NetBackup™ for Microsoft

SharePoint Server
Administrator's Guide

for Windows

Release 10.5
NetBackup™ for Microsoft SharePoint Server
Administrator’s Guide
Last updated: 2024-09-20

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 Contents

Chapter 1 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Server ............................................................................... 8
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server ............................................. 8
Features of NetBackup for SharePoint Server ...................................... 9
SharePoint Server backup operations ............................................... 11
SharePoint Server restore operations ............................................... 12
Limitations on SharePoint Server backups and restores ....................... 12
NetBackup File System Daemon ..................................................... 13

Chapter 2 Installing NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Server ............................................................................. 14

Planning the installation of NetBackup for SharePoint Server ................ 14

Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility ...................... 15
NetBackup server and client requirements ......................................... 15
SharePoint software requirements ................................................... 16
Requirements for installing the SQL Server back-end servers in a
cluster .................................................................................. 17
License for NetBackup for SharePoint Server ..................................... 17

Chapter 3 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint

Granular Recovery ...................................................... 18
About installing and configuring Network File System (NFS) for
SharePoint Granular Recovery .................................................. 18
Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery ................................ 19
Configurations that are supported for SharePoint Granular Recovery
........................................................................................... 19
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS) ................... 20
Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a media
server ............................................................................ 21
Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a client ........... 24
Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server .......................... 26
Disabling the Server for NFS .................................................... 28
Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows clients for backups
and restores that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) ........... 30
 Contents 5

Configuring a different network port for NBFSD .................................. 31

Chapter 4 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server

........................................................................................... 32

About configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server ............................ 33

About a SharePoint non-granular backup vs. a backup that uses
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) ........................................ 34
Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT) .................................................................. 35
Disk storage units supported with SharePoint Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT) ............................................................ 36
Limitations and conditions for restores that use SharePoint
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) .................................. 37
Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Client Service for
NetBackup for SharePoint Server ............................................. 38
Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Legacy Network
Service and the NetBackup Legacy Client Service ........................ 39
Configuring SharePoint client host properties ..................................... 39
SharePoint properties .............................................................. 40
Configuring the account that logs on to the SharePoint application
server ............................................................................ 41
Configuring local security privileges for the SharePoint Servers
..................................................................................... 42
Performing consistency checks with NetBackup for SharePoint
Server backups ................................................................ 43
Consistency check options for SharePoint Server ......................... 43
Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters,
or virtual machines ................................................................. 44
Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings .......................................... 45
Perform a manual backup .............................................................. 49

Chapter 5 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server

backup policies ............................................................. 51
About backup policies for granular backup and recovery of SharePoint
Server ................................................................................. 51
About backup policies for SharePoint farm backup and recovery ............ 52
About backup policies for disaster recovery of SharePoint Server ........... 54
About VMware backup policies that protect SharePoint Server .............. 56
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint ............................... 56
Adding a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy ......................... 57
About policy attributes ............................................................. 58
 Contents 6

Adding schedules to a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy

..................................................................................... 59
Add clients to a policy .............................................................. 62
Creating a backup selections list for a SharePoint Server policy
..................................................................................... 63
Configuring exclude lists for SharePoint clients ............................. 66

Chapter 6 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint

Server and SharePoint Foundation ....................... 68
About user-directed backups of SharePoint Server and SharePoint
Foundation ........................................................................... 68
Specifying the server and client for a SharePoint Server backup
operation ........................................................................ 69
About backup options for NetBackup for SharePoint Server ............ 69
Performing a user-directed backup of SharePoint Server and
SharePoint Foundation ...................................................... 70
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation ........... 71
Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint
Server restore operation .................................................... 72
Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint
tab ................................................................................ 72
How the NetBackup Recovery Assistant restores SharePoint
Server and SharePoint Foundation ...................................... 75
Restoring SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation ............... 76
Restoring the SharePoint Search Service Application .................... 78
About requirements for restores of individual SharePoint items
using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) .......................... 80
Restoring individual SharePoint items from full database backups
..................................................................................... 80
Recovering a SharePoint Web application in a farm with multiple
front-end servers .............................................................. 83
Restoring a deleted SharePoint list ............................................ 84
Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint web application within a
farm ............................................................................... 85
Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint Web application to another
farm ............................................................................... 87
Redirecting the restore of a SharePoint Server Web application
content database to an alternate SQL Server instance ............. 89
 Contents 7

Chapter 7 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware

backups .......................................................................... 91
About protecting an application database with VMware backups ............ 91
Limitations of VMware application backups .................................. 92
Limitations for restores from VMware appplication backups ............. 93
Installing the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere ............................. 93
About configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server
........................................................................................... 94
Configuring a VMware backup policy to protect SharePoint Server
..................................................................................... 95
Configuring the granular proxy host for Federated SharePoint
configurations with VMware ................................................ 97
Restoring SharePoint data from a VMware backup .............................. 97

Chapter 8 Disaster recovery .............................................................. 99

About disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server .................................. 99

Requirements for disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server ................... 99
Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR) ................................. 100

Chapter 9 Troubleshooting ................................................................ 103

About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging ...................... 103
Enabling the debug logs for a NetBackup for SharePoint Server
client automatically .......................................................... 104
Enabling the debug logging for NetBackup for SharePoint Server
manually ....................................................................... 104
Setting the debug level on a NetBackup for SharePoint Server
Windows client ............................................................... 106
Veritas VSS provider logs ....................................................... 107
Viewing the progress report of a NetBackup for SharePoint Server
operation ............................................................................ 108
Restores to different SharePoint service pack or different cumulative
update levels ....................................................................... 109
Modified system files or ghost files are not cataloged or restored during
a site collection restore .......................................................... 109
Troubleshooting SharePoint jobs that use Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT) ................................................................. 109
About troubleshooting SharePoint restore operations ......................... 110
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server and client-side deduplication
.......................................................................................... 111
Troubleshooting VMware backups .................................................. 111
 Chapter 1
Introducing NetBackup for
SharePoint Server Server
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About NetBackup for SharePoint Server

■ Features of NetBackup for SharePoint Server

■ SharePoint Server backup operations

■ SharePoint Server restore operations

■ Limitations on SharePoint Server backups and restores

■ NetBackup File System Daemon

About NetBackup for SharePoint Server

NetBackup for SharePoint Server extends the capabilities of NetBackup to include
online backups and restores SharePoint Server. The NetBackup agent for Microsoft
SharePoint Server is an optional, add-on component to the NetBackup for Windows
client software. Because this product is tightly integrated with the Backup, Archive,
and Restore interface, this manual provides only an overview of NetBackup
functionality. Backup operations and restore operations for SharePoint Server are
identical to other NetBackup file operations, except where noted.
Microsoft SharePoint Server or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server may be
abbreviated to either SharePoint Server or to SharePoint. Unless otherwise noted,
the text implies SharePoint Foundation when SharePoint is discussed.
 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 9
Features of NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Features of NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Table 1-1 describes the features for the NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent.

Table 1-1 NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent features

Feature Description

Online backup SharePoint Server objects can be backed up without taking the SharePoint Server offline.
SharePoint services and data are available during the backup.

SharePoint Server NetBackup supports full and differential-incremental backups of SharePoint.

backup methods

Tight NetBackup Tight integration with NetBackup means the following:

integration
■ An administrator already familiar with NetBackup procedures and software can easily
configure and use NetBackup to perform SharePoint Server backup and restore
operations.
■ Features and strengths of the NetBackup product suite are available to the SharePoint
Server backup user. These features include scheduled and user-directed operations,
backups of multiple data streams, and in-line tape copy. These features are described
in detail.
See the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.

Central administration You can administer the backup and recovery of multiple SharePoint Server installations
from a central location.

Media management SharePoint Server backups are saved directly to a wide variety of storage devices that
NetBackup supports.

Automated backups Administrators can set up schedules for automatic, unattended backups for local or remote
clients across the network. These backups are managed entirely by the NetBackup server
from a central location. The administrator can also manually back up the clients. Auto
discovery is used for SharePoint Server installations. The topology is read from the
SharePoint front-end Web server and the backup selection list is automatically built.

User-directed backups A user can perform backups of SharePoint Server resources through the Backup, Archive,
and Restore client interface on the front-end Web server.

Backups and restores of NetBackup can back up and restore standalone installations of SharePoint Foundation or
standalone SharePoint Windows SharePoint Services.
Foundation or Windows
SharePoint Services
(WSS)

Support for VMware VMware backups that protect SharePoint Server provide granular recovery, complete
backups that protect protection of the farm, and protection of the SharePoint components in the Windows files
SharePoint system.
 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 10
Features of NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Table 1-1 NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent features (continued)

Feature Description

Compression of backups Compression increases backup performance over the network and reduces the size of the
backup image that is stored on the disk or tape. NetBackup does not support compression
of the backups that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT).

Encryption When the Encryption attribute is enabled, the server encrypts the backup for the clients
that are listed in the policy. NetBackup does not support encryption of any backups that
use GRT.

Restore operations An administrator who uses the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface can browse
SharePoint Server backups and select the ones to restore.

Support for NetBackup NetBackup Accelerator can reduce by up to 90% the time it takes to perform a VMware
Accelerator with VMware backup that protects SharePoint. By reducing the backup time, it is easier to perform the
backups VMware backup within the backup window. Accelerator support for SharePoint currently
restricts backups to the full schedule type. This restriction also exists for a VMware backup
that protects SharePoint without Accelerator.

Restores of individual When a backup uses GRT, users can restore individual lists, items, and documents sets
items and document sets directly from any full database backup of a Web application. This feature adds an extra
using Granular Recovery step that identifies the items within the database. This step lets you recover individual items
Technology (GRT) later. (Note that you must create a separate backup for the full farm.)

Support for claims-based Claims-based authentication (CBA) is supported for web applications in SharePoint. The
authentication following providers are supported:

■ Windows authentication (LDAP)

■ Facebook
■ LinkedIn
■ Live Id
■ Forms-based authentication (FBA), using SQL Server
■ ADFS 2.0

Redirected restore You can redirect the restore of the following:

■ SharePoint web application within a farm.

■ SharePoint web application to another farm.
■ SharePoint Content database to another SQL Server instance, to take advantage of
data recovery from an unattached content database.

Multi-tenant Backup and recovery of SharePoint Server databases are fully supported in a multi-tenant
environments environment. NetBackup does not support GRT with Microsoft SharePoint Server backups
in a multi-tenant SharePoint environment.
 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 11
SharePoint Server backup operations

Table 1-1 NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent features (continued)

Feature Description

Support for any backups You can restore the backups that were created with previous versions of NetBackup.
that were created with However, features in the current release are not supported with any backups that were
previous NetBackup created with previous versions.
versions

SharePoint Server backup operations

You can use the NetBackup for SharePoint Server agent to back up the entire
SharePoint Server farm or individual components. NetBackup provides the following
methods to perform backups:
■ Automatic
■ Manual
■ User-directed
For general information on backup methods in NetBackup, see the NetBackup
Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.
The NetBackup administrator can schedule the backups that occur automatically
and unattended under the control of the NetBackup server. The following types of
automatic backups are available:

Full schedule The entire contents in the backup selections list are backed
up.

Differential incremental Only the contents that have been added or changed since the
previous full or incremental are included in the backup.

Manual backup may be used for special events. A manual backup includes all the
items in the backup selections list of the policy you selected for backup.
User directed backups require a User Backup schedule to be defined on a
SharePoint policy on the NetBackup server. A user-directed backup includes the
entire contents of the items that are selected for backup. This type of backup is
only supported from the SharePoint application host, not on other hosts where only
SharePoint objects are present.
 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 12
SharePoint Server restore operations

SharePoint Server restore operations

Use the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface to initiate SharePoint Server restore
operations. This interface lets you select the NetBackup server from which the
objects are restored and the client whose backups you want to browse. Based upon
these selections, you can browse the backup history, select individual items and
launch a restore. The NetBackup Recovery Assistant lets you restore SharePoint
resources with one click and determines the sequence in which the resources are
restored.
An administrator can browse for and restore databases and individual items. Users
also can restore the security settings on a selected item. Objects that users can
restore include the following:
■ One or more databases
■ Individual documents in a Document library
■ Entire sites
■ Subsites
■ Entire lists or libraries
■ Document sets
■ Individual list items or documents

Limitations on SharePoint Server backups and

restores
The following limitations exist when you perform backups and restores of SharePoint
Server:
■ Due to Microsoft API limitations, NetBackup does not support backups of the
Application Registry service application.
■ Project Server databases are not protected.
■ Reporting Services are not supported.
■ The FAST Search service application under SharePoint is not protected.
■ The following cannot be redirected to another web application:
■ Documents and folders
■ Farm Configuration database and Single Sign-on database
■ Index Files or Index database
 Introducing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 13
NetBackup File System Daemon

■ NetBackup does not support restores of customized SharePoint Solution

Packages (.wsp) or third-party Web Part customizations.
■ Web Parts on the home page of the site collection and subsite do not retain
their formatting when you restore with GRT at the site collection and subsite
level.
■ NetBackup does not support GRT restores of deleted lists and PerformancePoint
Dashboards. For example, Microsoft OneDrive sync fails after you perform the
GRT restore of the list or the OneDrive web app that is deleted.
■ Restoring a SharePoint Help Search database and index files results in a
successful restore. However, the SharePoint Help Search is not extended to
use the restored database and index files.
■ When you direct items to a file system, any list items you selected are not
restored and appear as 0-KB files.
■ (SharePoint 2016 and later) restore jobs related to the Basic Search Center
template fail with an error message.
■ For limitations on operations with Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), see
the following topic:
See “Limitations and conditions for restores that use SharePoint Granular
Recovery Technology (GRT)” on page 37.
■ The SharePoint agent is supported in FIPS-compliant mode. SharePoint internally
uses encryption algorithms that do not comply with FIPS standards. The Windows
FIPS policy blocks the MD5 hashing algorithms that SharePoint uses. Therefore,
the OS-level FIPS policy should be disabled for the SharePoint restores for
successful operation. Note that NetBackup-FIPS is supported for protecting
SharePoint. See the following articles for more details:
FIPS and SharePoint Server
SharePoint 2016 and FIPS
■ Redirected restore functionality is not supported with SQL availability group
(Always On) configuration.

NetBackup File System Daemon

The NetBackup File System Daemon (NBFSD) on the NetBackup media server is a
process that allows NetBackup clients to mount, browse, and read NetBackup (tar)
images. This process is used with a client for Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
operations. These operations include backups, browsing for backup images,
restores, and duplication.
 Chapter 2
Installing NetBackup for
SharePoint Server Server
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ Planning the installation of NetBackup for SharePoint Server

■ Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility

■ NetBackup server and client requirements

■ SharePoint software requirements

■ Requirements for installing the SQL Server back-end servers in a cluster

■ License for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Planning the installation of NetBackup for

SharePoint Server
Perform the following tasks before you use NetBackup for SharePoint Server.

Table 2-1 Installation steps for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Step Action Description

Step 1 Verify the operating system and See “Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility”
platform compatibility. on page 15.

Step 2 Verify the NetBackup software See “NetBackup server and client requirements” on page 15.
requirements for NetBackup for
SharePoint Server.
 Installing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 15
Verifying the operating system and platform compatibility

Table 2-1 Installation steps for NetBackup for SharePoint Server (continued)

Step Action Description

Step 3 Verify that primary server has a valid See “License for NetBackup for SharePoint Server” on page 17.
license for NetBackup for SharePoint
Server and any NetBackup options.

