How to use System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 to help protect Windows SharePoint Services and Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003

This article describes how to use System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006 to help protect Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

You cannot use DPM 2006 to directly help protect Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003. You must first back up Windows SharePoint Services data and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data to a backup file. The folder that contains the backup file must be stored in a shared folder or on a local volume. The folder or volume must be a member of a DPM protection group.

This article describes how to do the following:

• Back up Windows SharePoint Services data and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data
• Create a backup schedule by using the Scheduled Tasks tool in Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Use DPM 2006 to help protect the backup file

Backup and restore options for Windows SharePoint Services

There are several methods that you can use to back up and to restore Windows SharePoint Services. Each method uses a different tool to back up and to restore the data. However, each tool operates at a different level of granularity and may require different user permissions. Use the following methods to back up and to restore Windows SharePoint Services data.

Method 1: Use the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 backup and restore tools to back up and to restore databases

You can use the SQL Server 2000 backup and restore tools to perform a full-fidelity, complete backup of the databases that are used by Windows SharePoint Services. When you use this method, you back up the configuration database and each content database that is hosted on the server or on the server farm. You can restore any database, or you can restore all the databases. To use this method, you must be running SQL Server 2000. Additionally, you must be an administrator on the server that is running SQL Server 2000. You cannot use this method if you are running SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows). This backup method is more secure than the other backup methods that are described in this section.

For more information about how to use the SQL Server 2000 backup and restore tools to back up and to restore Windows SharePoint Services data, see the "Backing Up and Restoring Databases by Using the SQL Server 2000 Tools" topic in the "Backup and Migration" section of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide. To obtain Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about the SQL Server 2000 backup and restore tools, see the "Backing Up and Restoring Databases" topic in the "Administering SQL Server" section in SQL Server Books Online.

Method 2: Use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to back up and to restore individual site collections

You can use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to perform a full-fidelity backup or a full-fidelity restore of a whole site collection. This method does not require SQL Server 2000. You can use this method if you are running SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) or SQL Server 2000. However, to use this method, you must be an administrator on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services.

For more information about how to use the Stsadm.exe command-line tool to back up and to restore Windows SharePoint Services site collections, see the "Backing Up and Restoring Web Sites" topic in the "Backup and Migration" section of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Administrator's Guide.

Method 3: Use the Microsoft SharePoint Migration Tool (Smigrate.exe) to back up and to restore individual sites and subsites

You can use the SharePoint Migration Tool (Smigrate.exe) to back up and to restore individual Windows SharePoint Services sites and subsites. This method does not create a full-fidelity backup. Some customizations or settings may be lost during the process. For example, security settings such as user membership in site groups are not restored if you use the SharePoint Migration Tool. However, you do not have to be an administrator on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services to use this method. You can use this method if you are a member of the Administrator site group for the site or for the subsite.

The SharePoint Migration Tool is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\60\Bin folder on the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services. For more information about how to use the SharePoint Migration Tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Backup and restore options for SharePoint Portal Server 2003

Use the SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore tool (Spsbackup.exe) to back up and to restore SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data

The SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore tool is installed when you install SharePoint Portal Server 2003 on the server. You can use the tool in a single server deployment or in a server farm deployment of SharePoint Portal Server 2003. If you have a server farm deployment of SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you must run the SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore tool from a front-end Web server in the server farm. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Client Tools must also be installed on the server from which you run the backup and restore operation.

Before you use the SharePoint Portal Server Data Backup and Restore tool, visit the following Microsoft Web site to review information about the tool: For more information about how to back up and to restore SharePoint Portal Server 2003, see the "Backup and Restore" section of Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide. Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administration Guide (Administrator's Help.chm) is located in the Docs folder in the root of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 CD. Or, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

How to schedule backup operations by using the Scheduled Tasks tool

You can use the Scheduled Tasks tool in Windows Server 2003 to schedule a backup operation. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type control schedtasks, and then click OK.
2. Double-click Add Scheduled Task to open the Scheduled Tasks Wizard, and then click Next.
3. Click Browse.
4. In the Select Program to Schedule dialog box, locate the .exe file that represents the backup tool that you want to use, and then click Open.
   
   For example, if you want to schedule a backup operation that uses the Stsadm.exe command-line tool, locate the Stsadm.exe file. The Stsadm.exe file is located in the Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin folder.
5. Specify the name that you want for the scheduled backup operation, and then specify when you want the backup operation to run. For example, click Weekly.
6. Click Next.
7. Specify the time and the day of the week when you want the backup operation to start, and then click Next.
8. Type the user name and the password of the user account that you want the scheduled backup operation to use, and then click Next.
9. If you have to configure additional options for the backup operation, click to select the Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish check box, and then click Finish.
10. Click the Task tab.
11. Add the backup options that you want in the Run box, and then click OK.
    
