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Backing Up and Restoring Servers on the Server Farm

You can back up and restore an entire server farm, an entire portal, or individual components of a Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 deployment by using the SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore utility. You can start the utility from the SharePoint Portal Server group on the All Programs menu.

Important  You must install the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 client tools on the front-end Web server from which you run the backup and restore process in a server farm.

To back up or restore an image successfully, the following accounts must have access to the directory containing the backup files:

• The service account for SQL Server must have write access to the directory.
• The search service and database access accounts for search must have write access to the directory.
• The current user must have write access to the directory.

The current user must also have the following rights:

• Read access to all SQL Server databases
• Write access to all site databases and the configuration database
• Membership in the local administrators group on the document management server
• Administrator rights on the database server, either as a member of the local administrators group or as a member of the SQL Server 2000 System Administrators server role

The SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility successfully backs up and restores almost all of the data in your server farm. However, custom Web Parts will need to be reinstalled on every front-end Web server in the server farm. To avoid having to reinstall these custom Web Parts, you have the option of using the operating system backup and restore utility before using the SharePoint Portal Server Backup and Restore utility.

Single Server Deployments

You should have regularly scheduled backups of your server so that you can restore data in case of server failure.

In case of total server failure, you can build a server with the same name or with a new name and restore your SharePoint Portal Server data to it.

Restore data to a single server

1. Install SharePoint Portal Server.
2. Create the configuration database.
3. Restore everything except for the configuration database.

   Use the Edit button on the Restore tab to specify the settings for each component, and select a new name for the server if you are restoring to a server with a different name.

4. Configure the single sign-on service to use the restored single sign-on database, if it is part of your deployment.
5. Restore the encryption key, if you have configured the single-sign on service.

Server Farm Deployments

You should have regularly scheduled backups of your server farm so that you can restore data in case of server failure.

Backup must be run from a front-end Web Server.

In case of total server failure, you can build a server with the same name or with a new name and restore your SharePoint Portal Server data to it.

Document library server — restore data to a server with the same name

1. Delete all document libraries by using the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for Server ServerName page. Since the server has failed, you are not actually deleting the document libraries, but you are deleting the entry for them in the configuration database.

   Note  For SharePoint Portal Server, delete any document libraries associated with portals by using the Site Settings page for each portal. Delete any document libraries not associated with portals by using the following URL: http://ServerName:8080/sps/DmWorkspaceDelete.aspx?WorkspaceName=NameOfWorkspace.

2. Remove the document management server from the server farm topology by removing it from the component assignments.
3. Remove the document management server from the server farm.
4. Install the document management component of SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server.
5. Add the document management server to the server farm.
6. Add the document management server to the server farm topology by adding it to the component assignments.
7. Restore the document management components to the server.

Document library server — restore data to a server with a new name

1. Delete all document libraries by using the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration for Server ServerName page. This will not actually delete the document libraries (because the server has failed), but it will delete the entry for them in the configuration database.

   Note  For Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, delete any document libraries associated with portals by using the Site Settings page for each portal. Delete any document libraries not associated with portals by using the following URL: http://ServerName:8080/sps/DmWorkspaceDelete.aspx?WorkspaceName=NameOfWorkspace.

2. Remove the document management server from the server farm topology by removing it from the component assignments.
3. Remove the document management server from the server farm.
4. Install the document management component of SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server.
5. Add the document management server to the server farm.
6. Add the document management server to the server farm topology by adding it to the component assignments.
7. Recreate the document libraries using the same names.
8. Restore the document management components to the server.

Index management or job server — restore data to a server with the same name

1. Remove the index management server from the server farm topology by removing it from the component assignments.
2. Remove the index management server from the server farm.
3. Install SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server.
4. Add the index management server to the server farm.
5. Add the index management server to the server farm topology by adding it to the component assignments. Add it as a content index server and as the job server, if applicable.
6. Restore the index management components to the server.
7. If the server is also a job server, and you are using the single sign-on service in your deployment, configure the single sign-on service, and then restore the encryption key.

Index management or job server — restore data to a server with a new name

1. Install SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server.
2. Add the index management server to the server farm.
3. Add the index management server to the server farm topology by adding it to the component assignments. Add it as a content index server and as the job server, if applicable.
4. Remove the old index management server from the server farm topology by removing it from the component assignments.
5. Remove the old index management server from the server farm.
6. Restore the index management components to the server.
7. If the server is also a job server, and you are using the single sign-on service in your deployment, configure the single sign-on service, and then restore the encryption key.

Database server — restore data to a server with the same name

1. Install SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server.
2. Disconnect each server in the server farm from the configuration database.
3. Install SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3 on the server for the configuration database, if necessary.
4. Re-create the configuration database on the server using the SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration pages.
5. Re-connect all servers to the newly created configuration database and assign proper components to each server.
6. On all front-end Web servers, un-extend the virtual servers used previously by portal sites.
7. Restore the portal sites.
8. Restore the site databases, user profile databases, and services databases for the server from the backup image.

   Note  If some of these databases are on other servers, those servers must also be restored.

9. Restore the single sign-on database from the backup image, if you are using the single sign-on service in your deployment.
10. On each Web server, open a command prompt and type iisreset.

Database server — restore data to a server with a new name

This procedure is used when moving a single server installation using SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine to a SQL Server 2000 server on a server farm.

1. Back up everything on your existing database server.
2. Install SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server, choosing the SQL Server 2000 option.
3. Create a configuration database.
4. Restore all of your components.

   Use the Edit button on the Restore tab to specify the settings for each component, including the new name for the server.

Server farm — restore data to all servers on the farm

Data is restored to servers using the same name as the failed servers.

1. Install SharePoint Portal Server on each newly built server.

   Note  You do not need to install SharePoint Portal Server on the database server.

2. Install the server and client components for backward-compatible document libraries on the newly built document library server.
3. Configure the farm topology but add only one Web server.
4. Restore the data.

   Important  Do not restore the configuration database, but restore all other data. Ensure that you restore the single sign-on database, if you are using the single sign-on service in your deployment.

   Use the Edit button on the Restore tab to specify the server for the restore operation.

   Backup and restore will recreate portal sites, SharePoint sites, and document libraries.

   Note  During restore, you will be asked to provide virtual server names and port numbers for portal sites and server names for document libraries. It is strongly recommended that you use the same settings for both portal sites and document libraries, which are provided by default. If you change the virtual server name for the portal site or the server name for the document library associated with that site, you will have to manually reconnect the document library in SharePoint Portal Server Central Administration. Using the same settings also ensures that other applications referring to the portal site can still access the portal site.

5. Configure the single sign-on service, if it is part of your deployment.
6. Restore the encryption key, if you have configured the single-sign on service.
7. Add additional Web servers and extend the IIS virtual server for each site.

Restore data to the Web server

1. If at least one Web server on the server farm is still active, add additional Web servers to the server farm and extend the IIS virtual server for each site.
2. If all Web servers have failed, you must reinstall SharePoint Portal Server and restore the portal sites for the Web servers.

Restore data to the search server

1. Install SharePoint Portal Server on the newly built server. You can use a server with the same name as the failed server or with a new name.
2. Add the search server to the server farm.

   Note  If a different name was used for the new server, the old server should be removed from the server farm.

3. Add the search server to the server farm topology by adding it to the component assignments.
4. Restore the search component to the server.

Related Topics

Backing Up Data

Restoring Data

Changing Component Assignments for the Server Farm

Removing a Server from the Server Farm

Adding a Server to the Server Farm

Specifying Configuration Database Settings

Deleting a Document Library

Specifying Settings for Single Sign-On and Application Definitions