Avatar of jb61264
jb61264
Flag for United States of America asked on

Sharepoint Backup and Restore individual files

We have a Sharepoint 2013 installation with SQL on the same server (we are a small facility and only have 20-25 people that will access this install throughout the day). We have been running backups using our Unitrends backup appliance however recently I discovered after someone had deleted a PDF file on our content management system site that simply restoring an individual PDF file using the Unitrends appliance is not possible.

I am wondering if I should just resort to using the backup and restore that is built-in to Sharepoint to a location on our network and then have that backed up on our Unitrends appliance? or if there is a better way to be doing this. I know information is stored on the SQL server for Sharepoint but I don't understand how best to be able to recover something (besides using the built-in "Recycle Bin")
Microsoft SharePoint

Avatar of undefined
Last Comment
Walter Curtis

8/22/2022 - Mon
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Walter Curtis

THIS SOLUTION ONLY AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS.
View this solution by signing up for a free trial.
Members can start a 7-Day free trial and enjoy unlimited access to the platform.
See Pricing Options
Start Free Trial
GET A PERSONALIZED SOLUTION
Ask your own question & get feedback from real experts
Find out why thousands trust the EE community with their toughest problems.
Walter Curtis

Any luck?
jb61264

ASKER
SneekCo...thank you for the reply, just yesterday I was finally able to run the built-in Sharepoint backup. I was having issues running this to a new SAN network share I created for it and finally resolved that issue. I first ran a full farm backup and then separately ran a "site collection backup" of the three site collections we have.

1. We have a Project Web Access site
2. We have a basic intranet site
3. We have a content management site

So I have a full farm backup and also three site collection backups.

I haven't tried what you are suggesting and not completely sure I understand how to do it...are you saying I would create a new site collection and then restore my backup from the content management site to that new site collection to retrieve the file(s)?
Walter Curtis

Thanks...

It is important to make sure that production data is not overwritten or lost during a restore procedure. So yes, one way to be careful is to create a site collection and restore that that new site collection, then navigate through the new collection to find the data you need. In another scenario you could actually restore to a different farm, a test farm for example, and get to the data that way.

Of course if you restore to a test farm, be very careful about and keep the data protected. If it is highly sensitive data, you don't want to restore to a location that everyone has access to.

Also, be very careful when restoring from a script or command line, if the source and destination values are switched or wrong, data could be lost or overwritten. Not that I have ever done that. :-)

Hope that helps...
All of life is about relationships, and EE has made a viirtual community a real community. It lifts everyone's boat
William Peck