Files and List Items
Your company Web site is based on Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services. You can enable the recovery of Windows SharePoint Services files. If a file or list item is accidentally deleted from your company Web site, you can restore it without having to perform a full recovery from your backup media. Instead, you can create a copy of your Windows SharePoint Services database on your hard disk.
Note: If you do not want a duplicate of your Windows SharePoint Services database in your backup, you can exclude the location of the database by using the Backup Configuration Wizard. Excluding the Windows SharePoint Services database from your backup does not allow you to restore a previous version of the database that is more than one day old.