Verifying the operating system and platform

compatibility
Verify that the NetBackup for SharePoint Server agent is supported on your operating
system or platform.
To verify operating system and compatibility
1 Go to the NetBackup compatibility list site.
http://www.netbackup.com/compatibility
2 Click on the following document:
Application/Database Agent Compatibility List
3 For information on support for VMware, see the following document:
Support for NetBackup in a Virtual Environment

NetBackup server and client requirements

Before you install NetBackup, review the requirements for the NetBackup server
and the NetBackup clients.

NetBackup server requirements

Verify that the following requirements are met for the NetBackup server:
■ The NetBackup server software is installed and operational on the NetBackup
server.
See the NetBackup Installation Guide.
■ Make sure that you configure any backup media that the storage unit uses. The
number of media volumes that are required depends on several things:
■ The devices that are used and storage capacity of the media.
■ The sizes of the databases that you want to back up.
■ The amount of data that you want to archive.
 Installing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 16
SharePoint software requirements

■ The size of your backups.

■ The frequency of backups or archives.
■ The length of retention of the backup images.
See the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.

NetBackup client requirements

Verify that the following requirements are met for the NetBackup clients:
■ Front-end web servers: Install the NetBackup client on each web server in the
environment.
■ Index server: Install the NetBackup client on the system that hosts the SharePoint
index.
■ Search servers: No NetBackup software is required on these hosts.
■ SQL Servers: Install the NetBackup client on any SQL Server that hosts a
SharePoint database. For cluster environments, install the client on each node
of a clustered SQL Server that hosts the configuration database.
■ In a VMware environment, install the NetBackup client software on the virtual
machines that are part of the SharePoint farm.
■ To use the new features that are included in NetBackup for SharePoint Server
in NetBackup 10.5, you must upgrade your NetBackup for SharePoint Server
clients to NetBackup 10.5. The NetBackup media server must use the same
version as the NetBackup for SharePoint Server client or a higher version than
the client.

SharePoint software requirements

Verify the following regarding the SharePoint server software on the NetBackup
server or client:
■ The SharePoint server software must be installed and operational.
■ The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 is installed on the SharePoint servers.
■ When you use multiple front-end SharePoint servers, all front-end server websites
must be uniformly identified in IIS. Identify the sites with either host headers or
IP addresses, but not both. An environment that mixes host headers and IP
addresses across multiple front-end servers is not supported.
■ To prevent restore failures, the IIS Default Application Pool identity must be a
valid SharePoint user ID.
 Installing NetBackup for SharePoint Server Server 17
Requirements for installing the SQL Server back-end servers in a cluster

■ The SharePoint user should be an administrator user account.

See “NetBackup server and client requirements” on page 15.

Requirements for installing the SQL Server

back-end servers in a cluster
NetBackup supports clustering of a back-end SQL Server in a Windows Server
Failover Clustering (WSFC) environment. The same version of NetBackup must
be used on each node in the cluster.
For more information, see your WSFC documentation.

License for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

The NetBackup for SharePoint Server agent is installed with the NetBackup client
software. No separate installation is required. A valid license for the agent must
exist on the primary server.
More information is available on how to add licenses.
See the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.
 Chapter 3
Installing and configuring
NFS for SharePoint
Granular Recovery
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About installing and configuring Network File System (NFS) for SharePoint
Granular Recovery

■ Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery

■ Configurations that are supported for SharePoint Granular Recovery

■ About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

■ Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows clients for backups and restores
that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

■ Configuring a different network port for NBFSD

About installing and configuring Network File

System (NFS) for SharePoint Granular Recovery
NetBackup uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) and Network File System
(NFS) to recover the individual objects that reside within a database backup image,
such as:
■ A user account from an Active Directory database backup
■ Email messages or folders from an Exchange database backup
■ A document from a SharePoint database backup
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 19
Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery

The NetBackup client mounts and accesses a mapped drive over a secure
connection to the NetBackup media server. The NetBackup media server handles
the client requests through the NetBackup File System (NBFS) service, or NBFSD.
Multiple NetBackup agents that support GRT (for example, Exchange, SharePoint,
and Active Directory) can use the same media server.

Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery

Table 3-1 Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery

Step Action Description

Step 1 You have a supported SharePoint Server See the Application/Database Agent Compatibility
configuration. List.

Step 2 You have a media server platform that supports See the Software Compatibility List (SCL).
GRT.

Step 3 On all SQL Server back-end servers and the media

server, ensure that each node has an assigned
drive letter on which to mount the backup image.

Step 5 Enable or configure NFS for your environment: See “About configuring Services for Network File
System (NFS)” on page 20.
■ Windows media server and clients
■ UNIX media server and Windows clients See “Configuring a UNIX media server and
Windows clients for backups and restores that use
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)”
on page 30.

Configurations that are supported for SharePoint

Granular Recovery
For information on the SharePoint and SQL Server back-end versions and the
Windows Server releases that are supported for Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT) see the Application/Database Agent Compatibility List.
For information on the media server platforms that are supported for Granular
Recovery Technology (GRT) see the Software Compatibility List (SCL).
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 20
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

About configuring Services for Network File

System (NFS)
To restore individual items from a database backup, you must configure Services
for Network File System (NFS) on the NetBackup media server and on the SQL
Server back-end servers.

Note: For VMware backups and restores of SharePoint, the only systems that
require configuration of NFS are the following: the systems that you use to browse
for backups or the systems you use to perform restores. This configuration is not
needed to capture the data during backups of the virtual machine.

Table 3-2 Configuring NFS on Windows 2012, 2012 R2, or later

Step Action Description

Step 1 Configure NFS on the media

Note: For VMware backups that protect SharePoint, you do not need to
server.
configure NFS on the media server.

On the media server do the following:

■ Stop and disable the ONC/RPC Portmapper service, if it exists.

■ Enable NFS.
See “Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a media
server” on page 21.
■ Stop the Server for NFS service.
See “Disabling the Server for NFS” on page 28.
■ Stop the Client for NFS service.
See “Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server” on page 26.
Note: If a SQL Server back-end server resides on the media server,
do not disable the Client for NFS.
■ Configure the portmap service to start automatically at server restart.
Issue the following from the command prompt:
sc config portmap start= auto
This command should return the status [SC] ChangeServiceConfig
SUCCESS.

Step 2 Configure NFS on the SQL On the SQL Server back-end servers, do the following:
Server back-end servers.
■ Enable NFS on the clients.
See “Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a client”
on page 24.
■ Stop the Server for NFS service.
See “Disabling the Server for NFS” on page 28.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 21
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a media server

To restore individual items from a backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT), you must enable Services for Network File System (NFS) on the media
server. When this configuration is completed, you can disable any unnecessary
NFS services.
To enable Services for Network File System (NFS) on a media server
1 Open the Server Manager.
2 From the Manage menu, click Add Roles and Features.

3 In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Before You Begin page, click
Next.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 22
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

4 On the Select installation type page, select Role-based or feature-based

installation.

5 Click Next.
6 On the Server Selection page, click Select a server from the server pool
and select the server. Click Next.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 23
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

7 On the Server Roles page, expand File and Storage Services and File and
iSCSI Services.
8 Click File Server and Server for NFS. When you are prompted, click Add
Features. Click Next.

9 If the media server is also an SQL Server back-end server, on the Features
page, click Client for NFS. Click Next.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 24
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

10 On the Confirmation page, click Install.

11 Disable any unnecessary services, as follows:
■ If you have a single host that functions as both the media server and the
SQL Server back-end server, you can disable the Server for NFS service.
See “Disabling the Server for NFS” on page 28.
■ For a host that is only the NetBackup media server, you can disable the
Server for NFS and the Client for NFS services.
See “Disabling the Server for NFS” on page 28.
See “Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server” on page 26.

Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a client

To restore individual items from a backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT), you must enable Services for Network File System (NFS). When this
configuration is completed on the SQL Server back-end servers, you can disable
any unnecessary NFS services.
To enable Services for Network File System (NFS) on a Windows client
1 Open the Server Manager.
2 From the Manage menu, click Add Roles and Features.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 25
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

3 In the Add Roles and Features Wizard, on the Before You Begin page, click
Next.
4 On the Select installation type page, select Role-based or feature-based
installation.

5 Click Next.
6 On the Server Selection page, click Select a server from the server pool
and select the server. Click Next.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 26
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

7 On the Server Roles page, click Next.

8 On the Features page, click Client for NFS. Click Next.

9 On the Confirmation page, click Install.

Disabling the Client for NFS on the media server

After you enable Services for Network File System (NFS) on a host that is only a
NetBackup media server, you can disable the Client for NFS.
To disable the Client for NFS on the NetBackup media server
1 Open the Server Manager.
2 In the left pane, expand Configuration.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 27
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

3 Click Services.

4 In the right pane, right-click on Client for NFS and click Stop.
5 In the right pane, right-click on Client for NFS and click Properties.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 28
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

6 In the Client for NFS Properties dialog box, from the Startup type list, click
Disabled.

7 Click OK.

Disabling the Server for NFS

After you enable Services for Network File System (NFS) on the media server and
on the SQL Server back-end servers, you can disable Server for NFS.
To disable the Server for NFS
1 Open the Server Manager.
2 In the left pane, expand Configuration.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 29
About configuring Services for Network File System (NFS)

3 Click Services.

4 In the right pane, right-click on Server for NFS and click Stop.
5 In the right pane, right-click on Server for NFS and click Properties.
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 30
Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows clients for backups and restores that use Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT)

6 In the Server for NFS Properties dialog box, from the Startup type list, click
Disabled.

7 Click OK.
8 Repeat this procedure for the media server and for each SQL Server back-end
server.

Configuring a UNIX media server and Windows

clients for backups and restores that use Granular
Recovery Technology (GRT)
To perform backups and restores that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT),
perform the following configuration if you use a UNIX media server and Windows
clients:
■ Confirm that your media server is installed on a platform that supports granular
recovery.
For more information about supported platforms, see the NetBackup Enterprise
Server and Server - OS Software Compatibility List at the following URL:
 Installing and configuring NFS for SharePoint Granular Recovery 31
Configuring a different network port for NBFSD

■ No other configuration is required for the UNIX media server.

■ Enable or install NFS on the SQL Server back-end servers.
See “Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a media server”
on page 21.
See “Enabling Services for Network File System (NFS) on a client” on page 24.
■ You can configure a different network port for NBFSD.
See “Configuring a different network port for NBFSD” on page 31.

Configuring a different network port for NBFSD

NBFSD runs on port 7394. If another service uses the standard NBFSD port in your
organization, you 20can configure the service on another port. The following
procedures describe how to configure a NetBackup server to use a network port
other than the default.
To configure a different network port for NBFSD (Windows server)
1 Log on as administrator on the computer where NetBackup server is installed.
2 Open Regedit.
3 Open the following key.:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config

4 Create a new DWORD value named FSE_PORT.

5 Right-click on the new value and click Modify.
6 In the Value data box, provide a port number between 1 and 65535.
7 Click OK.
To configure a different network port for NBFSD (UNIX server)
1 Log on as root on the computer where NetBackup server is installed.
2 Open the bp.conf file.
3 Add the following entry, where XXXX is an integer and is a port number between
1 and 65535.
FSE_PORT = XXXX
 Chapter 4
Configuring NetBackup for
SharePoint Server
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server

■ About a SharePoint non-granular backup vs. a backup that uses Granular

Recovery Technology (GRT)

■ Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology

(GRT)

■ Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Client Service for NetBackup
for SharePoint Server

■ Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Legacy Network Service and
the NetBackup Legacy Client Service

■ Configuring SharePoint client host properties

■ Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters, or virtual

machines

■ Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

■ Perform a manual backup

 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 33
About configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server

About configuring NetBackup for SharePoint

Server
To successfully perform backups and restores of SharePoint Server, complete the
following steps. For additional information on how to configure NetBackup in
preparation of VMware backups that protect SharePoint, refer to the following topics.
See “About protecting an application database with VMware backups” on page 91.

Table 4-1 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Step Action Description

Step 1 Review the information for configuring the GRT lets you restore individual documents, etc.,
backup and the restore operations that use from a database backup. GRT is an option
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). limited to certain versions of SharePoint Server
and Windows Server. GRT is included in
VMware backups that protect SharePoint.

See “Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses

Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)”
on page 35.

Step 2 Configure the NetBackup Client Service. Required if you want to restore individual items
with GRT.

See “Configuring the logon account for the

NetBackup Client Service for NetBackup for
SharePoint Server ” on page 38.

Step 3 Configure the NetBackup Legacy Network See “Configuring the logon account for the
Service and (optionally) the NetBackup Legacy NetBackup Legacy Network Service and the
Client Service. NetBackup Legacy Client Service” on page 39.

Step 4 Configure the host properties for SharePoint See “Configuring SharePoint client host
clients. properties” on page 39.

Step 5 Configure the mappings for distributed Map the application hosts and component hosts
application restores. in your environment. Configure these mappings
in the Distributed application restore mapping
host property on the primary server.

See “Configuring mappings for restores of a

distributed applications, clusters, or virtual
machines ” on page 44.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 34
About a SharePoint non-granular backup vs. a backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

Table 4-1 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server (continued)

Step Action Description

Step 6 On the NetBackup server, review the Approve each valid auto-discovered mapping
auto-discovered mappings for the hosts in your that NetBackup discovers in your environment.
environment.
See “Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings”
on page 45.

Step 7 Select the backup and the recovery strategies See “About backup policies for granular backup
that fit your environment. and recovery of SharePoint Server ” on page 51.

See “About backup policies for SharePoint farm

backup and recovery” on page 52.

See “About backup policies for disaster recovery

of SharePoint Server” on page 54.

See “About VMware backup policies that protect

SharePoint Server” on page 56.

Step 8 Test your configuration settings. See “Perform a manual backup” on page 49.

About a SharePoint non-granular backup vs. a

backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT)
Non-granular backups allow the restore of SharePoint objects at the level of a Web
Application. This type of backup also allows the restore at the level of the Single
Sign-on database. Individual items cannot be restored from non-granular backups.
To restore individual items using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), NetBackup
performs a granular-level backup of the SharePoint Web Application. You can
restore the entire database or you can restore items individually. Items can then
be restored to the existing Web Application.

Note: The farm databases (Configuration, Single Sign-on, Index Files and their
Search databases) cannot be backed up with a policy that is enabled for individual
item restores (GRT). For comprehensive farm disaster recovery, back up those
databases with a separate policy where granular recovery is disabled.

Table 4-2 describes what SharePoint objects can be restored with non-granular
and granular-level backups.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 35
Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

Table 4-2 SharePoint Server non-granular backup vs. a backup that uses
Granular Recovery Technology

Object Can be restored from Can be restored from

a non-granular a backup that uses
backup Granular Recovery
Technology

Configuration database Yes* No

Single Sign-on database Yes* No

Global Settings Yes* No

Index Files and their Search Yes* No

databases

Web Applications or Content Yes Yes

databases

Site collections No Yes

Subsites No Yes

Individual lists or libraries No Yes

Individual documents or list items No Yes

* Only restore these items as part of a farm restore.

Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses

Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
Before you configure for granular recovery with NetBackup, ensure that you have
met the requirements for using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). These
requirements include the configuration of NFS.
See “Requirements for SharePoint Granular Recovery” on page 19.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 36
Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

Table 4-3 Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery

Technology (GRT)

Step Action Description

Step 1 Review the limitations and conditions. See “Disk storage units supported with SharePoint
Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)” on page 36.

