Recovering SharePoint backups

The SharePoint agent supports recovery of full and differential backups. With SharePoint backups, the agent leverages STSADM or PowerShell (SharePoint 2013 and higher) to perform recovery operations. Recoveries occur in two phases. In the first phase, backups are unfolded to a local share or backup appliance. In the second phase, the agent invokes STSADM or PowerShell commands to recover to the SharePoint assets.

See the following topics for details:

Consider the following when recovering SharePoint environments:

• Free space equivalent to twice the size of the backup is required on the local share for recovery processing. If adequate space is not available, the recovery fails.
• Recoveries are to the original farm only.
• Full catastrophic farm recovery can only be performed for SharePoint 2013 and 2010 deployments where the installation type is single server. For full farm (all SharePoint releases) or single server farm (SharePoint 2016) installations, you must recover items instead. To check your installation type, see To determine the installation type for SharePoint 2013 and 2010 deployments.
• Granular recovery of farm items is supported on both single-server and multi-server farms through the use of a Windows or another third-party tool. Granular recovery can be performed from full backups only.
• For a recovery to succeed, all nodes in the farm must be online and available.
• Only one recovery or backup operation per farm can run at any given time.
• For a given farm, any backups initiated while a recovery is in progress fails. Once the recovery completes, backups can be run for the farm.
• For a given farm, any recovery initiated while a backup is in progress fails. Once the backup completes, recoveries can be run for the farm.
• For granular, item-level recoveries, the backup is unfolded to a local share on the backup appliance. From here you can recover items using a Windows or third-party tool. When you are finished recovering, you must tear down the share. Subsequent backup or recovery operations for the given farm fail until the recovery share is torn down.

Prior to starting the recovery, check the shares to see if one exists for the farm. If no share exists for this instance, start the recovery procedure.

If a share exists for this farm, it is either in use by another backup or recovery process, or it has not been torn down after a prior item recovery. You cannot perform the item recovery until the share becomes available.

If you are sure no active job is using the share, tear it down. Be sure to disconnect any network drive mappings to this share before tearing down.

1 Select Recover and click the File Level Recovery tab.
2 Select the recovery object to tear down.
3 Click Remove.
4 Click Yes to confirm the removal.

You can recover from a backup by using the Backup Catalog or the Backup Browser. To recover from an imported backup or hot backup copy, you must use the Backup Catalog. See these topics for details:

Note:  To perform a farm, site, or service recovery, see the SharePoint Central Administration web site for recommendations and best practices.

Run this procedure from the backup appliance to recover from a backup or imported backup copy. Run this procedure from the backup copy target appliance to recover from a hot backup copy.

1 Log in to the backup appliance or target appliance (if recovering from a hot backup copy).
2 Select Recover and click the Backup Catalog tab.

(Optional) Use Filter Backups to the right to customize the backups that display. For details, see Working with custom filters.

3 Expand the SharePoint Farm and select the backup, imported backup copy, or hot backup copy.

(To import a backup copy, see To import a cold backup copy or To import a hot backup copy.)

4 Click Recover Files.
5 Click Confirm to create the file recovery object.
6 Click OK.
7 The system creates a share for this farm instance and starts the recovery. A row for this recovery displays in the grid.
8 Select the share and click Show Details.
9 The details form displays the full path of the share, \\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-Farm.

Note or copy the Network Path.

10 On the workstation used to recover items, map a network drive to the following location:
\\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-<Instance>
11 Launch Explorer; right-click Computer and select Map Network Drive.
12 In the Folder field, enter the share displayed in the Network Path field.
13 Click Finish.
14 Recover the items by using Windows or another third-party tool. For details on using Ontrack PowerControls, see Recovering items with Ontrack PowerControls.

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

15 Disconnect the network share once items have been recovered by right-clicking the share and selecting Disconnect.
16 On the backup appliance, tear down the recovery object as described in To view or tear down SharePoint recovery objects.

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

Note:  This procedure is not supported for imported backups and backup copies. To recover from an imported backup or hot backup copy, use the Backup Catalog procedure above.

1 Log in to the backup appliance.
2 Select Recover > Backup Catalog and click Backup Browser.
3 Select the Appliance and Date Range of backups to search. Backups that ran during the date range display.
4 (Optional) Refine the search:
• Enter text in any column field to filter the display.
• Click an arrow to sort by column.
• Click the accordion icon to add or remove columns from the display. (Not all columns display by default.)
• For a description of each column, see Backup Browser column descriptions.
5 Select the backup.
6 Click Recover Files.
7 Click Confirm to create the file recovery object.
8 Click OK.
9 The system creates a share for this farm instance and starts the recovery. A row for this recovery displays in the grid.
10 Select the share and click Show Details.
11 The details form displays the full path of the share, \\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-Farm.

Note or copy the Network Path.

12 On the workstation used to recover items, map a network drive to the following location:
\\<SourceSystemIP>\<ClientName>-<Instance>
13 Launch Explorer; right-click Computer and select Map Network Drive.
14 In the Folder field, enter the share displayed in the Network Path field.
15 Click Finish.
16 Recover the items by using Windows or another third-party tool. For details on using Ontrack PowerControls, see Recovering items with Ontrack PowerControls.

