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SharePoint restore procedures

Use these procedures to restore from a SharePoint backup. Before you start, be sure to review the SharePoint restore considerations.

ClosedTo restore SharePoint items from backup
1 Select the desired SharePoint application in the Navigation pane, and click Restore.
2 Select a Recovery Point Day from which the backup will be restored by clicking on the calendar. Available days display in bold.
3 Select a restore time, and click Next (Select Files/Items).

Select from available times in the Recovery Point Times table or by clicking a wedge of time on the 24-hour circle.

4 On the Restore from Backup of Client page, if you see a file share is available, check the shares in the grid below to see if one exists for this farm instance. Check for <Client>-Farm in the Name column.
• If no share exists for this instance, proceed to the next step in this procedure.
• If a share exists for this farm, it is either in use by another backup or restore process, or it has not been torn down after a prior item restore. You cannot perform the item restore until the share becomes available.

If you are certain that no active job is using the share, tear it down by selecting it in the grid and clicking Tear Down. Be sure to disconnect any network drive mappings to this share before tearing down. For details on checking for active jobs, see SharePoint share is unavailable.

5 Click Create. The system creates a share for this farm instance and starts the restore. A row for this restore displays in the grid.
6 Click Refresh to display the full path of the share, \\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-Farm. Note or copy the Network Path supplied as you will need it to access items to restore.
7 On the workstation you will use to restore items, map a network drive to \\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-<Instance>:
• Launch Explorer; right-click Computer and select Map Network Drive.
• In the Folder field, enter the share displayed in the Network Path field, then click Finish.
8 Restore the desired items using Windows or another third-party tool. For details on using Kroll, see Restoring items with Kroll.

Note:  Creating the recovery object can take some time. If you do not see any available items, check back later.

9 Disconnect the network share once items have been restored by right-clicking the share and selecting Disconnect.
10 On the source backup system, tear down the restore image using one of the following procedures:
• If the restore from Backup screen is still open in the backup system, select the image in the Images available for recovery area, and click Tear Down. Click Yes to confirm that you would like to proceed. The share is removed.
• If you have closed the Restore from the Backup screen, follow the instructions described in About the SharePoint restore session to view the restore image.

Important!  Tear down the share as soon as possible. Subsequent backups and restores cannot run for this farm until the share has been manually torn down.

ClosedTo restore the entire farm on a standalone SharePoint 2013 or 2010 server

Warning!     This procedure is for catastrophic farm recovery only. Restoring the entire farm removes the existing farm. This procedure is supported for SharePoint 2013 or 2010 servers deployed with the single server installation type only. (To check your installation type, see To determine the installation type for SharePoint 2013 and 2010 deployments.) Once a catastrophic farm restore is done, you must reconfigure all farm accounts and settings. Before performing catastrophic farm recovery, attempt to restore items using To restore SharePoint items from backup.

1 Select the desired SharePoint application in the Navigation pane, and click Restore.
2 Select a Recovery Point Day from which the farm will be restored by clicking on the calendar. Available days display in bold.
3 Select a restore time and click Next (Select Options).

Select from available times in the Recovery Point Times table or by clicking a wedge of time on the 24-hour circle.

4 In the Restore from Backup of Client pane, select Restore to Original SharePoint Server and click Restore.
5 To confirm you understand that the existing farm will be deleted and a new one created, check I understand... and click Confirm.

The Restore Status page indicates whether the restore has been queued successfully. Click Okay to close.

6 To monitor the restore job, select Settings > System Monitoring > Jobs.
• The restore job displays in the grid. In a successful restore, status will change from Queued to Active to Successful.
• If you see a status of Cancelled and a job comment of Share is unavailable, the restore could not run because a share has already been created for this farm and is in use by another backup or restore job. See SharePoint share is unavailable to determine what process is using the share and how to proceed.
ClosedSharePoint share is unavailable

If a SharePoint backup or restore operation fails with the Share is unavailable job comment, use this procedure to identify the process currently using the share and determine how to proceed. Only one restore or backup job per farm can run at any given time.

1 Select the desired SharePoint application in the Navigation pane.
2 Select Settings > System Monitoring > Restore Disk images.
3 Select Application Restore Images. A list of restore images displays.
4 Click Refresh to ensure that the list is current.
5 If you see backup in the Message column, a backup or full catastrophic restore is currently running for this farm. Once it completes, you can tear down the share and then perform the next backup or restore operation.
• Check running jobs on the Status > Present blind to see whether this is a backup or a full restore. See Monitoring running backup jobs for details.
• If a backup is running, either wait for the backup to complete or terminate the backup.
• If a restore is running, you must wait for it to complete. Terminating a restore in process can leave the farm in an inconsistent state.
6 If you see restore in the Message column, the share has not yet been torn down for a prior item-level restore. Disconnect any network drive mappings to the share, then tear it down by selecting it in the grid and clicking Tear Down. Once the share is torn down, the next backup or restore operation can be run.