    For example, if you schedule a backup operation that uses the Stsadm.exe command-line tool, the entry in the Run box may resemble the following:
    Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\60\Bin\stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://ServerName/SiteName -filename backup.dat

To view a case study that documents how the Internet Platform and Operations group at Microsoft configured a backup of Windows SharePoint Services, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

How to use DPM 2006 to help protect Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003

As discussed earlier in this article, before you can use DPM 2006 to help protect Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003, you must back up the data to a backup file. The following method describes how you can use DPM 2006 to help protect the backup file. This method assumes that you schedule a backup operation to run one time each day. Modify the sample schedule that is used in the following steps to apply to the backup schedule that you implement for your environment.

To set up DPM 2006 to help protect Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003, follow these steps:

1. Configure a scheduled backup operation to back up Windows SharePoint Services data and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data to a backup file. Schedule the backup operation to run at a time that is appropriate for your environment. For example, schedule the backup operation to run at 11:00 P.M. Make sure that you schedule the backup operation to run before the synchronization job and the shadow copy job run.
   
   The backup file must be located in a folder in one of the following locations:
   • A shared folder on the network. For example, the backup file may be located in the \\ServerName\SharePointDumps\Backup.bak folder.
   • A local volume. For example, the backup file may be located in the Drive:\SharePointBackups\Backup.bak folder.
     
     Note Make sure that the volume that you use to store the backup file is not one of the following volumes:
     • The volume that hosts the SQL Server databases that are used by Windows SharePoint Services and by SharePoint Portal Server 2003
     • The volume that hosts the SQL Server database logs
2. Use DPM 2006 to help protect the shared folder or the volume that contains the backup file. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Open the DPM 2006 Administrator Console, and then click Protection on the navigation bar. The New Protection Group Wizard starts.
   2. Click Next on the Welcome page, and then follow the instructions that appear in the wizard to create a new protection group.
   3. On the Select Protection Schedule page, click Specify Schedule, and then configure a shadow copy job to run one hour after you expect the backup operation to finish. The time that you specify is displayed under Synchronize and create shadow copies at.
      
      Configure a second shadow copy job to run several hours after the first shadow copy starts. For example, assume that you schedule the backup operation to run at 11:00 P.M. In this scenario, schedule the first shadow copy job to run at 1:00 A.M. because you expect the backup operation to finish before 1:00 A.M. Then, schedule the second shadow copy job to run at 6:00 A.M.
      
      Note A consistency check job must run between the two shadow copy jobs. In this scenario, you expect the consistency check job to finish before 6:00 A.M.
   4. Configure the consistency check job. To do this, click Advanced Options, and then click Schedule daily consistency check. Specify the consistency check job to run at least one hour after the first shadow copy job starts and at least four hours before the second shadow copy starts. Set the maximum duration of the consistency check job to four hours.
      
      For example, assume that you schedule the backup operation to run at 11:00 P.M. and that you schedule the first shadow copy job to run at 1:00 AM. In this scenario, schedule the consistency check job to run at 2:00 A.M.
      
      Note This step assumes that the consistency check job is completed in four hours. If you determine that the consistency check job in your environment takes a longer time, you can do the following:
      • Increase the maximum duration of the consistency check job to best suit the requirements of your environment.
      • Change the time that the second shadow copy job starts.

Notes

• You may notice that two jobs fail after the backup operation runs. The jobs that fail are the synchronization job and the shadow copy job. When this behavior occurs, you receive an alert to notify you that the replica is not valid. This behavior indicates that the replica that is used to help protect the backup file is not valid after the first shadow copy job starts. For example, if you scheduled the backup operation to occur at 11:00 P.M. each day, you receive the alert at approximately 1:00 A.M. This behavior is expected. The alert is no longer active when the consistency check job is completed. You may experience this behavior if the size of the backup file is larger than the size of the DPM 2006 synchronization log that you configured.
• The second shadow copy job that you scheduled in step 2c must be configured to start one hour after the consistency check job is expected to finish. To verify that the synchronization job is completed, open the DPM Administrator Console, click Monitoring on the navigation bar, and then click the Jobs tab. View the synchronization jobs, and then verify that synchronization is completed for the object that you want to help protect.
• Make sure that the shadow copy area that is allocated on the disk is sufficient to hold multiple shadow copies. If the shadow copy area is insufficient, you may lose earlier shadow copies.

Use this method if you intend to back up Windows SharePoint Services and SharePoint Portal Server 2003 by using the sample schedule that is discussed in this article. If you want to back up data more frequently, adjust the backup schedule, and then modify the protection group schedule that is used for synchronization and for shadow copies to best suit the needs of your environment. To recover the data, recover the backup files from the DPM Recovery tool to the server or to the shared folder. Then, restore the data to the server that is running Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

For more information about backup and restore options for Windows SharePoint Services and for SharePoint Portal Server 2003, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For more information about how to plan, deploy, configure, and operate DPM, visit the following Microsoft Web site: