Introduction

In this article we can explore the backup and restore operations inside SharePoint. For Administration tasks we need to use the SharePoint Central Administration web site which is accessible from the Start menu, as shown below.

Following are the most common administrative tasks:

Backup and Restore
Site Usage Analysis
Cleaning up Unused Sites
Managing the Search Service
Managing Quotas and Locks

Backup

We can perform different levels of backup inside SharePoint 2010. The levels include:

Farm Backup
Site Collection Backup
Site Backup
Web Application Backup
List Backup
Library Backup
Solution Package Backup
Configuration Backup
Content Database Backup

The types of Backup are:

Full Backup
Differential Backup
Incremental Backup

We can have automated backup strategies to backup the required contents on intervals.

The Backup and Restore settings can be accessed from SharePoint Central Administration.

For performing a manual backup, use the Perform a backup link shown above. In the appearing page, select the items you need to backup and click the Next button. Depending on the item the backup size will increase.

In the next page of the backup wizard, enter the backup type and location as shown below.

Click the Start Backup button to perform the backup. Make sure you set the location shared access to Everyone.

The above screen shows that your backup operation is running. Wait for a few while to complete the operation. After the operation, you will get a report as shown below.

Note

If the Backup page says the Administrative service is not running, you need to start it manually from Windows Services.

Use the Run window to execute the command services.msc. In the appearing applet, right click and start the SharePoint 2010 Administration service.

Restore

We can restore a farm, site, or the backed up item using the Restore from a backup option.

In the appearing page select the radio button of the appropriate backup and click the Next button.

You can see that the backup location is remembered automatically. In real world scenarios we have to choose different backup locations.

In the next page select the components to restore.

Click the Next button and the restore operation gets started.

Summary

In this article we have explored the common administrative tasks inside SharePoint. Please note that the Backup and Restore operation can be performed programmatically too.

References

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261687.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Administration - Backup and Restore