Recovering a SharePoint Site

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

DPM lets you recover a SharePoint site to either the original backup location or to another location on the same farm from which it was backed up.

If you are recovering to the original location, DPM does not overwrite the files; instead, it performs a merge. The following example shows this behavior.

Assume a document library that has two files – TextFile1 and TextFile2. At a moment in time (T1), DPM creates a recovery point (R1) for the library. The following day three changes happen to the library – TextFile1 is deleted; TextFile2 is changed (TextFile2.1) and TextFile3 is added to the library. At another moment in time (t2), DPM creates a recovery point (R2) for the library.
Now, if you recover the recovery point R1, the document library will have the files – TextFile1, TextFile2, and TextFile3. Note that TextFile2.1 is lost as it is overwritten with TextFile2.

Note

This does not work with lists. If you are trying to restore lists, you must manually delete all the lists under the site and then restore the site.

Whether you recover to the original location or to another one on the same farm, the general procedure to recovery a site is as follows:

  1. Create a recovery farm.

  2. Use DPM to recover the site using the recovery farm.

To recover a site to its original location

  1. Create a farm that DPM can use for the recovery. To create a recovery farm, see the instructions at Creating a Recovery Farm

  2. In DPM Administrator Console, click Recovery on the navigation bar.

  3. In the Protected data pane, expand the server that contains the farm you want to recover, and then click All Protected SharePoint Data.

    The farm displays in the Recoverable Item pane as server name\farm name.

  4. Double-click the farm item.

    The databases for the farm display in the Recoverable Item pane.

  5. Navigate the recoverable item objects and locate the site that you want to recover.

  6. Select a recovery point for the site that you want to recover, and then click Recover in the Actions pane.

  7. On the Review Recovery Selection page, confirm that the correct item is being recovered based on Recovery Item.

  8. On the Select Recovery Type page, select Recover to original site.

  9. On the Specify Recovery Farm page, enter the information for the recovery farm you created in step 1, and then complete the wizard.
    Either type the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) of the recovery farm where DPMRecoveryWebApplication has been created or browse for the server. After the server has been selected, browse for the instance of SQL Server on that server. Lastly, choose the temporary location where the files will be stored on the recovery farm.

    Note

    The recovery farm must have enough hard disk space to store the largest content database in the environment. The best practice would dictate that an additional 10-20% should be allocated on the temporary storage volume to provide a cushion for growth, reducing the risk of running out of space when trying to recover time-sensitive SharePoint data.

  10. On the Specify Staging Location page, enter a directory where the SharePoint data will be temporarily stored pending recovery to the original site.

  11. On the Specify Recovery Options page, specify whether security settings and metadata from the recovery point or the original site will be applied to the recovered site data in the Restore Security section. This is an important consideration if there have been security settings changes after the recovery point was taken.

    Note

    Network bandwidth usage throttling is used when there are concerns about the restore process using excessive bandwidth for bandwidth-sensitive applications.
    The SAN Recovery option is only available if the attached SAN is capable of snapping clones and splitting clones.
    The Notification section is just to notify administrators and other personnel of the completion of the recovery process.

  12. Confirm the settings on the Summary page and then click Recover to begin the process.

  13. DPM recovers the site to the original farm.

To recover a site to an alternate location

  1. Create a farm that DPM can use for the recovery. To create a recovery farm, see the instructions at Creating a Recovery Farm

  2. On DPM Administrator Console, click Recovery.

  3. In the Protected Data pane, expand the server that contains the farm you want to recover, and then click All Protected SharePoint Data.
    The farm displays in the Recoverable Item pane as server name\farm name.

  4. Double-click the farm item.
    The databases for the farm display in the Recoverable Item pane.

  5. Navigate the recoverable item objects and locate the site that you want to recover.

  6. Select a recovery point for the site that you want to recover, and then click Recover in the Actions pane.

  7. On the Review Recovery Selection page, confirm that the correct item is being recovered based on Recovery Item.

  8. On the Select Recovery Type page, select Recover to an alternate site.

  9. On the Specify Recovery Farm page, enter the information for the recovery farm you created in step 1, and then complete the wizard. Either type the FQDN of the recovery farm where the DPMRecoveryWebApplication has been created or browse for the server. After the server has been selected, browse for the instance of SQL Server on that server. Lastly choose the temporary location where the files will be stored on the recovery farm.

  10. In the Recovery target site section, enter the URL for alternate site.

    Note

    The recovery farm must have enough hard disk space to store the largest content database in the environment. Best practice would dictate that an additional 10-20% be allocated on the temporary storage volume to provide a cushion for growth and reduce the risk of running out of space when trying to recover time-sensitive SharePoint data.

    Note

    The target site URL must be based on the same site template as the site being restored. For example, SharePoint will not allow a site created by using a Wiki Site template to be restored onto a site created by using the Team Site, Blank Site, Blog, or Document Workspace templates. A custom template must reside on the recovery farm and be used to create the alternate site to which the recovery is being made.

  11. On the Specify Staging Location page, enter a directory where the SharePoint data will be temporarily stored pending recovery to the alternate site.

  12. On the Specify Recovery Options page, specify whether the recovery point’s security settings and metadata or the alternate site’s security settings will be applied to the recovered site data in the Restore Security section. This is an important consideration if there have been security settings changes after the recovery point was taken.

    Note

    The Network bandwidth usage throttling is used when there are concerns about the restore process using excessive bandwidth from bandwidth-sensitive applications.
    The SAN Recovery option is only available if the attached SAN can snap and split clones.
    The Notification section is just to notify administrators and other personnel of the end of the recovery process.

  13. Confirm the settings on the Summary page and then click Recover.

  14. DPM recovers the site to another location.

See Also

Concepts

Recovering a SharePoint Farm
Recovering a SharePoint Item