See “Limitations and conditions for restores that use

SharePoint Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)”
on page 37.

Step 2 On all SQL Server back-end servers, configure the See “Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup
NetBackup services log on accounts: Client Service for NetBackup for SharePoint Server
” on page 38.
■ NetBackup Client Service as the SharePoint
administrator See “Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup
■ NetBackup Legacy Network Service as the Local Legacy Network Service and the NetBackup Legacy
System account Client Service” on page 39.
■ (Optional) NetBackup Legacy Client Service as
the Local System account

Step 3 On each SharePoint server in the farm assign the See “Configuring local security privileges for the
local security privileges. SharePoint Servers” on page 42.

Step 4 For backups in non-virtual environments, select Granular recovery is automatically provided for a
Enable granular recovery in the backup policy. VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server. You
do not need to enable it in the policy.

See “Adding a NetBackup for SharePoint Server

policy” on page 57.

Disk storage units supported with SharePoint Granular Recovery

Technology (GRT)
Granular information is only cataloged for a backup image that is made to a disk
storage unit. A backup that is made directly to tape does not contain granular
information. You can duplicate the image to tape, but you cannot directly back up
to tape. If you configure backups to a disk storage unit, no further configuration is
required. You can only perform restores of individual items using GRT if the backup
resides on a disk storage unit.
More information is available on the disk storage units that are supported with GRT.
See NetBackup Enterprise Server and Server - Hardware and Cloud Storage
Compatibility List.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 37
Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

Limitations and conditions for restores that use SharePoint Granular

Recovery Technology (GRT)
The following limitations and conditions exist for jobs using Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT):
■ The feature is limited to certain versions of SharePoint Server and Windows
Server. See the Software Compatibility List (CL) and the Application/Database
Agent Compatibility List.
■ This feature only supports full and user-directed backups. NetBackup lets you
create a complete policy for disaster recovery, with all the various types of
schedules. However, you cannot restore individual items from an incremental
backup.
■ NetBackup does not support Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) with Microsoft
SharePoint Server backups in a multi-tenant SharePoint environment.
■ Backups must be made to a disk storage unit, not to tape, and restores that use
GRT must be made from a disk storage unit. You can manually duplicate the
backup image to disk, but you cannot restore from the tape copy.
■ Backups with GRT do not support any content databases that exist on multiple
servers in a farm.
■ Granular Recovery with Remote BLOB Storage providers is not supported;
however, you can backup and restore the entire farm or databases. Refer to
the following TechNote.
Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) and NetBackup
■ When you perform a granular recovery of documents, pictures, or list items that
are part of a workflow, the state of these items is not preserved.
■ NetBackup does not support backups and restores with GRT if you use a
third-party document management software to manage your SharePoint
documents. For example, NextDocs.
■ (SharePoint 2016 and later) If you edit the title of a list item, SharePoint creates
a new version for those list items. When you select all list item versions for
restore, NetBackup creates a new list item for only those versions whose title
is different than the original list item title. As a workaround, restore the list.
■ (SharePoint 2016 and later) If the list item version you selected for restore has
a different title than the original list item title and the Restore over existing
items option is also enabled, the restore job fails with an error message. As a
workaround, restore the list.
■ (SharePoint 2016 and later) When you use Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT) to restore ghosted or uncustomized aspx pages from any template, the
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 38
Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Client Service for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

restore job is successful, but the restored pages appear with the default content
when it was created. This issue is not seen if the aspx pages are uploaded to
SharePoint. Such pages are treated as customized pages.
To work around this issue, restore the SharePoint web application content
database. See “Redirecting the restore of a SharePoint Server Web application
content database to an alternate SQL Server instance” on page 89.
■ The Restore GRT Basic Meeting Workspace shows errors when you restore
even though the restore completed.
■ The following site templates are not supported with SharePoint restores that
use GRT:
■ Product Catalog
■ Community Site

■ If you perform a restore with Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), any

SharePoint user ratings and tags are synchronized to the current settings of the
user rating and tags in the respective metadata databases.
■ Dependent items of blog posts (including comments and images) are not restored
with restores that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT).
■ When you restore a list item from a localized subsite, the job is reported as
successful. However the list item fails to appear in the SharePoint user interface.
To work around this issue, restore the item to a file system and upload the item
to SharePoint.

Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup

Client Service for NetBackup for SharePoint
Server
The NetBackup Client Service must log on with an account that has local
administrator and SharePoint farm administrator privileges.
Configure the service for the hosts where the Index Files or Index databases and
where the document libraries reside. For any backups that use Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT), configure this service on all SQL Server back-end servers.

Note: For VMware backups and restores, configure the NetBackup Client Service
on the systems that you use to browse for backups and the systems you use to
perform restores.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 39
Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup Legacy Network Service and the NetBackup Legacy Client
Service

To configure the logon account for the NetBackup Client Service for
NetBackup for SharePoint Server
1 In the Windows Services application, open the NetBackup Client Service
entry.
2 On the Log On tab, provide the following:
■ For the Log on as account, provide the account name that has local
administrator and SharePoint farm administrator privileges.
■ Type the password.

3 Stop and start the NetBackup Client Service.

Configuring the logon account for the NetBackup

Legacy Network Service and the NetBackup
Legacy Client Service
The NetBackup Legacy Network Service must log on with the Local System account.
Optionally, you can also configure the NetBackup Legacy Client Service with the
Local System account.
Configure the service for the hosts where the Index Files or Index databases and
where the document libraries reside. For the backups that use Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT), configure the service on all SQL Server back-end servers.
To configure the logon account for the NetBackup Legacy Network Service
and the NetBackup Legacy Client Service
1 In the Windows Services application, open the NetBackup Legacy Network
Service entry.
2 On the Log On tab, provide the following:
■ For the Log on as account, select Local System account.
■ Type the password.

3 Stop and start the NetBackup Legacy Network Service.

4 (Optional) Follow the same process for the NetBackup Legacy Client Service.

Configuring SharePoint client host properties

In the SharePoint client host properties you configure settings for the SharePoint
clients you selected. Configure the host properties for all servers in the SharePoint
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 40
Configuring SharePoint client host properties

farm. The options available in this dialog box are based on the version of NetBackup
installed on the client system.
To configure SharePoint client host properties
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the SharePoint client that you want to configure.
If the client does not appear in the list, click Configure hosts > Configure
client.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit client.
5 Click Windows client > SharePoint.
6 Enable the options you want.
See “SharePoint properties” on page 40.
7 Click Save.

SharePoint properties
To access this setting, in the web UI select Hosts > Host properties. Select the
Windows client. If necessary click Connect, then click Edit client. Click SharePoint.
The SharePoint properties protect SharePoint Server installations and apply to the
currently selected Windows client.
For complete information on these options, see the NetBackup for Microsoft
SharePoint Server Administrator’s Guide.
The SharePoint host properties contain the following settings.

Table 4-4 SharePoint host properties

Property Description

Domain\Username Specifies the domain and the user name for the account you
want to use to log on to SharePoint (DOMAIN\user name).

Note: In 10.0 and later, credentials are stored in the

Credential Management System (CMS).

See “Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings” on page 45.

See “Configuring the account that logs on to the SharePoint

application server” on page 41.

Password Specifies the password for the account.

 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 41
Configuring SharePoint client host properties

Table 4-4 SharePoint host properties (continued)

Property Description

Consistency check before Specifies the consistency checks to perform on the SQL
backup Server databases before NetBackup begins a backup
operation. These checks are performed for both
server-directed and user-directed backups.

If you choose to perform a consistency check, you can select

Continue with backup if consistency check fails.
NetBackup then continues to perform the backup if the
consistency check fails.

See “Performing consistency checks with NetBackup for

SharePoint Server backups” on page 43.

See “Consistency check options for SharePoint Server”

on page 43.

SharePoint granular restore For any VMware backups that protect Federated SharePoint
proxy host configurations, provide the name of the back-end SQL server.
This server acts as the granular restore proxy host for the
catalog hosts (front-end servers in the farm).

See “Configuring the granular proxy host for Federated

SharePoint configurations with VMware” on page 97.

Configuring the account that logs on to the SharePoint application

server
To perform backups and restores, NetBackup must know the username and
password of the account for the SharePoint administrator. NetBackup also requires
this information so you can browse for SharePoint objects when you create a backup
policy. NetBackup validates the username and password you provide.
This account must meet the following requirements:
■ Have the following rights on the servers where the SharePoint components are
installed: Local administrative privileges and site collection administration rights.
■ SharePoint farm administrator account.
■ The front-end server must have registry access to the back-end database
servers.
■ Have certain local security privileges on the servers which have the content of
the SharePoint farm.
See “Configuring local security privileges for the SharePoint Servers” on page 42.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 42
Configuring SharePoint client host properties

■ Internet Information Services (IIS) rights can affect database backups and
restores. Ensure that the logon account that is used for backups and restores
has rights to access the IIS sites. Integrated Windows Security should be enabled
within the IIS rights.
To specify the logon account for the SharePoint application server
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the Windows client.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit client.
5 Click Windows Client > SharePoint.
6 Specify the user ID and password of the SharePoint Application Server.
7 Click Save.
8 Repeat this configuration for all servers in the SharePoint farm.
9 Configure the local security privileges for the SharePoint Servers.
See “Configuring local security privileges for the SharePoint Servers”
on page 42.

Configuring local security privileges for the SharePoint Servers

On each SharePoint server in the farm you must assign certain local security
privileges. These privileges are necessary since the NetBackup for SharePoint
Server Agent logs on as the SharePoint user when it accesses data.
To configure the local security privileges
1 Open the Local Security Policy.
2 Click Local Policies.
3 In the User Rights Assignment, add the account to the following policies:
■ Allow log on locally
■ Debug programs
■ Log on as a service
■ Replace a process level token

4 Run the group policy update command (group policy update) for this change
to take effect:
gpupdate /Force
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 43
Configuring SharePoint client host properties

Performing consistency checks with NetBackup for SharePoint Server

backups
You can perform consistency checks of the SQL Server databases before NetBackup
begins a SharePoint backup operation. These checks are performed for both
server-directed and user-directed backups.
To perform consistency checks with NetBackup for SharePoint Server backups
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the SharePoint client that you want to configure.
If the client does not appear in the list, click Configure hosts > Configure
client.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit client.
5 Click Windows client > SharePoint.
6 From the Consistency check before backup list, choose which check
NetBackup should perform before backups.
See “Consistency check options for SharePoint Server” on page 43.
If you choose to perform a consistency check, you can select Continue with
backup if consistency check fails. NetBackup then continues to perform the
backup if the consistency check fails.
7 Click Save to save your changes.
8 Repeat this configuration for all servers in the SharePoint farm.

Consistency check options for SharePoint Server

The following consistency checks can be performed before a SharePoint Server
backup.

Table 4-5 Consistency check options

Option Description

None Do not perform consistency checking.

Full check, excluding Select this option to exclude indexes from the consistency check. If indexes are not
indexes checked, the consistency check runs significantly faster but is not as thorough. Only
the data pages and clustered index pages for each user table are included in the
consistency check. The consistency of the non-clustered index pages is not checked.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 44
Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters, or virtual machines

Table 4-5 Consistency check options (continued)

Option Description

Full check, including Include indexes in the consistency check. Any errors are logged.
indexes

See “Performing consistency checks with NetBackup for SharePoint Server backups”
on page 43.

Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed

applications, clusters, or virtual machines
NetBackup catalogs backup images under the SharePoint front-end server name.
To allow NetBackup to restore content to each server in the farm, you must map
the SharePoint Central Administration server with the SQL Server back-end servers.
Configure these mappings in the Distributed Application Restore Mapping host
property on the primary server.
To configure mappings for restores of a distributed application, cluster, or
virtual machine
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the primary server.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit primary server.
5 Select Distributed application restore mapping.
6 Click Add.
7 Provide the name of the application host and the name of the component host.
The application host is the SharePoint Central Administration server. The
component host is the SQL Server back-end server that needs access to the
backup image. See Table 4-6.

Example entries for a single front-end SharePoint server

with a clustered SQL Server back-end server
Table 4-6 Example entries for a single front-end SharePoint server with a
clustered SQL Server back-end server

Application host Component host

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-virtualname

 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 45
Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

Table 4-6 Example entries for a single front-end SharePoint server with a
clustered SQL Server back-end server (continued)

Application host Component host

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-node1

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-node2

Example entries for a single front-end SharePoint server

with a SQL Server availability group back-end server
Table 4-7 Example entries for a single front-end SharePoint server with a
SQL Server availability group back-end server

Application host Component host

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-listenername

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-node1

SharePoint Central Administration server sql-node2

See “Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology

(GRT)” on page 35.

Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

In certain scenarios, a NetBackup host shares a particular name with other hosts
or has a name that is associated with a cluster. To successfully perform backups
and restores with NetBackup for SharePoint Server, you must approve each valid
auto-discovered mapping that NetBackup discovers in your environment. Or,
manually add the mappings.
See the section called “Approve the auto-discovered mappings for a cluster”
on page 46.
See the section called “Manually map host names” on page 49.
Examples of the configurations that have multiple host names include:
■ A host is associated with its fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and its short
name or its IP address.
■ For SharePoint Server, the nodes in a clustered back-end SQL Server are
associated with the virtual name of the SQL Server.
These mappings are configured in the Security > Host mappings node in the
NetBackup web UI. You can also use the nbhostmgmt command to manage the
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 46
Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

mappings. See the NetBackup Security and Encryption Guide and NetBackup Web
UI Administrator's Guide for more details.

Auto-discovered mappings for a cluster

If you have a clustered back-end SQL Server, you must map the node names to
the virtual name of the cluster if the following apply:
■ If the backup policy includes the cluster name (or virtual name)
■ If the NetBackup client is installed on more than one node in the cluster, the
virtual name must be mapped to each node.
If the NetBackup Client is only installed on one node, then no mapping is
necessary.

Approve the auto-discovered mappings for a cluster

To approve the auto-discovered mappings for a cluster
1 In the NetBackup web UI, expand Security > Host mappings.
2 Click the Mappings to approve tab.
The list displays the hosts in your environment and the mappings or additional
host names that NetBackup discovered for those hosts. A host has one entry
for each mapping or name that is associated with it.
For example, for a cluster with hosts client01.lab04.com and
client02.lab04.com, you may see the following entries:

Host Auto-discovered mapping

client01.lab04.com client01

client01.lab04.com clustername

client01.lab04.com clustername.lab04.com

client02.lab04.com client02

client02.lab04.com clustername

client02.lab04.com clustername.lab04.com

3 Click the name of the host.

 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 47
Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

4 Review the mappings for the host and click Approve if you want to use the
discovered mappings.
For example, if the following mappings are valid for client01.lab04.com, then
you approve them.

Auto-discovered mapping Valid name for

client01 The short name of the client

clustername The virtual name of the cluster

clustername.lab04.com The FQDN of the virtual name of the

cluster

5 When you finish approving the valid mappings for the hosts, click on the Hosts
tab.
For hosts client01.lab04.com and client02.lab04.com, you see entries
for Mapped host or IP address that are similar to the following:

Host Mapped host names/IP addresses

client01.lab04.com client01.lab04.com, client01, clustername,

clustername.lab04.com

client02.lab04.com client02.lab04.com, client02, clustername,

clustername.lab04.com

6 If you need to add a mapping that NetBackup did not automatically discover,
you can add it manually.
In Table 4-8 FCI is a SQL Server failover cluster instance.

