How New Features of SharePoint 2010 Change Your Backup and Recovery Strategy

1. How New Features of SharePoint 2010Change Your Backup and Recovery Strategy Kieron Darley Kieron.Darley@Quest.com

2. Me • Kieron Darley, Solutions Architect, Quest Software • Based in Melbourne(ish)…

3. Agenda SharePoint 2010: what’s new for backup and recovery • Central Administration • Unattached database recovery • PowerShell • Is it any different from STSADM backup • Remote BLOB Storage • Why are we talking about this here?

4. Central Administration • Farm Backup and Restore • Backup and restore entire farm, web applications or content databases • Granular Backup and Restore • Site collection backup and restore • Export site or list • Unattached content db recovery

5. Unattached database recovery • Huge: forget about recovery farm • BUT unattached content database recovery is not recovery • Site collection backup • Site or list export • Allows you to create a site collection backup, export site or list from a SharePoint content database that is not attached to any web application • DB can originate from the same or different farm – be aware of SharePoint patch level • Use PowerShell to import the resulting CMP • Import-SPWeb -Identity <Site URL> -Path <Export file name>

6. Unattached database recovery

7. Restore from Unattached Content Database:- Step by Step Find the backup file that contains that document you need. You’ll need to know document original location so that you can match that to the content database. You will also need to find out when the document was corrupted or deleted, so that you grab the backup file from the right date. When you have all this information you can find the required backup file (or probably request it from your SQL DBA or Backup operators).

8. Restore content database to a temporary location. Just having the backup file is not enough, to use the unattached content database recovery you need the database mounted on a SQL server. This can be the same SQL instance used by SharePoint, or a different SQL box. If you restore into the same SQL instance make sure you (or your SQL DBA’s) use a different name for the restored database and don’t override the production content! Note the name of the SQL Server instance and the name of the database copy.

9. Go to SharePoint Central Administration Navigate to Backup and Restore and click the “Recover data from an unattached content database” link under Granular Backup.

10. Type the SQL Instance and temporary database names Specify what you want to do. Note that none of the available options actually allows you to restore a document, you can either create a backup of site collection or export a site or list. If you only need a single document, you’ll need to export the library in order to get it.

11. Select site collection, site and list to export. You can also specify the name for the export file and the export options, such as whether security and versions should be included in the export. You are ready to start the export.

12. Congratulations…. You have now completed the Unattached Content Database Recovery… Wait, did you actually need that document? All you have is the export.cmp file, where to look next? There is no import available in the Central Administration UI. So what do you do next?

13. Start the SharePoint Management Shell Which is PowerShell with the Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShellsnap-in already loaded. Then use the Import-SPWebcmdlet to import the library. It is important to understand you cannot restore a list or library under a different name. If a document library with the same name already exists in the destination site, the import will merge contents and by default create new document versions where possible.

14. Finally, browse to the imported library and get the document you just restored. Once this is done, you can safely delete the imported document library from SharePoint, and delete the temporary database from SQL server.

15. Logfile Review You can review the log file that gets created and you will see any restored list items and attachments.

16. Pros and Contras of Unattached Content Database Recovery • If you ever had to perform granular content restore via a recovery farm in SharePoint 2003 or SharePoint 2007, you can see the process is not very different with 2010. The big step forward is that there is no need to maintain the recovery farm for SharePoint 2010 and you don’t have to attach the temporary database to the farm. You also have the UI to do the export via Central Administration. • However, that’s where improvements end and all the limitations remain: • You have to know exactly which backup contains the requested data, there is no search available. If you make a mistake, it is not until the very last step in the process that you find out the document you looked for is missing after the import and you have to start it all over. • You must use highly privileged account to perform all operations in both SQL and SharePoint, which might not be possible in some environments. Sometimes in a large organization it would take 3 different people to perform the task. • There is no single UI to perform the operation from the first to the last step. You have to use SQL backup management tools, SharePoint Central Administration and PowerShell, which obviously increases time to restore. • Granularity is limited. You can restore a site collection, a site or a list/library. • Finally, all inherited limitations of SharePoint export and import apply when restoring sites and lists from unattached content database.

