Backup Process

                 

 
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
By Robert  Ferguson

Table of Contents
Chapter  13.   Backup, Restore, and Duplication


After you clearly understand the requirements surrounding data accessibility, you can begin to assess how SharePoint Portal Server's backup features will best suit your environment, and develop your procedures accordingly .

The backup process is separate from that of the traditional Windows Backup Utility, and alone is not a viable solution. Although the utility will perform a backup, it does not back up all of the required data for your SharePoint Portal Server. When trying to restore your data with this utility, you will experience failure. Copying files or using the Windows Backup Utility through the Installable File System (IFS) is not supported. However, you can use IFS to view the contents of the read-only Microsoft Web Storage System that is used by SharePoint Portal Server.

SharePoint Portal Server's backup process has to be executed at the server and cannot be performed at a client computer unless the Administrator is accessing the server using Windows Terminal Server. Therefore, you must back up the server by running a script at the command prompt. This activity requires you to have local administrator permissions.

During the backup process, an image is created of the server which can be used to create an identical and complete instance of the server when the backup was executed. The server remains online, but crawls are eliminated during the backup. However, throughout the execution of the backup, users can add new documents, but they will not be included in the backup image that is in process. These newly published documents are also not available to be searched until after the backup is complete.

The following activities cannot occur during the backup image process:

  • Create new content sources

  • Edit or modify existing sources

NOTE

If the creation or deletion of a workspace is in progress when the backup executes, the backup will fail and the activity for the workspace will supersede it. However, if the backup was in progress before a modification or addition of a workspace begins, the backup process will complete successfully.


This backup process (image) can be directed to a share on a remote disk or to another hard disk on the same server. The image created as part of the backup process contains the following data:

  • Microsoft Search (MS Search) service system resources which includes

    • Property store

    • Subscription store

    • Full text index files

    • Propagated indexes

  • Web Storage System files including

    • Database files

    • Log files

    • Backup patch files

  • Server configuration information including

    • Web Storage System information configuration

    • Content source information

    • Server properties

    • Access accounts

  • Applications folder

    • Subfolders for each workspace

    • Applications designed for Web Storage System

    • Application specific data stored in Web Storage System

  • Shortcuts or content sources

NOTE

All application-specific data stored outside of the Web Storage System is not included in the image.


CAUTION

During the restore, if the reference content does not exist on the computer in which the restore is performed, the shortcuts and content source will not work. You must also manually restore shortcuts to workspaces in My Network Places.


This image does not contain the following:

  • Content source crawls.

    NOTE

    Consult user online help documentation for more information on how to restore source crawls


  • Scheduled processing subscription tasks .

    NOTE

    Subscription tasks can be found in the C:\WINNT\TASKS directory.


  • Gatherer logs . These log files are created each time SharePoint Portal Server updates the index. These also contain information about URLs that are accessed while creating an index.

SharePoint Portal Server does not encrypt the backup image, including the metadata and documents. For security purposes, it does encrypt and store only the password for the content sources account in the backup image.

CAUTION

If the password used to create the backup image is lost, the restoration will be successful but the passwords for the content source account will be invalid. Therefore, crawls of the content source may be subject to authentication failure.



                 
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Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
Special Edition Using Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server
ISBN: 0789725703
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 286

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