Protecting and recovering data in a non-production environment (Office SharePoint Server)

Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

In this article:

  • Development environment

  • Authoring and staging environments in a publishing site

This article provides recommendations for protecting and recovering data in non-production environments — for example, development environments or authoring and staging environments.

Development environment

We recommend that you use a source control system to manage your code projects in a development environment. We assume that you are not creating code in your source control system and that you are not creating valuable content in a development environment. Therefore, we do not recommend that you protect the data in a development environment.

For detailed recommendations for using source control in development environments, see Design and build sites for Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Versioning

Content versioning: Not recommended.

Database snapshot: Not recommended.

Deletion protection

Recycle Bin: not recommended.

Site capture: not recommended.

Content backup and recovery

Use a backup and recovery system that supports your source control system.

Farm backup and recovery

Expect to frequently rebuild a development environment or build new development environments. You may want to keep a server image for installation. Keep all of your configurations simple, and document your configurations well.

Authoring and staging environments in a publishing site

We recommend that you use different strategies for your authoring and staging environments in a publishing site.

Authoring environment recommendations

Data in authoring environments undergoes many content revisions and changes that are propagated to other systems. Therefore, protect an authoring environment with versioning, deletion protection, and backup and recovery.

Versioning

Content versioning: Recommended.

Database snapshot: Recommended.

Deletion protection

Recycle bin: Recommended.

Site capture: Recommended.

Backup and recovery

For a very active site, consider daily differential backups, or a backup tool that supports incremental backups.

Staging environment recommendations

We assume that your staging environment is identical to either your authoring environment or your production environment. We recommend that you do not protect it with versioning, deletion protection, or backup and recovery.

Versioning

Content versioning: not recommended.

Database snapshot: not recommended.

Deletion protection

Recycle bin: not recommended.

Site capture: not recommended.

Backup and recovery

Not recommended.

Farm backup and recovery

Expect to frequently rebuild your staging environment. You may want to keep stored server images for installation. Keep all of your configurations simple and document them well. Be sure that your customizations are packaged and easy to deploy.

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