Sharepoint Backup and Restore

[Adrian_Lowrance]

Backup Exec 11d now offers the ability to restore individual document items from Sharepoint. It would seem that Netbackup would be offering this feature also. Has anyone heard if this is going to be happening for the backup of Sharepoint Portal 2003 with Netbackup. I tested out the trial version of Backup Exec 11d and this feature worked great.

On a side note, I was also able to do a backup of exchange from Backup Exec 11d of the information store. This allowed me to restore mailbox items from the information store back. It would seem with Netbackup being the Enterprise software that this would be offered.

[Lance_Hoskins]

By way of purchasing the appropriate licensing (the SharePoint and Exchange agents), you can do a document level back of both SharePoint and Exchange with NBU. We do both and they work great.

[Adrian_Lowrance]

So you are able to do a backup of Sharepoint Portal 2003 and able to do document level restores from Netbackup without having to restore the whole database to another environment? You can restore an individual item from the restore screen? I was under the impression that the whole sharepoint database had to be backed up with the sql agent for Sharepoint Portal 2003 and then restored to another environment and then the item pulled out from that restore of the sql database. As far as the Exchange piece, yes i know you can back up both the mailboxes and the information stores with the appropriate agents. Backup Exec 11d allows you to do a backup of the information store and from the restore of the info store pull out individual items from mailboxes without having to create a recovery group on the exchange server. It eliminates the time consuming brick level backup.

"With new Granular Recover Technology (GRT) exclusive to Backup Exec 11d, businesses can recover critical data in seconds for key Microsoft applications, such as Exchange, SharePoint Portal Server, Active Directory and SQL 2005.
Recover individual emails, folders, and mailboxes?without mailbox backups.
Recover individual SharePoint documents.
Recover Active Directory components in seconds?without rebooting.
Recover SQL 2005 snapshots in seconds."

http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/products/newfeatures.jsp?pcid=1018&pvid=57_1

[Lance_Hoskins]

Are you sure it isn't SharePoint 2005 that you're thinking about with the SQL agent? We haven't tackled that beast yet, but in the next 8 weeks or so we'll start testing!

[Adrian_Lowrance]

No, we are using Sharepoint Portal 2003. The next version of Sharepoint Portal is going to be Sharepoint 2007. I spoke to tech support about this in the past and they indicted that you could do document level item restores with the sharepoint agent with sharepoint 2001. With Sharepoint 2003, he recommended using sql to back up Sharepoint. Could have just talked to the wrong tech on that one. We currently do have the agent installed for Sharepoint.

I think i may have ran across a document showing why we havent been able to restore individual items with Netbackup. According to the technote it seems that the Microsoft Office Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 Document Library is an optional feature and the document libraries icon is unavailable in the Netbackup Backup, Archive, and Restore GUI if this isnt installed. I will check out the Sharepoint server to make sure this feature is installed.

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/282829.htm

[Adrian_Lowrance]

The optional feature for the document library isnt going to be an option I will be able to use since this is for backward compatible technology. From what I can tell and other posts made in the netbackup forum, the backup and restore of Sharepoint 2003 using Netbackup is only at the database level. Sharepoint 2001 allowed you to do individual document restore. Lance, unless I am reading wrong I dont think there is a sharepoint 2005. The upgrade from Sharepoint Portal 2003 is going to be Sharepoint Portal 2007. I am not seeing any option by using the agent that allows you to do individual document backup and restores for Sharepoint 2003. Backup Exec 11d uses a Granular Restore Technology to do a restore of document/workspace from tape backup of Sharepoint 2003.

http://ftp.support.veritas.com/pub/support/products/NetBackup_DataCenter/264854.pdf is the link sent to me by tech support titled Netbackup and Sharepoint 2003. It goes into detail about using SQL to backup the databases for Sharepoint 2003. On the last page of the document it states that "Protection of a server farm is currently unavailable with Netbackup". I was hoping since this was able with Backup Exec now that Netbackup would do the same. I will open up another case with tech support to see if this is possible now.

It also seems that the option to restore individual mailbox items from the information store backups isnt happening with Netbackup either. I know you can do both mailbox and information store backups in Netbackup. Backup Exec 11d is using GRT so you only have to backup the information store and from the Backup, Restore GUI. You can expand the info store and from your mailbox stores, you can then see all the mailboxes and restore items from there like you would previously from the mailbox brick level backups. It would be nice to be able to eliminate the mailbox backups like you now can with Backup Exec.

[AKopel]

This is correct. You CANNOT restore individual items in Netbackup for Sharepoint 2003.
Only for 2001.
Our company currently uses AvePoint for item level backups for Sharepoint 2003.
AK