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

17 Disconnect the network share once items have been recovered by right-clicking the share and selecting Disconnect.
18 On the backup appliance, tear down the recovery object as described in To view or tear down SharePoint recovery objects.

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

Important!  This procedure is for full catastrophic farm recovery only. Recovering 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 recovery is complete, you must reconfigure all farm accounts and settings. Before performing catastrophic farm recovery, try to recover items using To recover a SharePoint farm, site, service, or item by using the Backup Catalog.

Run this procedure from the backup appliance to recover from a backup or imported backup copy. Run this procedure from the backup copy target appliance to recover from a hot backup copy.

1 Log in to the backup appliance or target appliance (if recovering from a hot backup copy).
2 Select Recover and click the Backup Catalog tab.

(Optional) Use Filter Backups to the right to customize the backups that display. For details, see Working with custom filters.

3 Expand the SharePoint Farm and select a backup, imported backup copy, or hot backup copy.

(To import a backup copy, see To import a cold backup copy or To import a hot backup copy.)

4 Click Recover Files.
5 Define the recovery options.
6 Click Next.
7 Select I understand and click Confirm.
The Recovery Status page indicates whether the recovery has been queued successfully. Click Okay.

To monitor the status of the recovery, select Jobs > Active Jobs. The recovery job displays in the grid. In a successful recovery, status changes from Queued to Active to Successful.

Important!  This procedure is for full catastrophic farm recovery only. Recovering 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 recovery is complete, you must reconfigure all farm accounts and settings. Before performing catastrophic farm recovery, try to recover items using To recover a SharePoint farm, site, service, or item by using the Backup Catalog.

Run this procedure from the backup appliance to recover from a backup.

Note:  This procedure is not supported for imported backups and backup copies. To recover from an imported backup or hot backup copy, use the Backup Catalog procedure above.

1 Log in to the backup.
2 Select the Appliance and Date Range of backups to search. Backups that ran during the date range display.
3 (Optional) Refine the search:
• Enter text in any column field to filter the display.
• Click an arrow to sort by column.
• Click the accordion icon to add or remove columns from the display. (Not all columns display by default.)
• For a description of each column, see Backup Browser column descriptions.
4 Select the backup.
5 Click Recover Files.
6 Define the recovery options.
7 Click Next.
8 Select I understand and click Confirm.
The Recovery Status page indicates whether the recovery has been queued successfully. Click Okay.

To monitor the status of the recovery, select Jobs > Active Jobs. The recovery job displays in the grid. In a successful recovery, status changes from Queued to Active to Successful.

Using Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint, you can recover individual items or a group of items from a Unitrends SharePoint full backup. (It is not possible to perform item-level recovery from SharePoint differential backups. Recover from either a SharePoint full or a SQL backup instead.)

Items can be recovered to the same SharePoint instance, a different SharePoint instance, or a network location. Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint and the PowerControls ExtractWizard must be installed on a workstation in your network, and a valid Ontrack PowerControls license must be applied. Speak with your Unitrends sales representative for information about obtaining an Ontrack PowerControls license.

The following procedure walks you through a typical item-level recovery. For a complete overview of Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint, including procedures and limitations, see the Ontrack PowerControls SharePoint user guide available at https://download.ontrack.com/downloads/OPCSP_Manual.pdf.

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

1 Run one of the following procedures: To recover a SharePoint farm, site, service, or item by using the Backup Catalog or To recover a SharePoint farm, site, service, or item by using the Backup Browser.
2 From your Ontrack PowerControls workstation, run the Ontrack PowerControls ExtractWizard. On the Welcome screen, click Next.
3 Choose the Direct Method of extraction, and click Next.
4 Select Extract from Disk, and click Browse. Browse to the network path supplied by the Unitrends appliance.
5 Locate the file spbackup.xml (the location varies by SharePoint version). Select spbackup.xml, and click Open, then click Next.
6 Select Catalog SharePoint backup datasets only, and click Next.
7 Browse to the content databases from which you want to recover data, and click Next.
8 From the Destination Folder, browse to or type a path to a convenient temporary working directory, such as a folder on your desktop. Click Next.
9 After the databases have been extracted, click Finish.
10 Open Ontrack PowerControls for SharePoint.
11 On the Welcome screen, click Next.
12 On the Source Path Selection screen, click Add. Browse to the folder you created above in step 8. Locate the .mdf and .ldf files of the databases from which you want to recover. Select both, click Open, then Next.
13 On the Target Server Selection screen, supply the URL and administrative credentials for the SharePoint site to which you want to recover, and click Next.
14 The Source pane at the top of the screen represents your Unitrends backup. The Target pane at the bottom of the screen represents your live SharePoint environment. Do one of the following:
• To recover items back to the SharePoint site, browse to items you want to recover in the Source pane. Drag and drop into the desired nodes in the Target pane.
• To recover items to a local folder or network location, right click and select Export. Deselect Maintain message, browse to where you want to save the files, and click Finish.
15 Disconnect the network share once items have been recovered by right-clicking the share and selecting Disconnect.
16 On the backup appliance, tear down the recovery object as described in To view or tear down SharePoint recovery objects.