Archive:SharePoint Backup 4.4.2/4.4.3

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Overview

This article describes SEP sesam SharePoint backup module that was introduced in SEP sesam version 4.4.2. For details on previous version, see SEP sesam for SharePoint 4.2.2.

SEP sesam provides a SharePoint extension to backup and restore a SharePoint Server. This extension supports FULL/COPY backup and restore of the SharePoint Server in a single and distributed server environment with SQL Server and SharePoint.

SEP sesam introduces the SharePoint Recovery Pro plugin (Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint), a powerful recovery solution for Microsoft SharePoint Server that allows you to browse or search through backed up items (documents, blog entries, etc.), and restore entire SharePoint sites or single items (documents, lists, folders, etc.) using drag-and-drop.

SharePoint Recovery Pro is only supported on Windows systems. Once you have obtained a licence, it will be delivered in two packages: Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint must be installed on the system that serves as the SEP sesam Server or RDS; and an Ontrack agent for content transfer must be installed on the SharePoint server.

To use the SharePoint Recovery Pro functionality, all SEP sesam clients using SharePoint backup functionality must be updated to SEP sesam version 4.4.2.

License

The SharePoint Recovery Pro (Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint) license is always issued for the size of the SQL databases and log files. To estimate the SQL size, count the size (GB) of all data (*.mdf) files and transaction log (*.ldf) files. If the size of your *.mdf and *.ldf files is larger than the size specified in the license, you will not be able to restore your data using SharePoint Recovery Pro (Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint).

To obtain a license, contact SEP sesam sales at Contact.

Key features

  • SEP sesam currently supports FULL and COPY backup levels for SharePoint. With these backups, all data defined by the backup task is backed up, regardless of when it was last modified.
  • Using the Advanced Search Agent for SharePoint provides administrators with quick access to the archived items, enabling them to search backed-up SharePoint database files by keyword, item type, user or date, rather than performing a full restore to find a single lost item.
  • Administrators can perform a single item recovery by simply searching, dragging & dropping the selected items to the target destination, which can be a live environment or alternate location. For details, see SharePoint Restore 4.4.2.
  • The integrity of your SharePoint data is preserved by preventing any data from being modified while it is archived. For example, if an administrator searches for individual items and retrieves them, their version in the archived SharePoint remains unaltered while the retrieved items are stored to the target destination with all relevant metadata.
  • Distributed SharePoint environment, also with Microsoft SQL Always On Failover Cluster (active/passive) is supported.

Limitations

Attention
A SharePoint environment with Microsoft SQL "Always On availability groups" is currently not supported.

Quick setup overview

Setting up SEP sesam to fully protect the entire SharePoint environment is similar to the standard environment setup with some SharePoint specific tasks, which are described below.
 

Configuring SharePoint components

Prerequisites

  • SEP sesam Server or SEP sesam Remote Device Server (RDS) running on Windows x64. Check Hardware requirements for SEP sesam Server or RDS.
  • A SEP sesam data store Path, SEP sesam Si3 deduplication store or HPE StoreOnce is required for instant single item recovery.
  • If the backups are encrypted, compressed or stored on tape or a Linux data store, a manual restore to a Windows x64 system (with installed SEP sesam Client, SharePoint Recovery Pro) is required.

Preparing the SEP sesam environment

  1. Install the SEP sesam Client package v. 4.4.2 or higher to all SharePoint and SQL Servers. As of version 4.2.2.26, the SharePoint extension for SharePoint Server 2010/2013 is already included in all SEP sesam packages (SRV/GUI/CLI). It can be downloaded from SEP Download Center. For details, see SEP Sesam Quick Install Guide.
  2. Make sure that the SEP sesam service is running with the rights of an AD user with sysadmin role and full access to the SharePoint server. If the sysadmin role is not set, it must be added to the SharePoint administrator account, e.g., the user sp_sfa. If the SQL Server is running on another node, the SEP sesam service on that SQL Server node must run with the rights of an AD user with sysadmin role and full access to the SQL Server.
  3. To register the SharePoint Services Writer, log in as a SharePoint farm administrator and execute the following command with SharePoint administrator rights (e.g., qs12\sp_sfa):
    #> stsadm.exe -o registerwsswriter.
    For details, see the MicroSoft article SharePoint 2013 VSS Writer.
  4. Note:

    The command-line utility for the administration of the SharePoint Server is stsadm.exe and it must be executed with the SharePoint admin account. It is installed in the same location as the SharePoint products and technologies:

