Home Print  
StoreGrid ESS Data Recovery, Inc.

Configure SharePoint Site Backup

Overview

StoreGrid supports a site-collection level backup of SharePoint versions SPS2003/WSS2.0 and MOSS2007/WSS3.0

StoreGrid uses internal SharePoint dump utility(STSADM.EXE, offering a full fidelity backup) to dump the SharePoint site-collection(s) and then uploads the locally dumped file(s) to the backup server. During a full backup, the entire site-collection(s) is dumped locally and then the dumped file is transferred to the backup server. And during an incremental backup, the entire site-collection(s) is dumped locally and only the modified content since the previous full backup is transferred to the backup server.

SharePoint Site Backup is configured from the "Backup -> Plugin Backups -> Add SharePoint Site Backup" page. All you have to do is to choose the site-collections or the portal sites listed in the SharePoint site tree and configure a backup.

This section explains how to configure the SharePoint Backup from the "Backup -> Plugin Backups -> Add SharePoint Site Backup" page.

How to get here in the StoreGrid Web Console?
 In the top menu, select: "Backup -> Plugin Backups -> Add SharePoint Site Backup"

Requirements

  • SharePoint Portal Server 2003 / Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

SharePoint Backup

StoreGrid can be configured to backup the SharePoint sites available in the local machine. StoreGrid uses the internal backup utility (STSADM.exe) to list SharePoint site collections in the "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page and backup.

For MOSS2007/WSS3.0, all web-applications will be listed automatically in "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page if the STSADM.EXE path and other settings are valid.

For SPS2003/WSS2.0, before a SharePoint backup is configured in StoreGrid, configure SharePoint settings by going to the menu "Administration->Advanced Options" and clicking on the "SharePoint Settings" tab on the left hand side. From here, add the portal sites to be listed in "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page.

If SharePoint sites are not listed in the "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page, read the SharePoint Settings help document for more details.

Step 1: Schedule Name

The first step in configuring a backup is to give a name for the backup schedule. The backup schedule name will uniquely identify the backup. While restoring your backup data, you need to choose the data to be restored using its schedule name.

Step 2: Select SharePoint Site(s)

On the left side of the "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page, is the tree with a list of sites in the SharePoint Server. Select the sites that need to be backed up as part of this schedule.

Step 3: Set Basic Configuration

Backup Type

Same Machine - When large amount of data has to be backed up, it might take significant amount of time to transfer all the data to a remote backup server over WAN/Internet. You can take the backup to a local external drive connected to the client machine and then physically move the external drive to the backup server location to migrate the data into the backup server. In such cases, you can select the backup type to be 'Same Machine'. Once the data is migrated to the backup server using the Server Side Seed Backup Migration, you will have to perform Seed Backup Migration (under Administration -> Seed Backup Migration) in the client machine to make it to run its backups to the remote server directly thereafter.

Local Backup location: Enter the location/directory path where the backup is to be stored in the same machine. This location should be accessible to StoreGrid process and should have enough free disk space for the backup data. You can copy data from this location to the backup server as seed backup data.

NOTE: Retention policies will not apply for a local backup. The Retention policies configured for this backup schedule will work only if the backup data is migrated into a backup server (seed backup).

Remote Server - Select this option if you want the backup data to be transferred to a backup server directly when the backup schedule runs.

Select Backup Server :

This is the list of peers/backup servers in which the backup data can be stored. Once the backup server is selected, you cannot change the server name. In case the backup server name or IP address is to be changed in future, you can change it from the Seed Backup Migration page. The client will run the backup to the selected backup server.

Test connectivity - Before you select the backup server for this backup schedule, you can check the connectivity to backup server. It also checks the different settings configured in the backup server for this client and confirms if this client can backup to the chosen backup server or not.

Add Backup Server- If you don't see a particular backup server listed, you need to first add it by following this link before you can select it for this backup schedule.

Temporary location for backup dumps

Enter the location/directory path where the SharePoint Server dumps are to be stored temporarily before uploading them to the backup server. Ensure that there is enough disk space in the configured temporary dump location. The backup dumps stored in the temporary location will be deleted once they are transferred successfully to remote backup server.

Encryption

Password Protect This Backup

This option is to enable or disable encryption of the data that is being backed up. StoreGrid uses a well known encryption algorithm, Blow fish. If enabled, a password has to be specified which will be used for generating the encryption key. Encrypting data ensures that it cannot be read in the destination machine (backup server) where your backup is stored, and is especially relevant for sensitive information.

