Prerequisites for restoring Microsoft SharePoint

When executing a SharePoint application restore, ensure the following dependencies and restrictions:

• You can only restore a full SharePoint application backup instance to its original location. The original location icon is selected by default; it represents the same farm where the backed up data originated.

• When you use Catalogic DPX to restore a backup of SharePoint components from the backup of a physical node, you can only restore the MOSS Search Index (MOSSSEARCHINDEX) and the WSS Search Index (WSSSEARCHINDEX) components to their original (disk) locations.

• You cannot select individual components (or servers) from the Configuration and Central Administration Databases group; you cannot restore that content unless it is defined as part of a full backup of the entire SharePoint application.

• You can select the entire Search Database and Index files group, but again, you will not be able to select individual components.

• You can select the full set of Shared Service Providers, or you can select one or more individual Shared Service Providers, but you cannot select the individual sub-components that appear under a single Shared Service Provider entity.

• Before restoring a SQL database in a cluster environment, check to see if that SQL database is already present on the server. If the SQL database is missing, create a new, empty database before attempting to perform the restore.

• You can individually select a SharePoint application’s content database component (or one of its sub-components) and restore it to an alternate SQL disk location, as shown in the following illustration:

Note. To restore the SharePoint content database restore to a new location, redirect the web application’s configuration settings to use the new location for this relocated content database. (If you need to review relevant information about a given content database, you can refer to its configuration data, as recorded in its related backup job log.) As an alternative to reconfiguring the relocated content database, there is a Set Destination option for SharePoint restores that lets you configure a restore job that will create a new, preconfigured web application at the new location. For more information about this Create SharePoint Web Application job option, see The SharePoint-Only Job Destination Option: Create SharePoint Web Application.

• Only restore the configuration database and the central administration database when required. To restore the content of web applications, only perform a restore of the content databases.

• When running a SharePoint 2010 restore job, depending on the components selected for that restore, the post-restore stage could present a significant delay.