    • SharePoint 2007: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\bin
    • SharePoint 2010: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\bin
    • SharePoint 2013: %COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\15\bin

    Example for SharePoint Server 2010:

    #> "%COMMONPROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\bin\stsadm.exe" -o registerwsswriter
    
  5. Configure the SharePoint and SQL servers as SEP sesam clients.
    Note that the SEP sesam backup module must connect to the SQL Server in order to access the database data. The browsing command on the SharePoint Server is used to get the serving SQL Servers. The SQL Server host must be added as a client to the SEP sesam environment. If the SQL Server name is not present in the SEP sesam Clients table, the following error might be issued:
    E004-BACKUP {task} Could not find client [xyz] in table 'clients.
    The name resolution may retrieve a different name even for the Share Point server itself, e.g., without a fully qualified domain name (FQDN), so ensure that the proper DNS connection is set up. For details, see FAQ: Which are SEP sesam default TCPIP ports and How to check DNS configuration.

Installing SEP sesam SharePoint Recovery Pro package (Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint)

SharePoint Recovery Pro consist of two packages: Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint and Ontrack PowerControls Agent for Content Transfer Service. To obtain a license, contact the SEP sesam sales at Contact.

Step 1
Download SharePoint Recovery Pro (Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint) from the link that was provided by SEP sales. Extract the Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint files to a directory of your choice on the Windows x64 system, which must be a SEP sesam server or RDS. Double-click setup.exe, select only SharePoint, and follow the instructions.
Step 2
Install the Ontrack PowerControls Agent to the SharePoint Server, which must have a SEP sesam client installed:
  1. Log on to the SharePoint server using admin privileges.
  2. Run the Ontrack PowerControls Agent .exe file.
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions. In the Logon Information step of the install wizard, enter the user name (in a DOMAIN\username format) and password for the SharePoint farm administrator.
  4. In the Port Number field of the Agent for Content Service Setting step, use the default value or enter another available port number. Memorise the port number since you will have to enter it when using Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint. Note that the firewall configuration must be set to allow communication over this TCP port.
  5. In the Temporary File Location field, use the default path or browse for one you wish to use. This location is used as a temporary storage for your SharePoint data during restore. Make sure to select a temporary location with sufficient space to enable succesfull restore.

Installing the license file for SharePoint Recovery Pro

You need a special license file for the SEP sesam SharePointRecovery Pro feature. Licenses are made available immediately your purchase/renewal is completed.

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  1. From Start -> All Programs, open SharePoint Recovery Pro. The message License file not installed appears.
  2. Click the button License info and import the license.ini file.

Configuring SharePoint backup

To fully protect your SharePoint environment, you must create different backup tasks for the SharePoint servers and a separate task for your SQL server. The procedure for creating a backup task is the same, you just have to select a different task type for each task according to the data source you want to protect.

After you have configured your backup task, you must set up a backup schedule (specify when you want to back up your data) and link a backup event to it (specify how to back up your data to and where to). For details, see Standard Backup Procedure.

Because you have to configure more backup tasks for the SharePoint servers, the general steps only describe the specific task type and source for each.

  1. Configure your backup task(s) from Main Selection -> Tasks -> By clients, select your SharePoint client and choose New backup task.
  2. Specify the Source. By selecting the source, the task type and task name are set automatically.
  3.  
  4. Once the schedule has been configured, you will have to create a new backup event for it. Go to Main Selection -> Scheduling -> New Backup Event, click the Parameter tab and select COPY or FULL backup from the Backup level drop-down list. Note that COPY/FULL are the only supported backup levels for SharePoint clients! For general details on creating backup events, see Creating a backup event.
  5. SEP sesam does not truncate the transaction logs of the SQL server, because truncating would break the log chain and disable point-in-time restore. You must therefore set up periodic backups of the SQL server:
    When configuring a task for your SQL server, specify MS SQL Server as the task type and all as the source. Schedule it to run once a week as FULL and all other days as INC. For details, see SEP sesam Microsoft SQL Server.
  6. Depending on whether your server is a physical or virtual machine, perform one of the following steps to prepare for a complete system recovery:
    • If your server is a physical machine, use SEP sesam BSR pro to ensure successful disaster recovery. For details, see SEP sesam BSR Pro – Backup Configuration.
    • If your server is a virtual machine, start a daily VM snapshot backup of the VM.

See also

How to restore SharePoint