VM Snapshot or Backup for SharePoint 2016 for Central Administration actions

Question

Hello,

If I'm performing any task in Central Administration, when is a VM snapshot or backup deem necessary? In my organization, before a configuration change is performed in any production application, there has to be a plan of recovery if something goes wrong.

Answer 1

@MDuBose
VM snapshot is not supported in the SharePoint.

You could backup and restore SharePoint farm before you make changes in central administration.

References:
Back up farms in SharePoint Server.
Restore farms in SharePoint Server.

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Answer 2

VM snapshots, VM online backups, and VM replication are not supported in a SharePoint. Before doing any changes on your SharePoint Farm, take a full backup of your SharePoint Farm.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/administration/back-up-a-farm

Thanks & Regards,

Answer 3

You should be using standard SQL backups and have your farm defined by PowerShell. Since patches cannot be removed nor rolled back, this is the best method to maintain a farm.

See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/install/deploy-sharepoint-virtual-machines for the limitations regarding SharePoint servers on VMs.

Answer 4

farm defined by powershell: means use Backup-SPFarm to keep your SharePoint safe if incase something goes wrong.

Yes, Before making any changes on the Central Admin it's always safe to have Backup.