Backing Up SharePoint Portal 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services Data

When properly configured, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 environments support full, differential, and incremental backups of SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data. All three categories of files and databases described above can be backed up in one backup job. The following sections explain how to back up your SharePoint Portal Server 2003 data.

The SharePoint administrator is responsible for identifying which files and databases need to be backed up for a given SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services.

Tip. It is recommended that you back up all three components in order to make recovery easier.

SharePoint Portal 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services Backup Overview

Use the Microsoft IIS manager to perform an IIS Backup of the IIS configuration data to two specific files, then use DPX to back up these files. Use the DPX SQL Server interface to back up the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 configuration database and the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 content databases.

Tip. You can direct IIS manager to perform an IIS Backup of the IIS configuration data via a pre-job script. See Chapter 29: Pre-Scripts and Post-Scripts.

SharePoint Portal 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services Backup Procedure

The following steps describe the procedures for creating a SharePoint Portal 2003 backup job to back up all three components.

To back up the SharePoint components:

  1. Perform an IIS backup of the IIS configuration by using either a pre-job script or the IIS manager:

    • Pre-job Script: Create a pre-job script to direct the Microsoft IIS Metabase Backup program to perform an IIS backup of the IIS configuration to two files in the system32\inetsrv\metaback directory. The files are named metabasebackup.MDx and metabasebackup.SCx. Where metabasebackup is the name you gave the IIS backup, and x is the version of the IIS backup. Make sure that the system32\inetsrv\metaback directory exists before performing step 2 below. For more information about pre-job scripting, see Chapter 29: Pre-Scripts and Post-Scripts.

      The following example directs the IIS manager to perform an IIS backup of the IIS configuration:

      C: cd winnt\system32 iisback /backup /b NodeOne /v 0 /overwrite

      The "/v 0" (version 0) option directs the IIS manager to append zero to the end of the file suffix (for example: NodeOne.MD0 and NodeOne.SC0). The overwrite option directs the IIS manager to overwrite the two files. See Microsoft IIS 6.0 documentation for more details about the Microsoft IIS Metabase Backup program.

    • IIS Manager: Make sure the system32\inetsrv\metaback directory exists. Create a named IIS backup using the IIS manager to perform an IIS backup of the IIS configuration to two files in the system32\inetsrv\metaback directory. The files are named metabasebackup.MDx and metabasebackup.SCx. Where metabasebackup is the name you gave the IIS backup, and x is the version of the IIS backup.

      If you choose this approach, this step must be performed manually outside of DPX before each IIS configuration backup.

    To perform an IIS backup using this approach:

    1. On your Windows 2003 desktop, click Start, point to Administrative tools, then click Internet Information Services.

    2. Right-click the name of your computer in IIS Manager, point to All Tasks, then click Backup/Restore Configuration.

    3. Click Create Backup in the Configuration Backup/Restore dialog box, then type the name for this backup.

    4. Click OK to quickly back up the IIS configuration in the metabase.

      The backup name and its date and time are listed in the Previous Backups dialog box.

    5. Click Close and quit IIS Manager.

  2. Begin to define a File Backup job using standard procedures. See Chapter 20: Backup.

  3. If you have chosen to define a pre-job script in step 1 above, in the backup job window, go to the Job Source Options dialog and set up the pre-job script. See Chapter 29: Pre-Scripts and Post-Scripts.

  4. In the backup source tree, select the system32\inetsrv\metaback directory. Your SharePoint Portal 2003 or Microsoft SharePoint Services databases appear in DPX as SQL Server databases. See Chapter 50: SQL Server Interface.

  5. In the backup source tree, select the database that contains the SharePoint Portal 2003 configuration or the Windows SharePoint Services configuration you want to back up in this job. SharePoint Portal 2003 configuration database names usually are in the format portaname_Config_db, where portalname is the first eight characters, not including spaces, of the portal name. If the first eight characters are the same in another portal name, the eighth character in the portalname string is an incremental numeric value. The Windows SharePoint Services configuration default database name is STS_Config_db.

  6. In the backup source tree, select the databases that contain the SharePoint Portal 2003 content or the SharePoint Services content you want to back up in this job.

    SharePoint Portal 2003 content database names usually are in the format portalname_cccc, where:

    • portalname_cccc is the first eight characters, not including spaces, of the portal name. If the first eight characters are same in another portal name, the eighth character in the portalname string is an incremental numeric value.

    • cccc is PROF, SITE, or SERV. PROF, SITE, and SERV represent the profile database, the site database, and the services database, respectively, for the portal.

    Windows SharePoint Services content database names usually are in the format STS_Servername_n, where:

    • Servername is the name of the server.

    • n is a numerical value that is incremented if there is more than one virtual server in the Windows SharePoint Services server.

  7. After selecting the content databases, proceed with defining the rest of the backup job, including scheduling, as described in Chapter 20: Backup.

Other Considerations when Backing Up SharePoint Portal 2003

  • If you use the Encrypting File System (EFS), you must back up the encryption key as explained in Microsoft’s documentation.

  • If you use Certificate Authorities (CA), you must back up Active Directory data as explained in Microsoft’s documentation.

  • If you use Single Sign-On (SSO), you must back up the Credential database as explained in Microsoft’s documentation.

  • If you use Full Text Indexing Service, you must back up the indexing database(s) as explained in Microsoft’s documentation.

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