Description of updates to the "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide (901123)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003
  • Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services

INTRODUCTION

This article describes updates to the "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic of the "Backup and Migration" chapter in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide. Updated information about the recommended use of the Stsadm.exe command-line tool for backups and for restore operations of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web sites has been added to the "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic. Additionally, updated information about Windows SharePoint Services Web site backups has been added to the "About Site Backup and Restore" subtopic.

The updated information that is described in this article is included in the latest version of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide. To obtain the latest version of the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a637eff6-8224-4b19-a6a4-3e33fa13d230&DisplayLang=en

MORE INFORMATION

This section includes the updated "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic and the updated "About Site Backup and Restore" subtopic of the "Backup and Migration" chapter in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide.

Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites

With Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, you can back up and restore individual Web sites hosted on your server or server farm. You can use this backup and restore method to replace a site that has become corrupted, or that contains changes that need to be rolled back. This backup and restore method is not dependent on the type of database you are using. You can perform this backup and restore method even if you are running Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE) instead of Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Caution Previous versions of this guide recommended using regular backup operations to allow recovery of single document or list items. This usage is no longer recommended. Because the backup operation involves reading a large amount of data, running the backup process frequently can interfere with the performance of the system, including blocking end users' access to their sites. If you need a solution for quick recovery of deleted documents or list items, you might want to consider creating a recycle bin by using the Windows SharePoint Services object model. For more information about using the object model to create a recycle bin, see the Add a Recycle Bin to Windows SharePoint Services for Easy Document Recovery article on the MSDN Web site.

If you need to back up a specific site, rather than a whole installation of Windows SharePoint Services, you can do so by using the backup and restore operations with the Stsadm.exe command-line tool. You do not need SQL Server 2000 to perform a site-by-site backup. If you are using WMSDE, this is the only backup and restore option that is available.

When you back up a Web site, you back up the content database for the site, including all pages in the site, files in document libraries or lists, security and permission settings, and feature settings. The backup process creates a single file that contains all of this data. You can then restore your site to either the same location or to a new location. You can back up only top-level Web sites, not individual subsites. The backup file for a top-level Web site includes any subsites of that site. You must be a member of the server computer's administrators group or a member of the SharePoint administrators group to be able to back up or restore a site.

About Site Backup and Restore

Site backup and restore is intended to help you reconnect sites that have become corrupted or need to be restored to a previous state. This process is not intended for moving a site to a new server. If you want to move a site, use the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool (smigrate.exe) instead. For more information, see Migrating and Upgrading Web Sites. When using site backup and restore, keep the following items in mind:

  • You can automate the backup process by using a batch file, a script, or the Scheduled Tasks item on Microsoft Windows Control Panel.

    You can use the object model to include the backup operation in a scripted procedure. For more information, see the Windows SharePoint Services Software Development Kit.
  • Site backup and restore affects performance.

    The process of backing up and restoring sites takes up both memory and processing power on your server. If you choose to schedule automatic backups in a batch file or script, be sure to run the backup process when server usage is light.
  • Site backup and restore are not designed to be used when the server is under active load

    If a site is in use when the backup operation is run, the data in that site might continue to change throughout the operation. The resulting backup file might be inconsistent with the actual state of the site and, if you restore this file, the restored site or database will be inconsistent as well.
  • Sites with duplicate names cannot not be restored.

    This could be a problem in the following situation. If you have two virtual servers, with separate content databases for each virtual server that are only listed by relative paths in the configuration database, the site names may conflict. For example, if the configuration database lists the site names without the http://server_name prefix, you could have several sites that use the same path. For example, http://server_1/sites/site1 and http://server_2/sites/site1 could both be listed in the configuration database as /sites/site1 even though they are on separate virtual servers. In this case, the sites will not be restored correctly, and you will see an error in the restore log file.
  • You must have the appropriate language packs installed to successfully restore a site.

    If a site you are restoring to a new server used a specific language pack, you must add the language pack to the new server before restoring the site or update the new server with the language pack after you restore. If you do not add the language pack, users who browse to the site or any subsites will see a "file not found" error.

REFERENCES

To view the "Add a Recycle Bin to Windows SharePoint Services for Easy Document Recovery" article that is referred to in the "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/05/02/RecycleBinforWSS/default.aspx

For more information about the Stsadm.exe command-line tool, see the "Backup and Migration" chapter in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide. Also, see the "Command-Line Operations" topic, the "Command-Line Parameters" topic, and the "Command-Line Properties" topic in the "Reference" chapter in the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:6/28/2005
Keywords:kbinfo kbtshoot KB901123 kbAudITPRO
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