Back up a farm by using built-in tools (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Applies To: Office SharePoint Server 2007
This Office product will reach end of support on October 10, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see , Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.
Topic Last Modified: 2009-06-29
There are two methods that you can use to back up and restore data for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using SharePoint Products and Technologies:
You can use the SharePoint Central Administration Web site to back up and restore Office SharePoint Server 2007. This tool enables you to perform backups and restorations from the user interface. When you use this method, you can back up the server farm, Web applications, and any or all of the content databases in your server farm. You can use the Stsadm command-line tool to view backup and recovery history and to view backup and recovery job status.
You can use the Stsadm command-line tool to back up the server farm, Web applications, and any or all of the content databases in your server farm. You can use Stsadm to view backup and recovery history and to view backup and recovery job status. This method for backing up and restoring data does not require SQL Server 2000 tools or SQL Server 2005 tools. However, to perform this method of backup and recovery, you must still be a member of the administrators group on a computer on which Office SharePoint Server 2007 or one of the server products in the Microsoft Office 2007 release is installed.
You can use the built-in tools of Office SharePoint Server 2007 to back up and restore a complete server farm or specific Web applications and content databases. These built-in tools enable you to keep elements of your server farm, such as search and the Shared Services Provider, synchronized when backing up and restoring.
Before you back up an Office SharePoint Server 2007 environment for the first time, you must verify that the SQL Server Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is set to start automatically by using the following procedure. You must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer to perform this action.
Click Start, click Administrative Tools, and then point to Services.
In the list of services, locate SQL Server VSS Writer.
Verify that Status is set to Started, and Startup Type is set to Automatic.
If either of these properties is not set to the required value, right-click SQL Server VSS Writer, and then click Properties.
If needed, on the General tab, select Startup type: Automatic.
If needed, in the Service status area, click Start and then click OK.
For more information about how the data protection tools that are included with Office SharePoint Server 2007 compare with other tools for protecting data, see Choose backup and recovery tools (Office SharePoint Server).
You can use the following procedures to back up and restore data for Office SharePoint Server 2007 by using built-in tools.
Back up your farm by using built-in tools
To back up your farm, you can perform either of the following two procedures:
Back up a farm by using Central Administration (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Back up a farm by using the Stsadm command-line tool (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Note
The SharePoint Central Administration Web site cannot automate backups. Backup automation that uses the Stsadm command-line tool requires a custom batch file and use of Task Scheduler in Microsoft Windows.
See Also
Concepts
Back up and restore an entire farm (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Prepare to back up and restore a farm (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Restore a farm by using built-in tools (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Back up a farm by using SQL Server tools (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Restore a farm by using SQL Server tools (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Back up and restore a farm by using DPM (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Restore a farm after a configuration database problem (Office SharePoint Server)