Password Protection

This option is to enable System Generated Encryption Key or use a Customized Encryption key for encrypting the backup data.

System Generated: The selected files and folders will be encrypted using Blow fish algorithm with a 448 bit encryption key automatically generated by StoreGrid before been backed up. No password will be required while restoring the data.

Custom: This will enable the user to select the custom Encryption Technique, Encryption Key Size and the Encryption Key that needs to be used for encrypting the selected files and folders. Please don't lose the customized encryption key, as the backed up data cannot be restored without this key.

Encryption Technique

StoreGrid supports encryption using Blow fish or Triple DES. The Blow fish is a commonly used open source encryption technique which provides encryption based on the size of the encryption key length (from 64 bits to 448 bits). Higher the number of bits stronger is the encryption. Triple DES is a block cipher formed from the Data Encryption Standard (DES) cipher by using it three times, this technique is also supported by StoreGrid for encrypting the backup data. By default, Triple DES encryption technique is chosen.

Encryption Key Size

StoreGrid supports encryption using variable length (64 to 448 bits for Blow fish and 192 bits for Triple DES) keys. The key is generated using the password you provide. Basically the longer the key size you give the more difficult it is for someone to decrypt the encrypted files. For normal backup purposes the default 64 bit encryption should be good enough.

Type Password

Provide a password here to generate the encryption key. If the password is forgotten the data can never be recovered as the data cannot be decrypted without this password. So, please ensure that you keep your password in a safe place.

Retention Policies (Optional)

StoreGrid provides the retention feature where backups of multiple versions of a file can be maintain at the backup server. StoreGrid cleans up the version files in the backup server based on two major retention policies:

  1. Version-Based Retention - Retains multiple version files in the backup server based on the version file count.
  2. Time-Based Retention - Retains multiple version files in the backup up server based on the age of the version files.
Retention policy for backed up files

Version-Based Retention

StoreGrid can retain backups of multiple versions of a file based on the version retention count specified. The number of version files to be retained can be specified as any value from 0 to 99 with a default setting of 5. The backup version count can be 0 when the Intelli-Delta Backup is disabled in Advanced Options. This option is useful when you wish to store just the complete latest version of a file.

For example, if the version file retention count is specified as 5, then StoreGrid retains the latest five version files. These files can be restored from the backup server at any point of time. When the sixth version of the file is created, StoreGrid backup server automatically deletes the first version.

Note: When Intelli-Delta option is disabled for a backup schedule, StoreGrid will back up the entire file if the file was modified since the last backup schedule. In such a case, StoreGrid will retain multiple versions of the entire file as per the version retention count configure for that backup.

Time-Based Retention

StoreGrid can retain version files in the backup server based on the age of version files. Default setting is for 5 years, meaning the version files will be retained in the backup server for 5 years and then will be removed automatically. The maximum number of versions that can be created during the retention period can also be optionally further configured. There are two options:

  • Any number of versions can be created within this retention period - This is the default setting. If enabled, StoreGrid retains all the versions created during the specified retention time period.

  • Restrict the maximum number of versions that can be created within this retention period to 'n'. - If this option is enabled, StoreGrid will clean up the version files based on both; retention time period and maximum version file count. For example, if the retention time period is set to 1 month and maximum version file count is 5, StoreGrid will retain only the last five version files created within the last one month and versions older than one month with be deleted.

Step 4: Scheduling (Decide When To Backup)

This field has the following options from which any one can be chosen.

Run Every Few Hours

Choose the hours/minutes interval between each time StoreGrid must run. If StoreGrid is restarted in the interim, the backup will run once StoreGrid starts. Thereafter, StoreGrid automatically reschedules the next backup after the period you’ve set. For example, if you created a backup schedule at 10 am and set it to run every 1 hour, StoreGrid will first run the schedule at 10am and the next scheduled time will be 11am. However, if at 10.15am, StoreGrid is restarted, then the schedule will run once at 10.15am and the next scheduled time will now be set to 11.15am.

Additionally, you can also select the days in which this schedule should run. For example, if you do not want to run this backup schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, uncheck the check box against these days. If the "Select all days" check box is checked, then the schedule will be run on all the days of the week.

