Backup Configuration of Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Overview
After you have installed and created your WSS Site databases and site collections you will need to ensure the proper backups are in place for disaster recovery.

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Configure Backups

• Step 1: Install Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 add-ons to run backup scripts for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.
• Step 2: Copy backup support files.
• Step 3: Edit backup script.
• Step 4: Create SharePoint backup user account.
• Step 5: Create backup job scheduled task.
• Step 6: Test backup job.
• Step 7: Add database and site collection backups to customer backup application.

Configure Backups
This backup routine is provided to back up the WSS Starter Site databases and site collection to disk. This backup runs nightly and overwrites each backup weekly. The SharePointBackups directory should then be backed up as part of the regular backup routine.

A third-party backup application may be more desirable for automated reporting and monitoring on backup status.

Step 1: Install SQL Server 2005 add-ons to run backup scripts for SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition.

Download the SQL Server 2005 Native Client and SQL Server 2005 Command Line Query Utility from this location: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=87020

• Install the SQL Server 2005 Native Client (approximately 3.5 MB download).
• Install the SQL Server Command Line Query Utility (approximately 2.5 MB download).

Step 2: Copy backup support files.

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Copy the file named SharePointBackups.exe which is a self extracting zip file. This zip file will create a file structure that contains the backup script, a storage location for database backups, and a storage location for site collection backups. Before continuing, locate a partition that has at least 1 GB of available space. This will be the drive letter used in step 1 below to unzip the SharePointBackups.exe file.

Folder Structure Description:

• BackupScript: This is the location of the VBScript file used by the task scheduler to back up your databases and site collection.
• Databases: This is the location where SQL Server database backups are saved.
• Site Collections: This is the location where site collection backups are saved.

• Double-click the SharePointBackups.exe file to start the self extractor. (Figure 2.1)

Figure 2.1

• In the Unzip to folder box, change the drive letter to the location on the server you would like your backups to reside.
• Click Unzip.
• You will now have a folder structure created for your backups. (Figure 2.2)

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Figure 2.2

Step 3: Edit backup script.

In this step, we will edit the backup script parameters for the names and locations of the WSS Starter Site, Content Database, Configuration Database, Site Collection backup location, and Database backup location.

Open VBScript for editing

• Open Windows Explorer and browse to the location where you extracted the SharePointBackups.zip file.
• Open the SharePointBackups\BackupScript directory.
• Right-click on the wss30backup.vbs file and choose Edit.
• Scroll down to the section with the following text:

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Note: When editing, make sure each parameter has quotes around it.

SiteName Parameter

• In the SiteName = parameter, replace hostname.mydomain.com with your site’s URL. In this WSS Starter Site example it would be “http://sharepoint”.
• Leave script file open for editing and continue.

ContentDB Parameter

• From the Start button, choose Administrative Tools and then SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration.
• Click on the Application Management tab.
• In the SharePoint Web Application Management section, click on content databases.

Figure 3.1

• Make sure your WSS site is selected in the Web Application drop-down list. (Figure 3.2)

 

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• Highlight the name of your Content Database, right-click, and choose Copy.
• Go back to the VBScript you have open for editing and locate the ContentDB = parameter. Highlight WSS_Content_Sitename, right-click on it and choose Paste to replace it with the name or your Content Database. In Figure 3.2, the database name is WSS_Content_StarterSite, so the parameter would be: ContentDB = "WSS_content_StarterSite" (not case sensitive).
• Leave script file open for editing and continue.

ConfigDB Parameter

• In SharePoint 3.0 Central Administration, click on the Operations tab.
• In the Topology and Services section, click on Servers in farm.

Figure 3.3

• Highlight the name of your Configuration database, right-click, and choose Copy. (Figure 3.4)

 

• Go back to the VBScript you have open for editing and locate the ConfigDB = parameter.
• Highlight SharePoint_Config_biglongGUIDgoesHERE, right-click on it and choose Paste to replace it with the name of your Configuration Database.
• Leave script file open for editing and continue.