17. Using PowerShell for Backup and Recovery • Did STSADM go away? • No, but all new stuff goes to PowerShell • Backup farm or site collection, export site • Get-Help -Module Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell • Get-Command *Backup* • Schedule PS1 scripts • Execute remotely • Run commands or execute scripts from workstation • Need farm admin rights • Enable CredSSP for access delegation to backend SQL • http://www.ravichaganti.com/blog/?p=1230

18. Using PowerShell for Backup and Recovery • Backup-SPFarm -BackupMethod Full -Directory "Destination-Directory“ -BackupThreads 5 –Verbose • Backup-SPSite -Identity "http://MySite:2131/" -Path "Path to Backup file" -UseSqlSnapShot

19. Using PowerShell for Backup and Recovery • PowerShell is not only for SharePoint • Real power with piping results from one cmdlet to another • Get-SPSite -Filter {$_.Owner -eq "DOMAIN\ISotnikov"} | Backup-SPSite -Path • How about combining SharePoint, AD and SQL cmdlets? • Backup all databases where sites are owned by members of an AD group • Sort of daydreaming so far: SQL only allows to run a T-SQL query from PowerShell prompt with Invoke-Sqlcmd…

20. SharePoint 2010 PowerShell cheat sheet • Helps you get started • Contribution from industry experts in both PowerShell and SharePoint • http://powergui.org/entry.jspa?externalID=2812

21. Remote BLOB Storage aka RBS • What’s RBS? • SQL Server feature • Way to store files outside of SharePoint content database • Requires RBS provider • SQL Server 2008 R2 RBS FILESTREAM provider, 3rd party providers • Enabled by default when upgrading WSS v3 standalone • Requires modifications on both SQL and SharePoint servers • Remote BLOBs are not necessarily backed up! • RBS FILESTREAM provider backups include BLOBs • Check with your vendor if using other providers

22. RBS considerations • Is it practical for your environment? • Ideal for fewer larger BLOBs • Possible performance degrade for large amount of small BLOBs • Use RBS when: • Content databases are larger than 500 GB • BLOB data files are larger than 256KB • Database server I/O is a performance bottleneck • Need to overcome SQL Express 2008 R2 db size limits (10Gb) • Why look for 3rd party? • NAS is not supported by RBS FILESTREAM • Granularity and flexibility • Ease of deployment

23. Any Other Options

24. You’ve Lost the Farm… Where Do You Start Your SharePoint Recovery Journey? • There is no argument about the importance of a disaster recovery (DR) plan for any IT service or application of a considerable business value. And no doubt many SharePoint deployments today are important--if not critical--for business continuity. That said, how well are we prepared to handle a server farm failure? • Sure, we all do the backups. But backup is not a plan for disaster recovery, though it is one of the crucial components in the DR plan. If you perform a simple search in forums and groups you will see numerous calls for help from people who have regular SharePoint backups but their attempts to restore fail for various reasons: • Missing accounts or permissions; specifically SQL permissions seem to be a very common issue; • Wrong order of steps when trying to re-create a new farm and restoring backup into the new config database; • Timer job issues when restoring via Central Administration. • The key to successful restore is the combination of right people, efficient processes and products they use that help prevent mistakes to ensure complete recovery of the SharePoint data and services. • Quest unveils the product that makes the restore task easier and allows you to avoid the most common issues during a farm recovery. • Today we invite everyone participate in the community preview of Quest Recovery Manager for SharePoint 4.0 and share your feedback with the team. In addition to its superior granular content restore capabilities, this new version of Recovery Manager allows you to do the following: • Manage Central Administration backups for several SharePoint 2007 or 2010 farms from within the same web user interface; • Verify prerequisites for the farm recovery to ensure restore success; • Automate restore across several servers, including all farm configuration settings, data, web applications, services and customization solutions; • Restore from an existing farm backup created with Central Administration, STSADM.exe or PowerShell cmdlets. • The new version will be released for general availability within the next couple months. But right now you can download the preview build at: http://sharepointforall.com/media/p/5732.aspx

25. Quest Recovery Manager for SharePoint • Granular restore from any SQL Backup • Native, DPM, Tivoli, HP, Symantec, Quest LiteSpeed, etc. • Anything from single item to site collection • Full fidelity recovery • Supports delegation and role separation • Supports SharePoint 2003, 2007 & 2010

28. Questions?

29. Resources • http://www.sharepointforall.com • http://blog.sharepoint-recovery.com

30. THANK YOU!