Run Daily

Choose the time at which the backup should run daily. This will execute the backup everyday at the time you have provided. Unless you’ve selected the “Run this Backup each time StoreGrid restarts” option in Advanced Options, StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time only.

Run Weekly

Choose the time and the day of the week the backup should run. StoreGrid will execute the backup every week on the particular day and time chosen. Note that you can select multiple days of the week if you wish to run the backup on multiple days of the week. Unless you’ve selected the “Run this Backup each time StoreGrid restarts” option in Advanced Options, StoreGrid will run at the stipulated time/day only.

Run Once Only

Choosing this option will do the backup only once immediately. The backup will then be put into ‘suspended mode’. If you wish to run this backup again, you’ll have to manually select it from the List Backup Schedules page.

Step 5: Additional Full Backups

Typically, you would do a full backup the first time you backup your data and thereafter only do incremental backups. However, like in a typical enterprise scenario, if you want to run full backups periodically and run the incremental backups in between two full backups, then you can configure the scheduling for how to run the full backups here.

For Run Every Few Hours and Run Daily backups, the Additional Full Backup settings will allow you to configure daily/weekly/monthly additional full backups. For weekly backups, only Monthly additional full backups are possible. For Run Once Only backup, you cannot configure additional full backups.

Additionally you can specify the maximum number of full backups that need to be stored in the server. For example if you configured a weekly backup and additionally if you configure a monthly full backup, then StoreGrid will take a full backup the first time and then weekly do an incremental backup. The next month, StoreGrid will do a new full backup and subsequently run the weekly incremental backup over this full backup. After 6 months you will have 6 separate full backups in the backup server along with weekly incremental versions under each of the 6 full backups. If your policy is to retain only backup data for 6 months, then you can configure "Store maximum of 6 full backups" here. On the 7th month, StoreGrid, after finishing the 7th full backup, will delete the first full backup along with its weekly incremental backups thus retaining always the last 6 month backups.

Advanced Options (Optional)

If you want to configure some additional advanced options - like, CPU utilization, Compression settings, etc. click on the Advanced Options button.

Advanced Backup Schedule Settings

There are four options here on how the backup should be scheduled.

Run this backup each time StoreGrid restarts - If you enable this option by checking the check box, then this backup schedule will be run every time StoreGrid is restarted or the machine is rebooted irrespective of the actual schedule time of this backup schedule. This is to ensure that any modified or new files created when StoreGrid was down are backed up as soon as possible. In case of the ‘Run every…’ scheduling option, backups will run each time StoreGrid restarts – by default.

Run this backup immediately after saving this configuration (thereafter, Backups will be scheduled as per the schedule stipulated) - If you enable this option, then this backup schedule will be executed once immediately after you save this backup schedule – even if it's not yet ‘time’ as per the schedule. For example if you configure a daily backup at 10.00 AM but you configured the backup at 8.00 AM, then the backup schedule will be run once immediately (8.00 AM) and then as per schedule (e.g. daily at 10.00 AM).

Attempt to run this backup every 5 minutes in case of non completion because of a problem (Network error etc.) - If enabled, the user can choose to reschedule this backup every 5/10/15/20/25/30 minutes, whenever an attempted backup is incomplete because of a network error, server crash etc. The number of times the backup will be rescheduled (due to an error) can be configured to be in between 1-5 or unlimited, with the default setting as 5. This is to ensure that an incomplete backup is completed as soon as possible without waiting for the next actual schedule time. Note that this option is enabled by default.

Other Backup Settings

Set CPU Utilization

For each backup schedule, you can also specify the CPU utilization level as Low, Medium or High. When you set the CPU Utilization to high, the backup will be really fast - but the backup process may affect the speed of other active applications. If CPU utilization is set to Low, the backup will take longer but will be done in a non-intrusive manner allowing you to comfortably work on the computer as the backup continues in the background. For backups which are done every day or every week in ‘off-hours’, the CPU utilization can be set to High. Actual performance is obviously a function of your individual machine and your network. We encourage you to experiment with different settings to figure what works best for you.

Set Compression

If compression is enabled, data will be compressed in the client before it is uploaded into the backup server.

Enable - Compresses the data to the maximum. It might reduce the rate at which the client can send data to the backup server but it might save significant bandwidth and time when the data is backed up to a remote server over a WAN/Internet with limited bandwidth speed. Also, this saves disk space in the backup server.