Table 4-8 Example mapped host names for a single front-end SharePoint
server with a clustered back-end SQL Server

Environment Host Mapped host names

FCI (cluster with two nodes) Physical name of Node 1 SQL Server cluster virtual
name

Physical name of Node 2 SQL Server cluster virtual

name
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 48
Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings

Approve the auto-discovered mappings for a SharePoint

SQL Server availability group backup and restore
To approve the auto-discovered mappings for a SharePoint SQL availability
group
1 In the NetBackup web UI, expand Security > Host mappings.
2 Click the Mappings to approve tab.
The list displays the hosts in your environment and the mappings or additional
host names that NetBackup discovered for those hosts. A host has one entry
for each mapping or name that is associated with it.
For example, for a SharePoint SQL Server with hosts client01.lab04.com
and client02.lab04.com, you may see the following entries:

Host Auto-discovered mapping

client01.lab04.com client01, clustername,

clustername.lab04.com

client01.lab04.com aglistenername

client01.lab04.com aglistenername.lab04.com

client02.lab04.com client02, clustername,

clustername.lab04.com

client02.lab04.com aglistenername

client02.lab04.com aglistenername.lab04.com

3 Click the name of the host.

4 Review the mappings for the host and click Approve if you want to use the
discovered mappings.
For example, if the following mappings are valid for client01.lab04.com, then
you approve them.

Auto-discovered mapping Valid name for

client01 The short name of the client

aglistenername The listener name of the SharePoint SQL

Server availability group

aglistenername.lab04.com The FQDN of the listener name of the

SharePoint SQL Server availability group.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 49
Perform a manual backup

5 When you finish approving the valid mappings for the hosts, click on the Hosts
tab.
For hosts client01.lab04.com and client02.lab04.com, you see entries
for Mapped host or IP address that are similar to the following:

Host Mapped host names/IP addresses

client01.lab04.com client01.lab04.com, client01,

aglistenername, aglistenername.lab04.com

client02.lab04.com client02.lab04.com, client02,

aglistenername, aglistenername.lab04.com

6 If you need to add a mapping that NetBackup did not automatically discover,
you can add it manually.

Manually map host names

If you need to add a mapping that NetBackup did not automatically discover, you
can add it manually.
To manually map host names
1 In the NetBackup web UI, expand Security > Host mappings.
2 Click on the Hosts tab.
3 Click Add shared or cluster mappings.
For example, type the name of the virtual name of the cluster. Then click Add
to choose the hosts to which you want to map that virtual name.

Perform a manual backup

After you configure the servers and assets in your environment, you can test the
configuration settings with a manual backup. Perform a manual backup (or backups)
from a policy with the automatic backup schedules that you created.
Or, you can use Backup now to perform a manual backup of an asset in the
Workloads node.
To perform a manual backup from a policy
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Protection > Policies.
3 Select the policy you want to test.
4 Click Manual backup.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server 50
Perform a manual backup

5 Select the schedule that you want to use for the manual backup.
6 Select the clients that you want to include for the manual backup.
A parent job contains the whole file list and one or more child jobs. A child job
is automatically launched for each host that contains SharePoint data. For
example, assume that a SharePoint farm consists of four separate hosts. In
this case, one parent job and four child jobs appear in the Activity Monitor. The
front-end web server is listed as the client name for all jobs.
 Chapter 5
Configuring NetBackup for
SharePoint Server backup
policies
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About backup policies for granular backup and recovery of SharePoint Server

■ About backup policies for SharePoint farm backup and recovery

■ About backup policies for disaster recovery of SharePoint Server

■ About VMware backup policies that protect SharePoint Server

■ About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

About backup policies for granular backup and

recovery of SharePoint Server
A SharePoint granular backup provides you with the ability to restore individual
items from the backup using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). This type of
backup does not provide protection for the full farm or disaster recovery. GRT only
supports full backups. NetBackup lets you create a complete policy for disaster
recovery, with all the various types of schedules. However, you cannot restore
individual items from an incremental backup.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 52
About backup policies for SharePoint farm backup and recovery

Note: The Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\AllWebs directive includes the

SharePoint administration sites in a backup. However, granular recovery of the
SharePoint Central Administration website and the Shared Services Administration
website is not supported.

Create an MS-SharePoint policy for each individual web application or create a

policy with the Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\AllWebs directive. Enable the
Enable granular recovery option in the policy. (See Table 5-1, see Policy A or B.)
See “Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT)” on page 35.

Table 5-1 NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy examples for granular
recovery

Policy and Backup selections Auto Enable Other configuration

policy type backup granular
frequency recovery

Policy A Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full Yes The backup image must reside on a disk
Resources:\AllWebs storage unit.
MS-SharePoint

Policy B Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full Yes The backup image must reside on a disk
Resources:\Web storage unit.
MS-SharePoint
application name

About backup policies for SharePoint farm backup

and recovery
A farm-level backup provides a complete backup of the SharePoint installation. It
does not, however, provide for disaster recovery, as some components must be
backed up with an MS-Windows policy. Granular recovery is not available from
this type of backup. If you enable granular recovery with this policy, NetBackup
backs up only SQL Server objects in the farm.

SharePoint farm backups

You can back up a SharePoint farm in one of following ways:
■ Create a MS-SharePoint policy to back up the entire farm, but exclude the Index
Files and Search databases from incremental backups. Optionally, you can
create another policy if you want to back up the Index Files and Search
databases more frequently. See Table 5-2.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 53
About backup policies for SharePoint farm backup and recovery

■ Create two MS-SharePoint policies. One policy backs up the entire farm and
excludes the Index Files and Search from full and incremental backups. The
other policy backs up the Index Files and Search databases. See Table 5-3.

Table 5-2 NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy example for full farm
backups

Policy and Backup selections Auto Enable Other configuration

policy type backup granular
frequency recovery

Policy A Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No Exclude the Index Files and Search
Resources:\* databases from the incremental backups.
MS- SharePoint Daily
For the incremental schedule, add the
Incremental
following directive to the exclude list:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared

Services\Shared Services
Applications\Search Service Application
name

(Optional) Policy Microsoft SharePoint More than No This policy is optional. If a weekly full backup
B Resources:\Shared once a week does not provide adequate protection, adjust
Services\Shared the schedule accordingly. Ensure that Policy
MS-SharePoint
Services A and Policy B run at different times, ideally
Applications\Search on different days.
Service Application
name

Table 5-3 NetBackup for SharePoint Server full farm backup, with separate
policy for Index Files and Search databases

Policy and Backup selections Auto Enable Other configuration

policy type backup granular
frequency recovery

Policy A Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No Exclude the Index Files and Search
Resources:\* databases from the full and the incremental
MS-SharePoint Daily
backups. Add the following directive to the
Incremental
exclude list:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared

Services\Shared Services
Applications\Search Service Application
name
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 54
About backup policies for disaster recovery of SharePoint Server

Table 5-3 NetBackup for SharePoint Server full farm backup, with separate
policy for Index Files and Search databases (continued)

Policy and Backup selections Auto Enable Other configuration

policy type backup granular
frequency recovery

Policy B Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No If a weekly full backup does not provide
Resources:\Shared adequate protection, adjust the schedule
MS-SharePoint
Services\Shared accordingly.
Services
Applications\Search
Service Application
name

About backup policies for disaster recovery of

SharePoint Server
To provide for full disaster recovery of SharePoint Server, you must create a
farm-level backup and a Windows backup of certain file system components. The
Windows backup should include the file system where SharePoint Web Parts can
be installed and System State directive (Shadow Copy Components). A backup of
the System State protects the IIS metadata.

SharePoint backups for disaster recovery

You can create backup policies for disaster recovery of a SharePoint in one of
following ways:
■ Create a MS-SharePoint policy and an MS-Windows policy. The first policy
backs up the entire farm, but excludes the Index Files and Search databases
from incremental backups. The second policy backs up the components that
reside outside of SharePoint.
See Table 5-4.
Optionally, you can create another policy if you want to back up the Index Files
and Search databases more frequently.
■ Create two MS-SharePoint policies and an MS-Windows policy. One SharePoint
policy backs up the entire farm and excludes the Index Files and Search from
full and incremental backups. The other SharePoint policy backs up the Index
Files and Search databases. The MS-Windows policy backs up the components
that reside outside of SharePoint. See Table 5-5.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 55
About backup policies for disaster recovery of SharePoint Server

Table 5-4 NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup for disaster recovery

Policy and Backup selections Auto backup Enable Other configuration

policy type frequency granular
recovery

Policy A Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No Exclude the Index Files and Search
Resources:\* databases from the incremental backups.
MS- SharePoint Daily
For the incremental schedule, add the
Incremental
following directive to the exclude list:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared

Services\Shared Services
Applications\Search Service Application
name

Policy B Shadow Copy Weekly Full No Exclude any databases from this policy.
Components:\ Add the paths for any databases to the
MS-Windows Daily
exclude list.
ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES Incremental

(Optional) Policy Microsoft SharePoint More than once No This policy is optional. If a weekly full
C Resources:\Shared a week backup does not provide adequate
Services\Shared protection, adjust the schedule
MS-SharePoint
Services accordingly. Ensure that Policy A and
Applications\Search Policy C run at different times. Ideally
Service Application these policies should run on different days.
name

Table 5-5 NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup for disaster recovery,
with a separate policy for Index Files and Search databases

Policy and Backup selections Auto backup Enable Other configuration

policy type frequency granular
recovery

Policy A Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No Exclude the Index Files and Search
Resources:\* databases from the full and the
MS- SharePoint Daily
incremental backups. Add the following
Incremental
directive to the exclude list:

Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared

Services\Shared Services
Applications\Search Service Application
name
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 56
About VMware backup policies that protect SharePoint Server

Table 5-5 NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup for disaster recovery,
with a separate policy for Index Files and Search databases
(continued)

Policy and Backup selections Auto backup Enable Other configuration

policy type frequency granular
recovery

Policy B Microsoft SharePoint Weekly Full No If a weekly full backup does not provide
Resources:\Shared adequate protection, adjust the schedule
MS-SharePoint
Services\Shared accordingly.
Services
Applications\Search
Service Application
name

Policy C Shadow Copy Weekly Full No Exclude any databases from this policy.
Components:\ Add the paths for any databases to the
MS-Windows Daily
exclude list.
ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES Incremental

About VMware backup policies that protect

SharePoint Server
VMware backups that protect SharePoint Server provide granular recovery, complete
protection of the farm, and protection of the SharePoint components in the Windows
files system. These system components include SharePoint Web Parts and the
System State directive (Shadow Copy Components). This version of NetBackup
does not support a VMware incremental backup that protects SharePoint Server.
More information is available on how to configure a VMware backup that protects
SharePoint.
See “About protecting an application database with VMware backups” on page 91.
See the NetBackup for VMware Administrator's Guide.

About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

A backup policy for a database defines the backup criteria for a specific group of
one or more clients.
These criteria include the following:
■ Storage unit and media to use
■ Policy attributes
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 57
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

■ Backup schedules
■ Clients to be backed up
See “Adding a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy” on page 57.

Adding a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy

This topic describes how to add a new backup policy for a database.
To add a new NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, select Protection > Policies. Then select Add.
3 Type a unique name for the new policy.
4 From the Policy type list, select MS-SharePoint.
The MS-SharePoint policy type does not appear in the drop-down list unless
your primary server has a license for the database agent.
5 (Optional) To enable restores of individual items from database backups, click
Enable granular recovery.
See “Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT)” on page 35.
6 Complete the entries on the Attributes tab.
See “About policy attributes” on page 58.
7 Add other policy information as follows:
■ Add schedules.
See “Adding schedules to a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy”
on page 59.
■ Add clients.
See “Add clients to a policy” on page 62.
■ Add database objects to the backup selections list.
See “Creating a backup selections list for a SharePoint Server policy”
on page 63.

8 For backups that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT), configure the list
of SharePoint hosts.
See “Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters,
or virtual machines ” on page 44.
9 When you have added all the schedules, clients, and backup selections you
need, click Create.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 58
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

About policy attributes

With a few exceptions, NetBackup manages the policy attributes set for a database
backup like a file system backup. Other policy attributes vary according to your
specific backup strategy and system configuration.
For more information on policy attributes, see the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide,
Volume I.

Table 5-6 Policy attribute for NetBackup for SharePoint Server policies

Attribute Description

Policy type Determines the types of clients that can be backed up with the policy. For SharePoint
databases, select the policy type MS-SharePoint.

Limit jobs per policy Limits the number of jobs that NetBackup performs concurrently with this policy. Set this
option to 1 for the policies that are used to back up SharePoint databases.

Take checkpoints Checkpoint restart is not supported with NetBackup for SharePoint Server policies.
every

Enable granular Allows restores of individual items using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). Documents
recovery external to the document library such as lists, calendars, and discussion boards cannot be
restored individually. Users can only restore individual items from a full backup.

You can restore individual items only if the backup image resides on a disk storage unit. If
you want to retain a granular backup on tape, you must duplicate the image. If you want to
restore from a granular backup that was duplicated to tape, you must import the image to a
disk storage unit.
See “Disk storage units supported with SharePoint Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)”
on page 36.

SharePoint GRT-enabled backups do not support encryption or compression.

Keyword phrase A textual description of a backup. Useful for browsing backups and restores.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 59
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

Table 5-6 Policy attribute for NetBackup for SharePoint Server policies
(continued)

Attribute Description

Use Accelerator Select this option to use NetBackup Accelerator to potentially increase the speed of full
VMware backups. By reducing the backup time, it is easier to perform the VMware backup
within the backup window. To use this feature, you must first perform an initial backup with
Use Accelerator enabled. Subsequent backup times can then be significantly reduced.

Accelerator support for SharePoint currently restricts backups to the full schedule type. This
restriction also exists for a VMware backup that protects SharePoint without Accelerator.

To periodically establish a new baseline of change detection on the client, create a separate
policy schedule with the Accelerator forced rescan option enabled.

This feature requires the Data Protection Optimization Option license. For supported storage
types, see NetBackup Enterprise Server and Server - Hardware and Cloud Storage
Compatibility List.

For more details on Accelerator with VMware backups, see the NetBackup for VMware
Administrator's Guide.

Adding schedules to a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy

Each policy has its own set of schedules. These schedules control the initiation of
automatic backups and also specify when user operations can be initiated.
To add a schedule to a NetBackup for SharePoint Server policy
1 Open the policy and click the Schedules tab.
2 Click Add.
3 Specify a unique name for the schedule.
4 Select the Type of backup.
See “NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup types” on page 60.
5 Choose a frequency level appropriate for the type of backup.
6 Specify the other properties for the schedule.
See “Schedule properties” on page 59.
7 Click Add.

Schedule properties
This topic describes the schedule properties that have a different meaning for
database backups than for file system backups. Other schedule properties vary
according to your specific backup strategy and system configuration. Additional
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 60
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

information about other schedule properties is available. See the NetBackup

Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.

Table 5-7 Description of schedule properties

Property Description

Type of backup Specifies the type of backup that this schedule can control. The selection list shows only
the backup types that apply to the policy you want to configure.

See “NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup types” on page 60.

Schedule type You can schedule an automatic backup in one of the following ways:

■ Frequency
Frequency specifies the period of time that can elapse until the next backup operation
begins on this schedule. For example, assume that the frequency is 7 days and a
successful backup occurs on Wednesday. The next full backup does not occur until the
following Wednesday. Typically, incremental backups have a shorter frequency than full
backups.
■ Calendar
The Calendar option lets you schedule the backup operations that are based on specific
dates, recurring week days, or recurring days of the month.

