Restoring Microsoft SharePoint databases from Microsoft SQL Server backups

When you want to restore SharePoint, but the farm’s configuration database is left in an incomplete state, or if a farm’s configuration database is corrupt in some other way, you cannot use the SharePoint Services VSS writer to restore a SharePoint application from the virtual node. Under these conditions, you can try restoring a SharePoint database from a SQL server backup.

Take the following steps to restore the Microsoft SharePoint databases from backups of Microsoft SQL Servers:

  1. Click the Block option from under the Restore tab. The Restore window appears, with SOURCES displayed in the left pane and DESTINATIONS in the right pane.

  2. Open the SharePoint application’s virtual node and find the database(s) that you need to restore.

  3. Identify the name(s) and location(s) of the database server(s) that you need to restore. (Open the server dialog window to obtain this information.)

  4. Open the database server’s physical node and look through the SQL backups to locate each database and select all of the backup instances that you want to restore.

  5. Run a SQL restore for those SQL databases.

Note. When selecting a configuration database, also select the central administration content database.

If you are restoring the database content of a SharePoint group to a different location, ensure the two Restore Destination options MSSQL New Location and MSSQL New Location Logs are set appropriately. For a description of these options, see Setting Block Restore Source Options.

Last updated