No Compression - This option is suitable (fastest) for backing up data within a local network where bandwidth is not the limitation, but occupies more space on destination machine as no compression is being done.

Intelli-Delta Backup

When a backup schedule is executed, StoreGrid checks if the file has changed since the last backup. If yes, then StoreGrid can either backup the full file all over again or it can backup only the modified content (incremental). If "Intelli-Delta Backup" is set to ENABLE, only modified content in a file is backed up. If set to DISABLE, the full file will be backed up every time the schedule runs. Needless to say, an incremental backup is faster.

Pre & Post Backup Commands (Optional)

This feature provides the ability to configure running custom actions before and after executing a backup schedule. The custom actions may include running an application or some script files.

Pre & Post Backup Commands

When is this feature useful?

If an application has exclusively locked a file and you need to close the application before StoreGrid can backup that file, then you can run a pre-backup command to close the application and then a post-backup command to open the application again after StoreGrid successfully backs up the file.

How does this feature work?

Whenever a backup schedule starts, StoreGrid will start the Pre Backup commands and wait till the timeout value. After completing the Pre Backup commands, StoreGrid will transfer the configured files & folders to the backup server. After transferring the configured files and folders, StoreGrid will run the Post Backup Commands. If multiple servers are configured for the backup schedule, then both the Pre and Post Backup commands will run while backing up to each of the servers.

Pre & Post Backup command settings:

You can provide maximum of 5 Pre Backup commands and maximum of 5 Post Backup commands for each backup schedule. Both the Pre and Post Backup commands are optional.

Command Name: This filed is mandatory. This is the command that should be run. The command should be provided with full path. If the command name is in the system command path, then providing full path for the command is not necessary. The command can be an executable file such as application exe, batch files, script files etc.

Example: C:\MyTools\myzip.exe. A simple zip tool which compresses the given files or folders.

Arguments: You can provide any command line arguments for the command to be executed.

Example: For the Command C:\MyTools\myzip.exe, the arguments may be 'High Zip Replace "D:\Project" myproject.zip' [without quotes]. Here, the High may denote high compression, Zip denotes zip file format, Replace denotes replacing existing files, 'D:\Project' denotes folder to compress and 'myproject.zip' denotes the target compressed file name.

Working Path: This field specifies the directory path from which the Command has to be run. If this field is left empty, then the command will be executed from the StoreGrid working path [StoreGrid Home]

Example: 'D:\Project'. The command will be executed from the directory D:\Project.

Timeout: This filed is used to specify a timeout value, in seconds, for the command to finish execution. StoreGrid will wait for so many seconds for the pre and post command to finish running. If the command still runs beyond the timeout period, then StoreGrid will abruptly terminate the command and will continue with the backup schedule.

Please note that if you provide -1 value, then the command will run till completion and StoreGrid will wait till the command completes. If command never completes, then StoreGrid may just infinitely wait without proceeding with the backup schedule.

Example: 60. For the myzip.exe command, the myzip.exe command will compress the given project folder up to 60 seconds. If the myzip.exe completes before the timeout period, say 15 seconds, then StoreGrid will immediately continue the next Pre Backup Command [if configured] or continue with the backup schedule.

So, the example command will look like below:
Command Name : C:\MyTools\myzip.exe
Arguments : High Zip Replace
Working Path : D:\Project
Time out : 60

The whole command will be run up to 60 seconds as below:
C:\MyTools\myzip.exe High Zip Replace "D:\Project"

Saving the configured backup

Once all the SharePoint components to be backed up are chosen and the configuration options are set, you simply need to click on the "Configure/Save Backup” button to activate the backup as per the schedule- on to the configured backup servers.

Temporary Dump Path Details

Temporary dump files will be stored in the name
<Temporary_Dump_Location>\<Backup_Name>\<Portal_Site_Name>\<Site_Collection_Name>\<Site_Collection_Name>.dat
Note: Portal Site name and site collection name will be modified as per the following rules and used as file/folder name.