Retention Specifies a retention period to keep backup copies of files before they are deleted. The
retention level also denotes a schedule priority within the policy. A higher level has a higher
priority. Set the time period to retain at least two full backups of your database. In this way,
if one full backup is lost, you have another full backup to restore. For example, if your
database is backed up once every Sunday morning, you should select a retention period
of at least 2 weeks.

NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup types

Table 5-8 describes the type of backups that are available with the SharePoint
Agent.

Table 5-8 Description of types of backups

Type of Backup Description

Full Backup Select this back up type to back up the entire SharePoint component
database(s). Granular-level backups must be backed up with a full
backup.

A list is available for the objects that support full backups.

See Table 5-9.

 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 61
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

Table 5-8 Description of types of backups (continued)

Type of Backup Description

User Backup A user backup is not automatically scheduled and is initiated from
the front-end web server. This schedule allows for granular recovery.

You may want a separate policy for User Backup schedule types.
With a separate policy, you can easily separate user-directed and
scheduled backups when you restore files. If you create a separate
policy for User Backup schedule types, the considerations are
similar to those for automatic backups. A backup selections list is
not needed because users select the files before the backup begins.

Cumulative This type of backup is not supported for SharePoint Server.

Incremental backup

Differential Select this backup type to only back up the changes that are made
Incremental backup to the database since the last full backup or previous incremental
backup. You cannot restore individual items from an incremental
restore.

A list is available for the objects that support incremental backups.

See Table 5-9.

Note: The SharePoint Index Files only support full backups. To
minimize storage unit space consumption, it is recommended that
you back up the Index Files and their corresponding Search
databases with a different policy.

Note: Incremental backups are not supported for granular-level

backups.

Table 5-9 describes the schedule types that are supported for SharePoint Server
and SharePoint Foundation objects.

Table 5-9 Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server and SharePoint
Foundation objects

SharePoint/SharePoint Foundation Schedule type

objects

Configuration DB Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Global Settings Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Single Sign-On Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Web Application/Content DB/ (including Full backup

individual document restores)
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 62
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

Table 5-9 Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server and SharePoint
Foundation objects (continued)

SharePoint/SharePoint Foundation Schedule type

objects

Shared Services/Services DB Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Shared Services/Shared Search Index/Index Full backup

Files

Shared Services/Shared Search Index/ Full backup

Search DB

Shared Services/Web App/Content DB Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Add clients to a policy

The clients list contains a list of the clients that are backed up during an automatic
backup. A NetBackup client must be in at least one policy but can be in more than
one.
The NetBackup client software must be installed on each of the following: the
front-end web server, the SQL Server database host, and the Index Files or the
Index database host. The client software does not need to be installed on the Search
or the Job servers. If the SQL Server is clustered,
To add clients to a policy
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 Open the policy and select the Clients tab.
3 Select Add.
4 Add the client that is the front-end web server and that runs the Central
Administration Service to the policy list.

Note: You must perform additional configuration if the SQL Server back-end
servers are clustered and you installed NetBackup on more than one node in
the cluster.
See “Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings” on page 45.
See “Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters,
or virtual machines ” on page 44.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 63
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

5 Select Detect client operating system to automatically detect the client

computer's operating system and hardware.
6 Select Add.

Creating a backup selections list for a SharePoint Server policy

The backup selections list defines the SharePoint objects to be backed up and the
grouping of SharePoint objects for multiple data streams. You can specify the entire
farm or back up individual SharePoint components, such as a Single Sign-on,
Configuration, or Content database. You can also use wildcards to specify a group
of objects.
Veritas recommends that you create backup selections with the browse feature.
Because SharePoint objects have long names, it is easy to mistype the object name
when you create backup selections by adding and editing directives. One exception
is the Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\AllWebs directive. Use this directive
to back up all Web applications. You do not need to add a separate backup selection
for each Web application.
To browse for the SharePoint objects, you must provide the credentials for the
account that logs on to the SharePoint Server.
See “Configuring the account that logs on to the SharePoint application server”
on page 41.
To perform backups with multiple data streams, you must enable this feature on
the Attributes tab for the policy and define the backup streams with the NEW STREAM
directive.

Creating a backup selections list to back up SharePoint

Server objects
To create a backup selections list to back up SharePoint Server objects
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 Open the policy that you want to edit.
3 Click the Backup selections tab.
4 Click Add.
5 Click the Browse option to browse for a SharePoint object.
6 In the left pane, expand the client and select the object you want to back up.
If you selected Enable granular recovery on the Attributes tab, the display
is limited to Web applications.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 64
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

7 Click Add.
8 Repeat step 4 through step 7 for each object you want to add.

Creating a backup selections item for all Web applications

To create a backup selections item for all Web applications
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 Open the policy that you want to edit.
3 Click the Backup selections tab.
4 Click Add.
5 From the Pathname of directive drop-down list, select Microsoft SharePoint
Resources:\AllWebs.
This directive works for both Web applications.
6 Click Add.

Performing SharePoint backups with multiple data streams

NetBackup lets you divide a backup so that each job backs up only a part of the
backup selections list. To divide the backup into multiple jobs, insert the NEW_STREAM
directive at a certain point or points in the backup selections list to define where
each stream begins.
Backup jobs are divided as follows:
■ When you specify NEW_STREAM directives in your policy, NetBackup creates a
new job for each NEW_STREAM directive in the policy.
■ If you use wildcard characters to define SharePoint objects in the backup
selections list, those objects are backed up in the same stream.
■ When you back up multiple SharePoint databases, NetBackup groups the backup
jobs by the selected server.
For more information on the multiple data streams feature, see the NetBackup
Administrator's Guide, Volume I.

Using wildcards in a SharePoint backup selections list

Wildcard characters can be used to define groups of databases. This way multiple
objects can be backed up without having to specify the objects individually in the
backup selections list. For example, you may have a farm with a large number of
Web applications or have Web applications with many content databases. You can
use wildcard characters to indicate groups of Web applications and use the
NEW_STREAM directive to divide the backup into multiple jobs, as follows:
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 65
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

See “Performing SharePoint backups with multiple data streams” on page 64.

Table 5-10 Supported wildcard characters

Wildcard character Action

Asterisk (*) Use as a substitute for zero or more characters. Specify

the asterisk as the last character in the string.

Example: To specify all objects that start with an a use

a*.

Question mark (?) Use as a substitute for one or more characters in a name.

Example 1: The string s?z processes all objects that

have s for a first character, any character for a second
character, and z for a third character.

Example 2: The string Data??se processes all objects

that have Data as the first four characters, any
characters for the fifth and sixth characters, and se as
the seventh and eighth characters.

Left & right brackets ([ ... ]) Use to match any one character that is enclosed in
square brackets. A hyphen (-) can be used to indicate
a range of consecutive characters; for example, [0-9] is
equivalent to [0123456789].
Note: The hyphen (-) loses this special meaning if it
occurs last in the string.

Note: The right square bracket (]) does not terminate

such a string when it is the first character within it. For
example, [] a-f] matches either a right square bracket
(]) or one of the ASCII letters a through f inclusive.
Asterisk (*) and question mark (?) stand for themselves
within such a string of characters.

The following rules apply when wildcard characters are used in the backup selections
list:
■ Only one wildcard pattern per backup selections list entry is allowed.
■ If a wildcard pattern is not honored it is treated literally.
■ Wildcard patterns are honored only in the final segment of the path name.
Correct
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\WebApp*
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\WebApp[A-D]
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\WebAppDept?
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 66
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

Incorrect
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared Services\*\Content DB

Configuring exclude lists for SharePoint clients

If you need to exclude certain SharePoint objects, you can create an exclude list.
When NetBackup runs a NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policy, NetBackup
ignores the items that appear in the exclude list.
For more information on how to create an exclude list, see the NetBackup
Administrator's Guide, Volume I. NetBackup excludes certain files and directories
by default. These default exclusions always appear in the exclude list.
You can exclude any SharePoint object from a backup. You can specify the exclude
list for all policies or for a specific policy or schedule.
SharePoint object names can be lengthy. You can type an object name in the
exclude list manually. Or it may be easier to locate the object through a remote
browse (from backup selections in the NetBackup policy). Then copy the object
name from there to the exclude list.

Note: For SQL Servers in a cluster, you must select each node and perform the
configuration procedure on each node. You must configure the same settings on
each node. If you change the attributes for the virtual name of the client, NetBackup
updates only the active node or current node.

To configure a SharePoint client exclude list

1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the SharePoint client that you want to configure.
If the client does not appear in the list, click Configure hosts > Configure
client.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit client.
5 Expand Windows client > Exclude lists.
6 Click Add.
7 Specify objects to exclude in one of the following ways:
■ In the Policy field, select All policies or type the name of a specific policy.
■ In the Schedules field, select All schedules or type the name of a specific
schedule.
 Configuring NetBackup for SharePoint Server backup policies 67
About configuring a backup policy for SharePoint

■ In the Name or path field, type the name of a SharePoint object in the
following format:
For Web applications:
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Windows SharePoint Foundation
Web Application\app name

■ To exclude a specific database, type the name of a specific database

after the Web application name.
■ To exclude Index Files and their Search databases, use one of the
following directives.
Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\Shared Services\Shared Service
Applications\Search Service Application name

8 (Conditional) Repeat step 3 through step 7 for the other nodes in the
environment.
Perform this step if the NetBackup environment is clustered or replicated.
If you specify the name of the virtual client, only the active node or current node
is updated. For the changes to be effective throughout the cluster, repeat the
configuration steps on each node.
 Chapter 6
Performing backups and
restores of SharePoint
Server and SharePoint
Foundation
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About user-directed backups of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

■ About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

About user-directed backups of SharePoint Server

and SharePoint Foundation
User-directed backups of SharePoint Server must be performed from the front-end
Web server. Back up the Content, Services, and User profile databases together.
If the policy that has a user backup schedule enables consistency checks, these
checks are also performed before user-directed backups.

Note: If you open multiple backup windows (in the NetBackup client) to browse
SharePoint resources, the windows may unexpectedly terminate. Instead, use a
single backup window to browse SharePoint resources for backup.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 69
About user-directed backups of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Specifying the server and client for a SharePoint Server backup

operation
When you perform user backups of a SharePoint Server, you can specify the server
that you want to perform the backups.
To specify the server and client for a backup operation
1 Log onto the server as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Select File > Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type.
4 In the Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type dialog box, provide
the following information:

Server to use for backups Select the server you want to perform the backup.
and restores

Source client for restores Not applicable for SharePoint backups.

(or virtual client for
backups)

5 Click OK.

About backup options for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Table 6-1 lists the options that are available when you perform backups of a
SharePoint Server.

Table 6-1 Backup options

Option Description

Backup to NetBackup Identify the NetBackup server that you want to perform the
server backup.

Items marked to be Contains a list of objects to be backed up.

backed up

Keyword phrase to Specify a keyword phrase, up to 128 characters in length, that

associate with the NetBackup can associate with the image created by this backup
backup or archive operation. You then can restore the image by specifying the
keyword phrase in the Search Backups dialog box.

All printable characters are permitted including space (" ") and
period ("."). The default keyword phrase is the null (empty) string.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 70
About user-directed backups of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

See “Performing a user-directed backup of SharePoint Server and SharePoint

Foundation” on page 70.
See “Restoring individual SharePoint items from full database backups” on page 80.

Performing a user-directed backup of SharePoint Server and

SharePoint Foundation
This topic describes how to perform a user-directed backup of SharePoint Server
and SharePoint Foundation.
To back up SharePoint resources
1 Log onto the server as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Choose File > Select Files and Folders to Back Up.
4 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.
5 Select the objects to back up.

6 Choose Actions > Backup. Then click Start Backup.

See “About backup options for NetBackup for SharePoint Server” on page 69.
If you want to view the progress of the backup, click Yes. If you do not want
to view the progress of the backup, click No.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 71
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

About restores of SharePoint Server and

SharePoint Foundation
Note the following when you perform restores:
■ The NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent supports a restore to the same
Microsoft service pack (SP) or cumulative update (CU) on which the backup
was originally created. Microsoft sometimes introduces database schema
changes in SPs or CUs. If you restore to a different SP or CU level, the database
server may not operate correctly.
■ Administer restores from the NetBackup primary server or the SharePoint
front-end server.
■ When you select an item for restore, do not select (or mark) items in the All
Folders pane. In the All Folders pane, click on, but do not select the check
box for the parent folder. Then, in the Contents of pane, select the specific
object you want to restore.
■ The Configuration database contains all of the configuration information for the
entire SharePoint server farm. Use caution when you restore this database;
upon restore, any changes are lost that you made to the farm topology after the
backup was performed.
■ When you select for restore some but not all Content databases for a Web
application, the Web application is not provisioned. After you restore the selected
Content databases, those databases are re-attached.
■ Even if SharePoint components exist on multiple computers, all the backups
are cataloged under the same SharePoint server name. Once you select that
server name, all available backup images for your SharePoint environment are
displayed.
■ When you redirect a restore to a file system, any list items you selected are not
restored and appear as 0-KB files.
■ Restores that use GRT must be made from a disk storage unit. You cannot
restore from the tape copy.
■ When you restore a site collection, any non-default theme you applied is not
restored with the site collection. You must reapply the theme manually after the
restore. This limitation does not affect restores of sub sites.
See “Limitations and conditions for restores that use SharePoint Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT)” on page 37.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 72
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint
Server restore operation
When you perform restores, you select the following information:
■ The primary server that performed the backup
■ The SharePoint front-end client that was backed up
■ The SharePoint policy type
To specify the server, client, and policy type for a SharePoint Server restore
operation
1 Log onto the server as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Click File > Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type.
4 In the Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type dialog box, from the
Server to use for backups and restores list, select the NetBackup server
that performed the restore.
5 From the Source client for restores list, select the client.
The source client is the SharePoint Server front-end client whose backup
images you want to browse.
6 From the Policy type for restores list, choose MS-SharePoint.
7 Click OK.

Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint

tab
On this tab you can choose to bring databases online after a restore job. You can
also specify a different location to which to redirect a web application. The farm and
the web application to which you want to redirect the restore must already exist.

Table 6-2 Microsoft SharePoint tab

Option Description

Bring restored Select this option to bring the databases online after a restore job. This option also
databases online and re-establishes the link between the restored databases and their corresponding web
reconnect previous applications.
database links
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 73
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Table 6-2 Microsoft SharePoint tab (continued)

Option Description

Preserve existing If the website and the application pool for the SharePoint web application that you restore
Internet Information already exists in IIS, this option preserves them during restore. If you do not check this option,
Services (IIS) Web the website and the application pool are deleted from IIS during the restore. After they are
site and application deleted, they are recreated in the default location that SharePoint specifies.
pool

If versioning is If versioning is enabled on the destination to which you want to restore an individual item or
enabled on the document, select one of the following options:
restore destination
■ Add as a new version
NetBackup restores the existing item or document as a new version, which makes it the
most recent version of the existing item. For example, assume that you have five versions
of testfile.doc and choose to restore version 2.0 of the file. When the file is restored,
it is added as testfile.doc 6.0 and is the most recent version.
■ Skip if the item exists
NetBackup does not restore the item if an identical item or document exists in the restore
destination. NetBackup notes that the file was skipped in the job log.
■ Restore over existing items
NetBackup restores the existing item as a new version and deletes the existing version.
For example, assume that the version history is as follows:

testfile.doc version 3.0

testfile.doc version 2.0
testfile.doc version 1.0

testfile.doc version 3 is the most recent version. If you choose to restore

testfile.doc version 2.0, the restore adds testfile.doc version 4.0 and deletes
testfile.doc version 2.0. So the version history appears as follows:

testfile.doc version 4.0

testfile.doc version 3.0
testfile.doc version 1.0

testfile.doc version 2.0 is now version 4.0 of the file.