SiteCollectionBackupFolder Parameter

• In the SiteCollectionBackupFolder = parameter, change the drive letter to where you previously extracted the SharePointBackups folder structure to. (Figure 3.5)

Figure 3.5

• Leave this file open for editing and continue.

DatabaseBackupFolder Parameter

• In the DatabaseBackupFolder = parameter, change the drive letter to the drive to which you previously extracted the SharePointBackups folder structure. (Figure 3.6)

Figure 3.6

• From the File menu in Notepad, choose Save and then close the script.

Step 4: Create SharePoint backup user account.

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This user account will be assigned to the scheduled backup job in Task Scheduler. The user is then added to the Administrators group in order to have permissions to backup the WSS databases.

• From the Start button, choose Administrative Tools and then Active Directory Users and Computers.
• Expand your domain so you can view the Users container.

Figure 4.1

• Right-click on the Users container and choose New and then User.

Figure 4.2

• Enter in the First name and User logon as SharePointBackups, or any account name that is readily identifiable. (Figure 4.2)
• Click Next.
• Enter a password in the Password box and confirm the password.
• Deselect User must change password at next logon.
• Select password never expires. This is important or the password could expire and your scheduled task will fail with a logon error. (Figure 4.3)

Figure 4.3

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• Click Next.
• Deselect Create an Exchange mailbox. (Figure 4.4)

Figure 4.4

• Click Next.
• Click Finish.
• Double-click on the new SharePointBackups user to open the account properties.
• Click on the Member Of tab.

Figure 4.5

• Click the Add button.
• In the Select Groups window, type “Administrators” and click Check Names. The name will then underline to show that the name was typed accurately. (Figure 4.6)

Figure 4.6

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• Click OK.
• The SharePointBackups user is now part of the Administrators group. (Figure 4.7)

Figure 4.7

• Click OK.
• Close Active Directory Users and Computers.

Step 5: Create backup job scheduled task.

1. From the Start button, choose Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, then Add Scheduled Task.
2. In the Scheduled Task Wizard, click Next.
3. In the program selection window, click on Browse.
4. Browse to the \SharePointBackups\WSS3\BackupScript\ directory, click on wss30backup.vbs, and click Open. (Figure 5.1)

Figure 5.1

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5. Type a name for the backup. For example: WSS3 Backup (Figure 5.2)
6. Choose to perform the task Weekly and click Next.

Figure 5.2

7. Choose a Start Time that will ensure these files get backed up before the regularly scheduled system wide data backup. (Figure 5.3)
8. Have the backup run every 1 week and then select which days of the week you would like to back up your site. (Figure 5.3)

Figure 5.3

9. Click Next.
10. For the user account to run the task under, enter in the SharePointBackups user you created in step 6, enter the password, confirm password, and click Next. (Figure 5.4)

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Figure 5.4

11. Confirm settings and click Finish.

Step 6: Test backup job.

• From the Start button, choose Control Panel then right-click on Scheduled Tasks and choose Open.
• In the Scheduled Tasks window, right-click the job you created and choose Run.
• Browse to the SharePointBackups\database directory and confirm a backup was created for both the Content and Configuration databases for today. (Figure 6.1)

Figure 6.1

• Browse to the SharePointBackups\sitecollections directory and confirm a backup was created for today. (Figure 6.2)

Figure 6.2

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If a file was not created, here are some methods to help troubleshoot:

Task runs, but backups are not created:

• Verify the spelling of the parameters in the wss30backup.vbs file.

Task returns a failure code in the Scheduled Tasks window in the Status column:

• Verify the task’s Run and Start in paths point to the wss30backup.vbs file.
• Reset the SharePointBackup user account password and try again.

NOTE: As your site content grows, you will want to monitor the available disk space of this partition to insure your backups continue to be successful.

Step 7: Add database and site collection backups to the backup application.

• Add the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\ directory to the backup application to insure that custom graphics are backed up.
• Add the SharePointBackups directory and subdirectories to the backup application.

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