Back up in SharePoint Server 2010

Backup in SharePoint 2010

Basically there are 3 types of backup methods used in SharePoint server 2010

·         Using Windows PowerShell

·         Using SharePoint 2010 Central Admin

·         Using SQL server

Use Windows PowerShell to back up a farm in SharePoint

You can use Windows PowerShell to back up the farm manually or as part of a script that can be run at scheduled intervals.

1.      Click on the Start menu

2.      Click All Programs.

3.      Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

4.      Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

5.      At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command: 

Backup-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolder> -BackupMethod {Full | Differential} [-Verbose]

Use Central Administration to back up a farm in SharePoint

You can use Central Administration to back up the farm.

1.      In Central Administration, on the Home page > Backup and Restore > Perform a backup.

2.      On the Perform a Backup — Step 1 of 2: Select Component to Back Up page, select the farm from the list of components, and then click next.

3.      On the Start Backup — Step 2 of 2: Select Backup Options page, in the Backup Type section, select either Fullor Differential.

4.      In the Back Up Only Configuration Settings > Back up content and configuration settings.

5.      In the Backup File Location section, type the UNC path of the backup folder, and then click Start Backup.

6.      You can view the general status of all backup jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current backup job

7.      in the lower part of the page in the Backupsection. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are Timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take several seconds for the backup to start.

Use SQL Server tools to back up a farm in SharePoint

Using SQL server you can back up site content DB only, this is not useful when we have to take a full farm backup.

1.      Open SQL Server Management Studio

2.      Connect to the database server.

3.      Expand Databases

4.      Right-click the database that you want to back up, point to Tasks, and then click Back Up.

5.      In the Back Up Database dialog box, in the Sourcearea, select the kind of backup that you want to perform from the Backup typelist.

6.      In the Backup component > Database.

7.      Either use the default name provided or specify a name for the backup set in the Name text box.

8.      Specify the expiration date for the backup set. This date determines how long, or when, the backup set can be overwritten by any later backups that have the same name. By default, the backup set is set to never expire (0 days).

9.      In the Destination area, specify where you want to store the backup.

10.  Click OKto back up the database.

11.  Repeat steps 1-10 for each farm database.

Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428316.aspx