  • The character colon (:) in the portal site URL will be replaced with "@".
  • The Characters \<>/*?"| and space characters in the portal site/site collection will be replaced with underscore(_). Other characters will remain the same.
  • "http://" or "https://" will be removed.
For example consider the following assumption:
  • Take the portal URL as "http://winserver3:9090".
  • Let one of the site collections under it be "http://winserver3:9090/sites/first-No.1site".
  • Let the temporary dump path be "C:/TEMPORARYDUMP".
  • Backup name be "MyShareBackup".
For the above assumptions, the dump file will be at the location,
C:\TEMPORARYDUMP\MyShareBackup\winserver3@9090\winserver3@9090_sites_first-No.1site\winserver3@9090_sites_first-No.1site.dat

Note: Backup file for a site collection will have ".dat" extension.

Troubleshooting Tips

SharePoint Sites not listed in the site selection tree in "Backup -> Plugin Backups -> Add SharePoint Site Backup" page. Show/Hide

Cause 1 : If there is no portal site available to list [mostly this occurs for WSS2.0/SPS2003 only and there will not be any issues for WSS3.0/MOSS2007]

Solution 1: Enter a valid portal site URL and add to the list through the menu "Administration -> Advanced Options -> SharePoint Settings(Left Tab) -> Portal Site Settings(tab)". Check if the added portal site is listed in the table below. Only the portal sites listed in this table will be listed in the "backup -> Plugin Backups -> Add SharePoint Site Backup" page. Refer the help document for SharePoint Settings for more details

Cause 2: If the path of the STSADM.EXE provided in the "Administration -> Advanced Options -> SharePoint Settings(Left Tab) -> Path Settings (tab)" is incorrect or empty.

Solution 2: Enter the exact path of the STSADM.EXE through the menu "Administration -> Advanced Options -> SharePoint Settings(Left Tab) -> Path Settings(tab)".
For WSS2.0/SPS2003, normally found inside C:/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/web server extensions/60/BIN folder.
For WSS3.0/MOSS2007, normally found inside C:/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/web server extensions/12/BIN folder. Refer the help document for SharePoint Settings for more details

Cause 3 : SQL Server service is not running.

Solution 3: Check if the SQL Server instance associated with the SharePoint farm is running. If the SQL Server service is stopped StoreGrid will not be able to list the site collections under a portal site.

SharePoint portal sites are listed in "Add SharePoint Site Backup" page, but unable to list the site collections under a portal site when expanding the node of a portal site. Show/Hide

Cause 1 : No such portal site exists (the portal site might have been deleted from SharePoint central admin)

Solution 1: Check if the portal site that you try to list exists, valid and accessible via browser.

Cause 2 : Not even one valid site collection that is accessible via browser is available to list using STSADM.exe tool.

Solution 2: Check if the portal site you are trying to list has at least one valid, error free site collection under it which is accessible via web browser.

Cause 3 : SQL Server service is not running.

Solution 3: Check whether the SQL Server instance that is associated with the SharePoint farm is running or not. If the SQL Server service is stopped StoreGrid will not be able to list the site collections under a portal site.

Cause 4 : STSADM.EXE tool location invalid or not provided

Solution 4: Check if the STSADM.EXE tool exists in the location that is given in "Administration -> Advanced Options -> SharePoint Settings(Left Tab)" page.

Limitations

  1. For WSS2.0/SPS2003, only the sites added from 'SharePoint Settings' page will be listed in 'Add SharePoint Site Backup' page.
  2. Though the whole SharePoint Server or a whole portal site is selected for backup, only a site-collection level of backup will be done. Hence, to restore all the site-collections under a portal site, you need to restore the site-collections under that portal site one by one using STSADM.EXE.
  3. Restoring default site-collections in WSS2.0/SPS2003 is not permitted. This attempt is strictly not recommended for WSS2.0/SPS2003.
  4. A site-collection whose total size exceeds 15 GB cannot be backed up as this is being a limitation with STSADM.EXE [which StoreGrid uses] itself. However, in such cases, you can use StoreGrid's SQL Server backup feature for backing up the SQL databases being used by the SharePoint Server.
  5. StoreGrid should be run with Administrator privileges to list and backup SharePoint sites as STSADM.EXE can be run only with Administrator permissions.
  6. If the dump path of the SharePoint backup exceeds 255 characters, dump process will fail. Hence, make sure, you have entered a shorter dump path to enable the dump to complete successfully.
  7. Restoring SharePoint 'Central Administration' may not bring the original Central Administration's whole UI and its functionalities.
Print  
Service Provided By ESS Data Recovery, Inc. Technical support-