Protecting and recovering data stored in a Records Center

• Content versioning   Recommended. We recommend that you enable content versioning in the document libraries in your Records Center site, set versioning to create major versions, and require check-out.

  Note:
  Versioning can significantly increase space used. Therefore, be sure to provide site owners with a clear understanding of the amount of space available relative to the expected number of versions, and work with site owners to ensure that versioned sites are actively monitored and managed.

• Database snapshot   Not recommended. Database snapshots are recommended only for environments in which you want to protect the look and feel of a site as versions change over time.

• Recycle Bin   Not recommended. Enabling the Recycle Bin or the second-stage Recycle Bin for the Web application that hosts the Records Center is not recommended, because a Records Center is a highly restricted environment that is used only by a few users, and those users are typically well trained. If the Recycle Bins are on without users being aware of them, the Recycle Bins can inadvertently contain a record that is past its retention date.

• Site capture   Not recommended. Enabling site capture for the site collection associated with the Records Center is not recommended because the Records Center is a highly restricted environment. Therefore, the site collection has a small probability of accidental deletion.

As you plan your backup strategy for a Records Center site, consider the following issues:

• Avoid inadvertently retaining data that has exceeded its retention date in archived backups.

• A Records Center is often very large.

• Data in a Records Center changes slowly.

It is particularly important to track the location of all backups for a Records Center. If you are going to use a backup to migrate a Records Center, remember to delete all copies of the backup after the migration is completed.

We recommend the following general strategy for backups:

• Keep only the most recent backup. Do not archive multiple backups.

• Perform only full or incremental backups. Storing differential backups might inadvertently lead to retaining data that has exceeded its retention date.

• Evaluate how often data is added to your Records Center, and consider backing up less frequently than you would a collaboration site.

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Planning and architecture for Office SharePoint Server 2007, part 2

See the full list of available books at Downloadable content for Office SharePoint Server 2007.