Additional Approaches
Other approaches you can take within a second portal environment don't require
doing a complete restore of the portal databases to find deleted data. If you
can narrow critical document libraries and lists to those found within a few
site collections, sites, or subsites, you can back up and restore smaller sections
of the portal more frequently, on a periodic or an ad hoc basis. In this partial?file-restore
approach, you isolate backups and restores at the SharePoint Services level
by using the smigrate.exe command-line migration tool or the stsadm.exe command-line
administrative tool to mirror smaller site structures. Running stsadm.exe with
the -o backup and -o restore options lets you back up and restore site collections
from one environment to another; smigrate.exe provides similar functionality
for individual sites. You can find more information about these tools in the
Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administrator's Guide (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/office/sps2003/downloads/admdwnld.mspx)
and the Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sppt/wss/wssagabs.mspx).
This strategy of backing up and restoring smaller sections lets you perform
more frequent and rapid backups and file restores than a full backup-and-restore
operation. However, it requires that you correctly identify and maintain a list
of critical site collections or sites to back up.
Another approach provides file-restore solutions through the SharePoint content
databases within SQL Server. (For more information, see the Web-exclusive sidebar
"Restoring Files by Using SharePoint Content Databases" at http://www.windowsitpro.com,
InstantDoc ID 93240.)
Third-party vendors such as AvePoint and Nintex also offer products that provide
file-restore and undelete capabilities.
No matter how you deal with the Share-Point backup and restore gap, you need
to take storage needs into account and, depending on which approach you take,
consider securing the duplicated data so that most users can't access it. Otherwise,
you might overlook duplicate data when securing SharePoint.
Not Perfect, But an Improvement
Microsoft has improved restore functionality in Microsoft Office SharePoint
Server 2007. In the current beta version, you'll see a two-stage undelete process.
After deletion, a file remains in a recycle bin for a configurable amount of
time, during which a user could restore it. An administrator can also restore
user files and set file-retention policies based on configurable storage quotas.
In addition, the beta's backup utilities provide differential, incremental,
and full backup options.
As any IT professional can tell you, no perfect software product exists. We
hope the solutions we've offered will help you bridge the gap in backup and
file restore in Share-Point.
| Solutions
Snapshot
PROBLEM:
SharePoint provides no easy way to recover deleted files.
SOLUTION:
Recover files by running an automated backup procedure and using any
of several file-restore strategies.
WHAT YOU NEED:
SharePoint Portal Server and Windows SharePoint Services; SharePoint
secondary environment (physical or virtual); automated-backup script
DIFFICULTY:
3 out of 5
SOLUTION STEPS:
- Create a secondary portal environment (physical or virtual).
- Create a script to automate backups.
- Pick a restore strategy.
- Restore files.
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