Note: The version of the restored file depends on the Versioning Settings selected for
that library or list in SharePoint.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 74
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Table 6-2 Microsoft SharePoint tab (continued)

Option Description

If versioning is not If versioning is not enabled on the destination to which you want to restore an individual item,
enabled on the select one of the following options:
restore destination
■ Skip if the item exists
NetBackup does not restore the item if an identical item exists in the restore destination.
NetBackup indicates that the file was skipped in the log.
■ Restore over existing items
NetBackup replaces the existing item with the restored item.

Restore only the most Check this option to only restore the most recent version of an item. Note that NetBackup
recent version of an restores the most recent version of the versions you selected for restore. If a more recent
item version exists, but you did not select it for restore that version is not restored.

Include security Check this option to restore any applicable security information with the item. Note that
information security information is restored only if you select a parent folder and not when you select
individual items. For example, security information is restored when you select Shared
Documents, but not if you select an individual document. However, an individual object can
have user permissions that are defined with a level of “limited access.” In this case,
permissions for those users are not restored with that object.
You can restore different levels of security based on the SharePoint item you restore:

■ Sites
User and SharePoint Group information and security ACL are restored for top-level sites.
■ Subsites
Security ACL is restored.
■ Lists
Security ACL and other security-related information are restored.

Redirect SharePoint Check this option to redirect a Web application. Then click one of the following:
Resources
■ Web application
■ Alternate SQL instance

Web application Select this option to redirect a Web application to another Web application.

■ In the URL box, specify the URL of the destination site. For example:
http://URL to Web application
■ In the Front end web server name box, indicate the host name of the web server to
which you want to redirect. The web server must already exist on the destination location.

See “Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint web application within a farm” on page 85.

See “Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint Web application to another farm” on page 87.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 75
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Table 6-2 Microsoft SharePoint tab (continued)

Option Description

Alternate SQL
Note: Select only one database to redirect. If you select multiple databases, all databases
instance
are written to the target database.

Select this option to redirect a web application to an alternate SQL instance.

In the SQL Server\Instance box, indicate the name of the target SQL Server and the target
instance name.

In the Target Database box, indicate the name of the target database.

See “Redirecting the restore of a SharePoint Server Web application content database to an
alternate SQL Server instance” on page 89.

Individual SharePoint
Note: This feature applies only to SharePoint 2010.
sites, documents,
lists, or items

How the NetBackup Recovery Assistant restores SharePoint Server

and SharePoint Foundation
The NetBackup Recovery Assistant launches a restore job for each database in a
Web application. Databases are restored in the proper order to ensure that a working
Web application exists when the restore is complete. After all the databases are
restored any items you selected are restored in a single job.
The Recovery Assistant restores objects in the following order:
■ Configuration databases (only if assistant is run in disaster recovery mode)
■ Content databases
■ Services databases
■ Index Files
■ Document sets, documents, lists, etc.
Objects are skipped if they are not found in the database configuration. Each restore
may only restore a portion of the components depending on what objects you select
and the backup image you select. When you restore an item, it does not restore an
entire Content database or Document library.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 76
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Restoring SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Multiple SharePoint Server resources can be restored together. The NetBackup
Recovery Assistant determines the order in which the resources must be restored.
You can restore any of the SharePoint resources in separate restore operations.

Note: NetBackup does not prevent you from restoring placeholders. NetBackup
also lets you restore any object that can hold a document, even if it does not contain
a document.

Restoring SharePoint Server

1 Enable the front-end Web server to redirect restores to the SQL Server hosts
in the farm.
A redirected restore is performed since backups are cataloged under the
front-end client name for the Federated SharePoint farm.
See “Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters,
or virtual machines ” on page 44.
2 Log on as Administrator.
3 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
4 Choose File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
5 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
6 Click OK.
NetBackup browses for SharePoint Server backup images.
7 From the NetBackup History pane, select the image(s) that contain the objects
you want to restore:
■ The last full backup, or
■ The last full backup and all subsequent differential backups

8 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 77
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

9 In the Contents of pane, check the checkbox for the SharePoint resources to
restore.
To select a database, click on (but do not check the checkbox for) the parent
folder in the All Folders pane. Then check the checkbox for the database in
the Contents of pane.
If you want to restore a subsite, expand the site collection in the All Folders
pane. Then check the checkbox for the subsite in Contents of pane.

Note: For a successful restore, you must select the Index Files folder(s) exactly
as described here.

If you want to restore the SharePoint Index Files, do the following:

■ In the All Folders pane, click on the folder for the Shared Services
Application but do not select the checkbox for it.
■ In the Contents of pane, select each Index Files folder.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 78
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

10 Choose Actions > Restore.

11 In the Restore Marked Files dialog box, click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.
See “Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint tab”
on page 72.
12 Click Start Restore.

Restoring the SharePoint Search Service Application

The following instructions describe how to restore the Shared Services Application.
Select all of the components of the Search Service application for recovery. The
SharePoint Agent un-provisions the Search service application, restores the
components, and recovers the Search service application.
To restore the SharePoint Search Service Application
1 Open the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
2 Open a Restore window.
3 Select the full backup that contains the shared services.
4 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources > Shared
Services > Shared Services Applications.
5 Select each Index Files folder for restore as follows:

Note: For a successful restore, you must select the Index Files folders exactly
as described here.

■ In the All Folders pane, click on the folder for the Shared Services
Application but do not select the checkbox for it.
■ In the Contents of pane, select each Index Files folder.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 79
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

6 Select each Shared Services database for restore as follows:

Note: For a successful restore, you must select the databases exactly as
described here.

■ In the All Folders pane, click on the folder for the Shared Services database
but do not select the checkbox for it.
■ In the Contents of pane, select the Shared Services database.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 80
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

7 Choose Actions > Restore.

8 In the Restore Marked Files dialog box, click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.
9 Uncheck Bring restored databases online and reconnect previous database
links.
10 Click Start Restore.
11 Restore any incremental backups. Do not select Bring restored databases
online and reconnect previous database links except for the last incremental
backup.

About requirements for restores of individual SharePoint items using

Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
The following requirements must be met to restore individual items from full database
backups Granular Recovery Technology (GRT):
■ The administrator has configured NetBackup to allow for restores of individual
items (Enable granular recovery). This option is on the Attributes tab for the
backup policy.
See “About policy attributes” on page 58.
■ The user must restore from a full backup image.
■ You can only restore an individual item when the backup image resides on a
disk storage unit.
See “Disk storage units supported with SharePoint Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT)” on page 36.

Restoring individual SharePoint items from full database backups

You can restore individual sites, subsites, documents, images, and list items from
the full SharePoint database backup jobs that use Granular Recovery Technology
(GRT).

Note: Granular recovery of the SharePoint Central Administration web site and the
Shared Services Administration web site is not supported.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 81
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

Note: When you restore an item, it is safe to ignore certain bprd errors in the Activity
Monitor similar to the following:
7/12/2021 11:01:39 AM - Error bpdm (pid=2928) did not receive EXIT
STATUS from bprd, all blocks may not have been restored

Instead, rely on the final status that is reported in the Activity Monitor to determine
the true success or failure of the restore operation.

To restore individual SharePoint items from full database backups

1 Enable the SharePoint front-end Web server to restore to the SQL Server hosts
in the farm.
See “Configuring mappings for restores of a distributed applications, clusters,
or virtual machines ” on page 44.
2 Log on as Administrator.
3 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
4 Choose File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
5 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
6 Click OK.
NetBackup browses for SharePoint Server backup images.
7 From the NetBackup History pane, select the full backup image that contains
the items you want to restore.
8 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.

9 In the Contents of pane, select the items to restore.

Note that security information is restored only if you select a parent folder and
not when you select individual items. For example, security information is
restored when you select Shared Documents, but not if you select an individual
document. However, an individual object can have the user permissions that
are defined with a level of “limited access.” In this case, permissions for those
users are not restored with that object.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 82
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

10 Choose Actions > Restore.

11 Click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.

12 Choose your restore options, as follows:

If versioning is enabled on the Select one of the following options:

restore destination
■ Add as a new version
NetBackup restores the existing item as a new version, making it the most recent
version of the existing item.
■ Skip if the item exists
NetBackup does not restore the item if an identical item exists in the restore
destination. NetBackup notes that the file was skipped in the job log.
■ Restore over existing items
NetBackup restores the existing item as a new version and deletes the existing
version.

If versioning is not enabled on Select one of the following options:

the restore destination
■ Skip if the item exists
NetBackup does not restore the item if an identical item exists in the restore
destination. NetBackup notes that the file was skipped in the job log.
■ Restore over existing items
NetBackup replaces the existing item with the restored item.

Restore only the most recent Check this option if you only want to restore the most recent versions of any individual
version of an item items you have selected for restore.

Include security information Check this option if you want to restore the SharePoint security information that is
attached to the items you restore.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 83
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

13 Select the other restore options you want.

See “Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint tab”
on page 72.
14 Click Start Restore.

Recovering a SharePoint Web application in a farm with multiple

front-end servers
To restore a deleted web application in a Network Load Balanced (NLB) farm, you
may need to perform a manual operation using the SharePoint Central Administration
interface. After the restore operation is successful, if the Web application on the
NLB farm is offline, perform the following steps.

Note: After you complete the following steps, a change is reflected in the IIS
attributes for the primary configured balanced node. The new balanced load server
contains two sites: the original site and the name of the latest site that you create
in step 13. However, both sites link to the original site and there is no effect on the
environment.

To recover a SharePoint Web application in a farm with multiple front-end

servers
1 Log on as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Choose File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
4 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
5 Click OK.
NetBackup browses for SharePoint Server backup images.
6 From the NetBackup History pane, select the images that contain the objects
you want to restore:
■ The last full backup, or
■ The last full backup and all subsequent differential backups
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 84
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

7 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources and the
Web application.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.

8 In the Contents of pane, select the Content database.

9 Restore the database to the primary front end.
Note that you only need to perform this action once.
10 Open the SharePoint Central Administration interface.
11 Under Central Administration, click Application Management.
12 Under SharePoint Web Application Management, click Create or extend
Web application.
13 Select Extend an existing Web application.
14 Do the following to extend the Web application:
■ Click on the link for the Web application and select Change Web
Application. Fill in the values to extend the restored Web application.
■ Select Create a new IIS web site and fill in the information to match the
original Web application. However, you cannot use the same port number.
■ In the Load Balanced URL section, provide the node name of the load
balanced server. (For example, http://VMSP-3:new port.)

15 After you complete step 14, all other configured front-ends may be automatically
updated with IIS entries. If so, no further action is required.
If other front-ends require load balancing, then repeat step 12 through step 14.

Restoring a deleted SharePoint list

To restore a list that you deleted, you need to restore the list and default.aspx in
separate restore jobs.
To restore a deleted list
1 Log on as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Choose File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 85
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

4 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.

See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
5 Click OK.
NetBackup browses for SharePoint Server backup images.
6 From the NetBackup History pane, select the images that contain the objects
you want to restore:
■ The last full backup, or
■ The last full backup and all subsequent differential backups

7 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.

8 From the Contents of pane, select the list item you deleted or the library
container for the list.
9 Click Start Restore.
When the restore completes, continue with the next step.
10 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.
11 From the Contents of pane, in the subsite or the site collection, select
default.aspx.

12 Click Start Restore.

Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint web application within a farm

A web application restore can be redirected within the same farm or to a different
farm. For instructions on how to redirect to a different farm, see the following topic:
See “Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint Web application to another farm”
on page 87.
Note the following when you redirect a web application within a farm:
■ The source web application cannot be a live web application.
■ The web application target to which you want to redirect the restore must already
exist on the specified web server.
■ The target must have the same database structure as the source web application.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 86
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

■ You can only redirect a web application from a full backup. Redirection is not
supported from differential backups.
■ You can restore configuration databases and single sign-on databases back to
the original location only. Document sets and individual SharePoint items must
be restored to their original site.
■ You can redirect a restore of a web application within the same farm. The SQL
Server database host and the SharePoint host must be the same. A redirected
restore is not supported if the SQL Server databases exist across multiple SQL
hosts.
■ You must restore all SQL Server databases in one operation at the same time.
To redirect a restore of a SharePoint web application within a farm
1 Log on as Administrator.
2 Create the target web application on the target web server. The target site
must have the same database structure as the source site.
3 Remove the source web application.
If you attempt the redirected restore without removing the source, the restore
completes successfully, but the databases are not properly connected to the
virtual server.
4 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
5 Click File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
6 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
7 From the NetBackup History pane, select the full backup image that contains
the objects you want to restore.
8 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the check box for an
item in the All folders pane. Only check the check box for an item in the
Contents of pane.

9 In the Contents of pane, select the web application to redirect.

10 Click Actions > Restore.
11 In the Restore Marked Files dialog box, click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.
12 Check Redirect SharePoint Resources.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 87
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

13 Click Web application.

14 In the URL box, type the URL of the destination site:
http://webapp
15 In the Front end web server name box, indicate the host name of the web
server.
16 For information on other restore options in this dialog box, see the following
topic:
See “Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint tab”
on page 72.
17 Click Start Restore.

Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint Web application to another

farm
A Web application restore can be redirected within the same farm or to a different
farm. For instructions on how to redirect within a farm, see the following topic:
See “Redirecting a restore of a SharePoint web application within a farm”
on page 85.
Note the following when you redirect a Web application to another farm:
■ The Web application target to which you want to redirect the restore must already
exist on the specified Web server. It also must have the same number of content
databases as the source Web application.
■ The target Web application and SQL Server database name must have new
names (different from original names).
■ The SharePoint version from the source farm must match the SharePoint version
of the destination farm.
■ You can only redirect a Web application from a full backup. Redirection is not
supported from differential backups.
■ The Web applications must be restored at the database level.
■ The destination SharePoint farm nodes must be in the NetBackup domain.
■ In the host properties for the primary server, configure the Distributed
Application Restore Mapping settings.
These settings must contain the mapping for the destination farm. A distributed
application must have all the farm nodes of the destination SharePoint farm
mapped as components of the source SharePoint front end.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 88
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

■ The Windows Client Properties for the destination farm nodes must be set for
SharePoint for all nodes in the farm.
■ A NetBackup client must be installed on all nodes of the destination farm.
■ You cannot complete a redirected restore if the SQL Server databases exist
across multiple SQL hosts.
■ You must restore all redirected Web application SQL Server databases in one
operation at the same time.
■ You cannot redirect a Web application to the same farm more than once. This
restriction ensures SQL Server database ID uniqueness.
■ The SharePoint version of the source and destination must be the same.
■ The SQL version of the source and destination must be the same.
■ You must manually restore from the MS-Windows backup image any custom
Web parts that were created on the file system. These components are not
backed up with the MS-SharePoint policy. (For example, you must manually
restore C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\port number.)
To redirect a restore of a SharePoint Web application to another farm
1 Log on as Administrator.
2 Create the target Web application on the target Web server.
3 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
4 Click File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
5 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
6 From the NetBackup History pane, select the full backup image that contains
the objects you want to restore.
7 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.

8 In the Contents of pane, select the Web application to redirect.

9 Click Actions > Restore.
10 In the Restore Marked Files dialog box, click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 89
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

11 Check Redirect SharePoint Resources.

12 Click Web application.
13 In the URL box, type the URL of the destination site:
http://webapp:port
Use the URL that appears in SharePoint Central Administration.
14 In the Front end web server name box, indicate the host name of the target
Web server.

See “Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint tab”
on page 72.
15 Click Start Restore.

Redirecting the restore of a SharePoint Server Web application

content database to an alternate SQL Server instance
You can redirect a SharePoint Web application content database to an alternate
SQL Server instance to take advantage of SharePoint data recovery from an
unattached content database. The target database must be a new database.
To redirect the restore of a SharePoint Server database to an alternate SQL
Server instance
1 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
2 Click File > Select Files and Folders to Restore > from Normal Backup.
3 Select the MS-SharePoint policy type.
See “Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server
restore operation” on page 72.
4 From the NetBackup History pane, select the full backup image that contains
the objects you want to restore.
 Performing backups and restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation 90
About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation

5 In the All Folders pane, expand Microsoft SharePoint Resources.

Note: When you select items to restore, do not check the checkbox for an item
in the All folders pane. Only check the checkbox for an item in the Contents
of pane.

6 In the Contents of pane, select the Web application content database to

redirect.
7 Click Actions > Restore.
8 Click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.
See “Restore options for SharePoint Server on the Microsoft SharePoint tab”
on page 72.
9 Click Redirect SharePoint Resources.
10 Select Alternate SQL Instance.
11 In the SQL Server\Instance box, type the name of the SQL Server and the
instance name to which you want to redirect the Web application content
database.
12 In the Target Database box, indicate the name of the target database.

13 Click Start Restore.

 Chapter 7
Protecting SharePoint
Server data with VMware
backups
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About protecting an application database with VMware backups

■ About configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

■ Restoring SharePoint data from a VMware backup

About protecting an application database with

VMware backups
With a VMware backup policy and the Veritas VSS provider, NetBackup can create
consistent, full backups of an application database that resides on a virtual machine.
VMware application backups let you:
■ Use the existing database restore process to restore and recover data from
VMware backups.
■ From one VMware backup, choose from these restore options: Disk-level restore,
file-level recovery, database restore, or granular-level restore (GRT).
■ Restore and recover databases from VMware backups to alternate clients. The
target destination client can be a physical computer or a virtual machine.

Supported environments and configuration

See the following information on virtual systems compatibility:
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 92
About protecting an application database with VMware backups

https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/NB_70_80_VE

Veritas VSS provider

See “Installing the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere” on page 93.

Using NetBackup Accelerator to increase the speed of full

VMware backups
Select the Use Accelerator policy option to use NetBackup Accelerator to potentially
increase the speed of full VMware backups. (This option is not available in the
settings for a protection plan.) By reducing the backup time, it is easier to perform
the VMware backup within the backup window. To use this feature, you must first
perform an initial backup with Use Accelerator enabled. Subsequent backup times
can then be significantly reduced. Accelerator support for database agents currently
restricts backups to the full schedule type.
To periodically establish a new baseline of change detection on the client, create
a separate policy schedule with the Accelerator forced rescan option enabled.
For more details on Accelerator with VMware backups, see the NetBackup for
VMware Administrator's Guide.

Limitations of VMware application backups

Databases are cataloged and protected only for the configurations that are supported
for VMware backups. Make sure to store databases on supported storage.
VMware application backups do not support the following policy options and
configurations:
■ Incremental backups. Instead, you can create a policy for SharePoint Server
incremental backups.
■ Consistency checks of the SharePoint Server.
■ SQL Server clusters or SQL Server availability groups.
■ Any SQL Server back-end servers that service multiple SQL Server instances
for multiple SharePoint farms.
■ SharePoint Server databases are not cataloged and backed up if they exist on
the following:
■ Any virtual machines that use raw device mapping (RDM).
■ Virtual Machine Disk (vmdk) volumes that are marked as independent.
■ Mount point volumes.
■ Virtual hard disks (VHDs).
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 93
About protecting an application database with VMware backups

■ RAID volumes.
■ ReFS file systems.
■ An excluded Windows boot disk.

■ Any components that reside on a physical computer are not backed up with the
VMware backup.

Limitations for restores from VMware appplication backups

The following limitations exist when you perform restores from VMware application
backups.
■ NetBackup does not support redirection of content databases or web applications
from VMware application backups.
■ NetBackup only supports full VMware backups that protect SharePoint. In a
VMware environment, you cannot restore NetBackup for SharePoint
(MS-SharePoint) differential restores.

Installing the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere

To use the Veritas VSS provider you must install it manually following installation
of the NetBackup for Windows client. If the VMware VSS provider is installed, the
installation program removes it and may require a restart of the computer.
To install the Veritas VSS provider
1 Browse to the following location:
install_path\Veritas\NetBackup\bin\goodies\

2 Double-click on the Veritas VSS provider for vSphere shortcut.

3 Follow the prompts.
4 When the utility has completed, restart the computer if prompted.
5 Following the restart, the utility resumes. Follow the prompts to complete the
installation.
To uninstall the Veritas VSS provider
1 Open Add or Remove Programs.
2 Double-click on Veritas VSS provider.
The uninstall program does not automatically reinstall the VMware VSS provider.
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 94
About configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

About configuring a VMware backup that protects

SharePoint Server
To successfully perform VMware backups and restores of SharePoint Server,
complete the following steps.

Table 7-1 Configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

Step Action Description

Step 1 Configure your VMware environment and See the NetBackup for VMware Administrator's
NetBackup. Guide.

Install the NetBackup client software on the

virtual machines that are part of a SharePoint
farm.

Step 2 Install the Veritas VSS provider. See “Installing the Veritas VSS provider for
vSphere” on page 93.

Step 3 Configure the NetBackup Client Service. See “Configuring the logon account for the
NetBackup Client Service for NetBackup for
SharePoint Server ” on page 38.

Step 4 Configure the NetBackup Legacy Network See “Configuring the logon account for the
Service and optionally the NetBackup Legacy NetBackup Legacy Network Service and the
Client Service. NetBackup Legacy Client Service” on page 39.

Step 5 Configure the local security privileges. See “Configuring local security privileges for the
SharePoint Servers” on page 42.

Step 6 On the NetBackup server, configure the Map the application hosts and component hosts
mappings for distributed application restores. in your environment.

See “Configuring mappings for restores of a

distributed applications, clusters, or virtual
machines ” on page 44.

Step 7 On the NetBackup server, review the In certain scenarios, a NetBackup host has
auto-discovered mappings for the hosts in your additional host names or shares a particular
environment. name with other hosts. Approve each valid
auto-discovered mapping that NetBackup
discovers in your environment.

See “Reviewing the auto-discovered mappings”

on page 45.
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 95
About configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

Table 7-1 Configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

(continued)

Step Action Description

Step 8 Review the requirements granular restores. See “Requirements for SharePoint Granular
Recovery” on page 19.

See “Configuring a SharePoint backup that uses

Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)”
on page 35.

Step 9 For Federated SharePoint configurations, See “Configuring the granular proxy host for
configure the granular proxy on the primary Federated SharePoint configurations with
server. VMware” on page 97.

Step 10 Configure the host properties for each See “Configuring SharePoint client host
SharePoint client. properties” on page 39.

Step 11 Create a VMware backup policy. See “Configuring a VMware backup policy to
protect SharePoint Server” on page 95.

Step 12 Test your configuration settings. See “Perform a manual backup” on page 49.

Configuring a VMware backup policy to protect SharePoint Server

Through a VMware backup policy, NetBackup can create full application-consistent
backups of a SharePoint Server that resides on a virtual machine. Optionally, you
can use NetBackup Accelerator. VMware policies let you exclude certain virtual
disks from the VMware backup. If you want to exclude specific SharePoint
components, use a MS-SharePoint policy.
More information on Accelerator is available:
See “About policy attributes” on page 58.
See the NetBackup Administrator's Guide, Volume I.
To configure a VMware backup policy to protect SharePoint Server
1 Open the NetBackup web UI.
2 On the left, click Protection > Policies.
3 Add a new policy or open the policy that you want to edit.
4 Click the Attributes tab.
■ From the Policy type list, select VMware.
■ In the Policy storage list, select a disk storage unit.
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 96
About configuring a VMware backup that protects SharePoint Server

If you want to use NetBackup Accelerator, select a supported storage unit

type. The NetBackup device mapping files list all supported storage types.
■ If you want to use NetBackup Accelerator, click Use Accelerator.
Accelerator uses the initial full backup to establish a baseline. Any
subsequent backups that are performed with Accelerator can run significantly
faster. You may want to create an additional policy schedule that enables
the Accelerator forced rescan option. This option establishes a new
baseline for the next Accelerator backup.
Perform block-level incremental backups is automatically selected and
grayed out. On the VMware tab, the Enable block-level incremental
backup option is also selected and grayed out.

5 On the Clients tab, do the following:

■ Click Select automatically through VMware intelligent policy query.
■ From the NetBackup host to perform automatic virtual machine
selection list, select the host you want to use.
■ Use the Query builder to create the rules that select the virtual machines
you want to back up.

6 On the VMware tab:

■ Select the Primary VM identifier to use to catalog the backups.
■ Select Enable file recovery from VM backup.
■ Locate Application protection and click Microsoft SharePoint Server.
This option allows recovery of the databases from the virtual machine
backups. If this option is disabled, you can recover the entire virtual machine
from the backup, but you cannot recover the databases individually.
Alternatively, you can select Microsoft SQL Server. Do not select both
recovery options.

7 If you want to exclude certain disks from the VMware backup, click the Exclude
disks tab.
NetBackup excludes those disks from the VMware backup that protects
SharePoint Server. Be sure that any disks that you exclude do not contain
database data.
8 Click Save to save the policy.
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 97
Restoring SharePoint data from a VMware backup

Configuring the granular proxy host for Federated SharePoint

configurations with VMware
For a VMware backup that protects Federated SharePoint configurations, you need
to configure the back-end SQL Server as the granular restore proxy host for the
catalog hosts (front-end servers in the farm). You can perform this configuration on
the primary server or from the command line.
To specify the SharePoint granular restore proxy host
1 On the primary server, open the NetBackup web UI.
2 Expand Hosts > Host properties.
3 Select the SharePoint client that you want to configure.
4 If necessary, click Connect. Then click Edit client.
5 Click Windows client > SharePoint.
6 In the SharePoint granular restore proxy host box, type the name of the
SQL Server back-end host.
7 Click Save to save your changes.
8 Repeat this configuration for all servers in the SharePoint farm.

Restoring SharePoint data from a VMware backup

SharePoint data is restored from a VMware backup in the same manner that it is
restored from a backup that is performed with the SharePoint Agent. Though you
use a VMware policy type to back up the data, you still use the MS-SharePoint
policy type for the restore. NetBackup displays the SharePoint data in the VMware
backup image that is available for restore.
When you perform a granular restore of SharePoint from multiple VMware
application-aware backup images, browse and restore from one image at a time.
To restore SharePoint data from a VMware backup
1 Log on to the server as Administrator.
2 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
3 Click File > Specify NetBackup Machines and Policy Type.
4 From the Server to use for backups and restores list, select the NetBackup
server that performed the restore.
 Protecting SharePoint Server data with VMware backups 98
Restoring SharePoint data from a VMware backup

5 From the Source client for restores list, select the name of the SharePoint
front-end server.
Select the server that is listed first alphabetically in the list of front-end servers.
Even if SharePoint components exist on multiple computers, all the backups
are cataloged under the same SharePoint server name. Once you select that
server name, all available backup images for your SharePoint environment are
displayed.
6 For the Policy type for restores, select MS-SharePoint.
7 Follow the instructions for a SharePoint restore from a non-VMware
environment.
See “About restores of SharePoint Server and SharePoint Foundation”
on page 71.
 Chapter 8
Disaster recovery
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server

■ Requirements for disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server

■ Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)

About disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server

Disaster recovery of a SharePoint server cannot be separated from the disaster
recovery of windows because SharePoint server uses the Windows security for
authentication. You must recover the Windows server before you recover the
SharePoint Server.
If you purchased the NetBackup Bare Metal Restore option. Refer to NetBackup
Bare Metal Restore Administrator's Guide for more information. If you do not have
BMR, see the “Disaster Recovery” chapter in the NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.

Requirements for disaster recovery of a

SharePoint Server
The following requirements exist for disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server:
■ A copy of NetBackup for Windows
■ The primary server has a license for NetBackup for SharePoint Server
■ The latest backup of the SharePoint Server you want to recover
■ The SharePoint Server CD
■ Any service packs that have been applied to the original installation
 Disaster recovery 100
Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)

See “About disaster recovery of a SharePoint Server” on page 99.

See “Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)” on page 100.

Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)

This topic describes how to recover a SharePoint server installation without Bare
Metal Restore (BMR).
Be sure to restore the components of the SharePoint Server as described in the
following procedure, in this order:
■ Web applications, one at a time
■ Services (State Service database, metadata, and State Service Proxy)
■ Shared Services databases (service applications and metadata), one at a time
■ SharePoint Foundation Help Search (WSS_Search)
■ InfoPath Forms Services (Metadata)
■ Index files

Note: Do not restore Shared Services Proxies. (When NetBackup restores the
service application it generates new URIs and proxies for the service application.)

To recover a SharePoint server (without BMR)

1 Prepare the SharePoint host for restore. Configure it the same as the original
host.
This configuration may involve new hardware and reinstalling the OS, Windows
services packs, and the software that is needed to restore SharePoint from
backup.
2 Install any prerequisite software and SharePoint.
This installation includes running the SharePoint Products Configuration Wizard.
3 Create a new farm configuration database using the SharePoint Products
Configuration Wizard.
4 In a web browser, verify that you can access the SharePoint Central
Administration pages and that the configuration includes the original farm
members.
Run the Farm Configuration Wizard, if applicable.
5 Configure the NetBackup primary server and the SharePoint client hosts so
you can restore SharePoint from the backup.
 Disaster recovery 101
Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)

6 From the front-end server open the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore
interface.
7 Verify that the Microsoft SharePoint Resources:\ are visible.
8 Restore the web applications, one at a time.
For example:

[Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application]

[SharePoint - 80]

9 Restore the services (State Service database, metadata, and State Service
Proxy).
For example:

[Service]
[Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Diagnostics Service\Metadata]
[SPUserCodeV4\Metadata]
[State Service]
[State Service\Proxy]
[Workflow Service Application Proxy\Proxy]

10 Restore the Shared Services databases (service application and metadata),

one at a time.
For example:

[Shared Services]
[Shared Services Applications]
[App Management Service]
[Business Data Connectivity Service]
[Machine Translation Service]
[Managed Metadata Service]
[PowerPoint Conversion Service Application\Metadata]
[Project Server Service Application\Metadata]
[Search Service Application]
[Secure Store Service]
[Security Token Service Application\Metadata]
[User Profile Service Application]
[Word Automation Services]
 Disaster recovery 102
Recovering a SharePoint server (without BMR)

11 Restore the SharePoint Foundation Help Search (WSS_Search).

For example:

[WSS_Administration]
[WebApplication]

12 Restore the InfoPath Forms Services (metadata).

For example:

[InfoPath Forms Services]

[Data Connections\Metadata]
[Exempt User Agents\Metadata]
[Form Templates\Metadata]
[Settings\Metadata]

13 Restore the Index Files.

For example:

[Shared Services]
[Shared Services Applications]
[Search Service Application]

14 Restore the configuration database.

For example:

[Configuration V5/V6-DB]

15 Restore the Global Settings.

16 Ensure that all the SharePoint and the SQL services are restarted on the
SharePoint and the SQL Server, including the IIS service.
17 Use the SharePoint Central Administration, IIS, or the NetBackup Backup,
Archive, and Restore interface to browse the web application sites. Verify that
the web application sites that you restored are accessible and were restored
properly.
 Chapter 9
Troubleshooting
This chapter includes the following topics:

■ About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging

■ Viewing the progress report of a NetBackup for SharePoint Server operation

■ Restores to different SharePoint service pack or different cumulative update

levels

■ Modified system files or ghost files are not cataloged or restored during a site
collection restore

■ Troubleshooting SharePoint jobs that use Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)

■ About troubleshooting SharePoint restore operations

■ About NetBackup for SharePoint Server and client-side deduplication

■ Troubleshooting VMware backups

About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug

logging
The NetBackup primary server and client software offers a comprehensive set of
debug logs for troubleshooting problems that can occur during NetBackup
operations. Debug logging is also available for SharePoint Server backup and
restore operations.
See the following topics for information on how to create the logs and how to control
the amount of information written to the logs.
See “Enabling the debug logs for a NetBackup for SharePoint Server client
automatically” on page 104.
 Troubleshooting 104
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging

See “Enabling the debug logging for NetBackup for SharePoint Server manually”
on page 104.
See “Setting the debug level on a NetBackup for SharePoint Server Windows client”
on page 106.
After you determine the cause of the problem, disable debug logging by removing
the previously created debug logging directories. Details are available on the
contents of these debug logs.
See the NetBackup Logging Reference Guide.
Additional information about NetBackup client logs and NetBackup primary server
logs is available.
See the online help for the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
See the NetBackup Administrator’s Guide, Volume I.

Note: When debug logging is enabled, the files can become large. The same files
are used by normal file backups.

Enabling the debug logs for a NetBackup for SharePoint Server client
automatically
You can enable debug logging by running a batch file that creates each log directory.
To create all log file directories automatically, run the following:

install_path\NetBackup\logs\mklogdir.bat

Enabling the debug logging for NetBackup for SharePoint Server

manually
To turn on debug logging, create the log directories in the following location:
install_path\NetBackup\logs

Create the following log directories on the SQL Server, the front-end web server,
the media server, and the primary server.
After you create these directories and perform a backup or restore, debug logging
information is placed in a subdirectory that has the name of the process directory.
For legacy logging, the file is named mmddyy.log. For unified logging, the log file
is in a format that is standardized across Veritas products. To view the logs that
use unified logging, use lv.exe or vxlogview.
 Troubleshooting 105
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging

For more information about unified logging, see the NetBackup Administrator’s
Guide, Volume I. For information on how to use the log commands, see the
NetBackup Troubleshooting Guide.

Primary server
bprd All restores

Media server
bpbrm All backups & restores

nbfsd SharePoint GRT backups & restores

Front-end web server

beds SharePoint managed code on the SharePoint front-end server

bpbkar All backups

bpfis Snapshot backups, VMware backups

bpresolver SharePoint Granular Recovery Technology (GRT) backups and restores

ncflbc SharePoint live browse if the image type is VMware

ncfnbcs VMware Application State Capture (ASC) jobs

SPSV2Recovery Recovery Assistant unified log. This log does not have its own directory.
Asst NetBackup creates this log file in the NetBackup\logs folder with the
following format: 51216-254-*.log.

spsv2ra Recovery Assistant legacy log

tar Non-GRT restores

SQL Server
bpbkar All backups

bpfis Snapshot backups, VMware backups

nbfsd SharePoint GRT backups and restores

ncfgre SharePoint GRT restores.

Increase the ncfrai logging level to add detail.

 Troubleshooting 106
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging

ncfnbcs VMware ASC jobs

tar Non-GRT restores

See “Troubleshooting SharePoint jobs that use Granular Recovery Technology

(GRT)” on page 109.
See “About troubleshooting SharePoint restore operations” on page 110.
See “About NetBackup for SharePoint Server and client-side deduplication”
on page 111.

Setting the debug level on a NetBackup for SharePoint Server

Windows client
To control the amount of information that is written to the debug logs, change the
General, Verbose, and Database debug levels on the client(s). Typically, the default
value of 0 is sufficient. However, technical support may ask you to set the value
higher to analyze a problem.
The debug logs are located in install_path\NetBackup\logs.
To set the debug level for the legacy process on a NetBackup for SharePoint
Server client
1 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore program
2 Select File > NetBackup Client Properties.
3 Click the Troubleshooting tab.
4 Set the General debug level.
Set this level as high as 2.
5 Set the Verbose debug level.
Set this level as high as 5.
6 Click OK to save your changes.
 Troubleshooting 107
About NetBackup for SharePoint Server debug logging

To set the debug level for the processes that use unified logging on a
NetBackup for SharePoint Server client
1 Newer NetBackup processes such as ncfgre use Veritas Unified Logging
(VxUL). To increase VxUL logging level, run the following:
install dir\NetBackup\bin\vxlogcfg -a -p 51216 -o OID -s
DebugLevel=6 -s DiagnosticLevel=6

Replace the OID as follows:

ncfrai = 158

ncflbc = 351

ncfgre = 352

ncfnbcs = 366

SPSV2RecoveryAsst = 254

spsdkservice = 479

For a list of all OID values, see the NetBackup Logging Reference Guide.
2 To reset the VxUL logging level default value, run the following command:
install dir\NetBackup\bin\vxlogcfg -a -p 51216 -o OID -s
DebugLevel=1 -s DiagnosticLevel=1

Veritas VSS provider logs

The Veritas VSS provider records its activities in Windows Event Logs. Debug logs
are also available at the following location:
install_path\Veritas VSS provider\logs

Enabling Veritas VSS provider logging in the registry

Enable the Veritas VSS provider logging on the NetBackup computer where
SharePoint is installed.
To enable Veritas VSS provider logging in the registry
1 Log on as administrator on the computer where NetBackup is installed.
2 Open Regedit.
3 Open the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veritas\NetBackup\CurrentVersion\Config

4 Create a new DWORD value named CreateDebugLog.

 Troubleshooting 108
Viewing the progress report of a NetBackup for SharePoint Server operation

5 Right-click on the new value and click Modify.

6 In the Value data box, enter 1.
7 Click OK.

Increasing the Veritas VSS provider log debug level

To increase the log debug level modify both the pre-freeze-script.bat and
post-thaw-script.bat files in the C:\Windows folder. Add the -log parameter to the
script, at the line where BeVssRequestor.exe is called. VMware determines which
script is invoked.
To increase the Veritas VSS provider log debug level
1 Change the following line in the pre-freeze-script.bat:
BeVssRequestor.exe -pre2 -logscreen !SkipExReplica! !SkipSQL!
!VMBackupType! !ExcludeList!

to:
BeVssRequestor.exe -pre2 -logscreen !SkipExReplica! !SkipSQL!
!VMBackupType! !ExcludeList! -log

2 Also change the following line in the post-thaw-script.bat:

BeVssRequestor.exe -post2 -logscreen !SkipExReplica! !SkipSQL!
!VMBackupType! !ExcludeList!

to:
BeVssRequestor.exe -post2 -logscreen !SkipExReplica! !SkipSQL!
!VMBackupType! !ExcludeList! -log

Viewing the progress report of a NetBackup for

SharePoint Server operation
This topic describes how to view the progress report of a NetBackup for SharePoint
Server backup or restore operation.
To view the progress report of a NetBackup for SharePoint Server operation
1 Open the Backup, Archive, and Restore interface.
2 Choose File > View Status.
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Restores to different SharePoint service pack or different cumulative update levels

3 Click the task for which you want to check the progress.
4 Click Refresh.
More information is available on progress reports and the meaning of the
messages.
See the NetBackup Backup, Archive, and Restore Getting Started Guide.

Restores to different SharePoint service pack or

different cumulative update levels
The NetBackup for SharePoint Server Agent supports a restore to the same
Microsoft service pack (SP) or cumulative update (CU) on which the backup was
originally created. Microsoft sometimes introduces database schema changes in
SPs or CUs. If you restore to a different SP or CU level, the database server may
not operate correctly.

Modified system files or ghost files are not

cataloged or restored during a site collection
restore
Modified system files or modified ghosted files are neither cataloged nor restored
during a site collection restore. This issue is observed in SharePoint 2013 and 2016.
To work around this issue, restore the SharePoint web application content database.

Troubleshooting SharePoint jobs that use

Granular Recovery Technology (GRT)
Note the following when you use NetBackup to perform backup or restore operations
using Granular Recovery Technology:
■ Disable or uninstall QLogic SANSurfer software. It may conflict with the
portmapper for Client for NFS.
■ Before you install NFS on the media server or client(s), look for the ONC/RPC
Portmapper service. If it exists, stop it and disable it. Otherwise, the installation
of NFS Services for Windows fails.
■ SharePoint GRT operations can fail for the VM backup images that use display
names that contain parenthesis. For example, a GRT live browse restore from
the Backup, Archive, and Restore (BAR) interface fails with the following error:
 Troubleshooting 110
About troubleshooting SharePoint restore operations

database system error

■ In the Local Security Settings, the Users group must have User Rights
Assignment “Allow log on locally”. By default, the Users group is included. If the
Users group does not have this right, the following error occurs:
1385 -- Logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon
type at this computer.
■ Backups of the SharePoint web applications that use Granular Recovery
Technology (GRT) and that contain a larger number of content databases (100+)
may timeout. In this situation, increase the default “Client read timeout” setting
to 900 seconds.
■ NetBackup supports GRT restores of large documents for SharePoint with SQL
Server using SQL Server Native Client 10.0 or later.
■ Technical Support may want nbfsd logs from the media server. Use the Verbose
setting carefully as the nbfsd log can grow very large.

About troubleshooting SharePoint restore

operations
Note the following when you perform restores:
■ NetBackup does not prevent you from restoring placeholders.
■ NetBackup lets you restore any object that can hold a document, even it does
not contain a document.
The following issues also exist for SharePoint:
■ For a SharePoint survey list, after a restore the “Time Created” value reflects
the value at the time of the granular restore. This behavior is by design.
■ If you restore a deleted report, the report ID is incremented upon restore. If you
want to maintain the original report ID value, restore the entire report container.
In SharePoint 2016 and later, if you select the entire report container for restore,
the report IDs post restore are not from the original set and new IDs are created.
■ NetBackup does not start a GRT restore job from a UNIX NetBackup primary
server. Initiate the restore job from the SharePoint client under which the backup
is cataloged.
■ If you use a SQL Server local RBS provider and want to take a SharePoint data
backup, then you must create a file system policy for file-level backups of
SharePoint databases on the SQL Server.
You can use this backup for database level restores (full and differential)
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About NetBackup for SharePoint Server and client-side deduplication

■ When you restore a web application a new application pool is created for each
restore. The original application also remains and can be deleted.
See Figure 9-1.

Figure 9-1 New application pool after a web application restore

About NetBackup for SharePoint Server and

client-side deduplication
When you use the NetBackup for SharePoint Server with client-side deduplication,
the job details only show that deduplication occurs on the front-end Web server.
The job is reported this way even if client-side deduplication is enabled for the SQL
client and the other SharePoint farm hosts. Deduplication is performed if you choose
Prefer to use client-side deduplication or Always use client-side deduplication.
The bpbrm logs contain information on the deduplication process (shown as “Client
Direct”). For example, the log for a SQL Server back-end server is as follows:

15:49:13.947 [4892.8600] <2> bpbrm main: bpbrm.c.2767: Client Direct is using

alternate client: FABLE
15:49:13.947 [4892.8600] <2> initiate_proxy_server: Calling bpcr_start_proxy
with hostname:FABLE

Troubleshooting VMware backups

Note the following when you perform a VMware backup that protects an application:
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Troubleshooting VMware backups

■ The Application State Capture (ASC) job contacts the NetBackup client on the
guest virtual machine and catalogs the application data for recovery.
■ One ASC job is created per VM, regardless of which applications are selected
in the policy.
■ ASC messages are filtered based on the ASC job details in the Activity monitor.
■ The ASC job can result in status 1 (partially success). For example, if SharePoint
was protected, but it was the SQL Server that failed to be protected.
■ Failure results in the discovery job or parent job exiting with Status 1.
■ If you enable recovery for a particular application but that application does not
exist on the VM, the ASC job returns Status 0.
■ bpfis is run and simulates a VSS snapshot backup. This simulation is required
to gain logical information of the application.

Table 9-1 Issues with using a VMware policy to protect databases

Issue Explanation

A database backup fails. Databases are cataloged and protected only if the configuration is supported for VMware
backups.

See “Limitations of VMware application backups” on page 92.

NetBackup is installed on an excluded Windows boot disk. The ASC job detects this
type of disk and treats it like an independent disk. Do not select the Exclude boot disk
option if NetBackup is installed on the boot drive (typically C:).

ASC job produces a status 1 You selected databases for backup that exist on both supported and on unsupported
(partially successful). disks. See “A database backup fails” for unsupported disk information.
 Troubleshooting 113
Troubleshooting VMware backups

Table 9-1 Issues with using a VMware policy to protect databases

(continued)

Issue Explanation

The Application State Capture When the ASC job fails, the VMware snapshot or backup continues. Application-specific
(ASC) job fails and the data cannot be restored.
databases are not protected.
You disabled the Enable virtual Machine quiesce option.

Database objects are on a VHD disk. No objects in the backup are not cataloged,
including those that do not exist on the VHD.

You excluded any data disks from the VMware policy, on the Exclude disks tab. Be
sure that any disks that you exclude do not contain database data.

The VMware disk layout has changed since the last discovery. In this situation, you
must force NetBackup to rediscover virtual machines by lowering the value of the
Reuse VM selection query results for option. See the NetBackup for VMware
Administrator's Guide.

You cannot use a VMware incremental policy to protect SharePoint Server. However,
the VMware backup job is successful.

There is a Content database with no site collections present. To avoid this issue, remove
the empty Content database or create a site collection in the Content database.

The policy included SQL Servers that host multiple SharePoint farms.

You can recover the entire You did not select the Application protection option SharePoint Server on the
virtual machine from the VMware tab in the policy, which allows recovery of the databases from the virtual
backup, but you cannot machine backups.
recover the databases
individually.

VMware job fails with error No media server was added in the Additional Servers list.
2804.

GRT live browse error for a The Primary VM identifier is not a NetBIOS name (for example, display name or
VMware image that supports UUID). For example, a client name like client SP2016 becomes client%20SP2016.
the restore of application The live browse fails with a database system error because the client name is not
data. recognized as a valid client name.

Add an entry to the Distributed application restore mapping settings. The Primary
VM identifier is the name of the application host. The front-end client name is the
name of the component host. Alternatively for UNIX primary servers, add the
SPS_REDIRECT_ALLOWED entry to the bp.conf file. Or for Windows primary
servers, add a SPS_REDIRECT_ALLOWED registry entry.
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Troubleshooting VMware backups

Table 9-1 Issues with using a VMware policy to protect databases

(continued)

Issue Explanation

The SQL snapshot In the VMware policy, you select both Enable SharePoint Recovery and Enable SQL
preparation fails. Recovery. Only select one of these recovery options.