Backup and Recover SharePoint like a time traveler

	Crash happens. When it happens to your SharePoint farm it could put your users out of commission for hours. If only you had a magic time machine capable of fast, full-farm backup and restore, and crammed full of powerful search capabilities, easy item-level recovery, and the ability to alter the space-time continuum. Say no more. Idera SharePoint backup has most of that covered (we’re still working on the space-time thing), plus tools to schedule, manage, and monitor backups farm-wide. And you can do it three times faster than out-of-the-box SharePoint backup.  Our fast, easy, space-time altering features include: Lightning-Fast Backups - With powerful compression and encryption technology Full-Farm Protection - Covers content databases, farm config, service applications and more! Real-Time Status Alerts - Measure progress for backup and restore operations Self-Service Document Recovery - Recovery for site users that saves time Idera SharePoint backup saves you from spending hours restoring backups after Crash happens. It’s the next best thing to a time machine for your SharePoint farm. Try it for free for 14 days and see for yourself. Our time-travelling customers love SharePoint backup: “The best part of working with Idera's SharePoint backup is that it’s easy to use and configure. Compared to similar products, it offers features that are easier to use and cost less!” –Gerald Parish, SharePoint Architect, Resurgent Capital  “I’m so impressed, I’m not even going to complain about the complete lack of ninja protection.” –Keith, Very busy SharePoint administrator, Taxes ‘R’ Us, Possibly not real

How to back up a User Profile Service application using SQL Server in SharePoint 2010 ?

• Open SQL Server Management Studio
• Connect to the database server.
• Expand Databases.
• Right-click the database that you want to back up, point to Tasks
• Then click Back Up.
• In the Back up Database dialog box,
• In the Source area, select the backup type that you want to perform
• User Profile Service application always requires a full backup, so select Full backup
• In the Backup component area, click Database.
• Provide the name to the backup
• We can set an expiration date to make this back up available till desired date.
• By default its 0, means no expiration date
• Provide the path where you want to store this back up under Destination
• That’s it we are done with user profile backup

A very good article available @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg576965

Back up in SharePoint Server 2010

Backup in SharePoint 2010

Basically there are 3 types of backup methods used in SharePoint server 2010

·         Using Windows PowerShell

·         Using SharePoint 2010 Central Admin

·         Using SQL server

Use Windows PowerShell to back up a farm in SharePoint

You can use Windows PowerShell to back up the farm manually or as part of a script that can be run at scheduled intervals.

1.      Click on the Start menu

2.      Click All Programs.

3.      Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

4.      Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

5.      At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command: 

Backup-SPFarm -Directory <BackupFolder> -BackupMethod {Full | Differential} [-Verbose]

Use Central Administration to back up a farm in SharePoint

You can use Central Administration to back up the farm.

1.      In Central Administration, on the Home page > Backup and Restore > Perform a backup.

2.      On the Perform a Backup — Step 1 of 2: Select Component to Back Up page, select the farm from the list of components, and then click next.

3.      On the Start Backup — Step 2 of 2: Select Backup Options page, in the Backup Type section, select either Full or Differential.

4.      In the Back Up Only Configuration Settings > Back up content and configuration settings.

5.      In the Backup File Location section, type the UNC path of the backup folder, and then click Start Backup.

6.      You can view the general status of all backup jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current backup job

7.      in the lower part of the page in the Backup section. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are Timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take several seconds for the backup to start.

Use SQL Server tools to back up a farm in SharePoint

Using SQL server you can back up site content DB only, this is not useful when we have to take a full farm backup.

1.      Open SQL Server Management Studio

2.      Connect to the database server.

3.      Expand Databases

4.      Right-click the database that you want to back up, point to Tasks, and then click Back Up.

5.      In the Back Up Database dialog box, in the Source area, select the kind of backup that you want to perform from the Backup type list.

6.      In the Backup component > Database.

7.      Either use the default name provided or specify a name for the backup set in the Name text box.

8.      Specify the expiration date for the backup set. This date determines how long, or when, the backup set can be overwritten by any later backups that have the same name. By default, the backup set is set to never expire (0 days).

9.      In the Destination area, specify where you want to store the backup.

10.  Click OK to back up the database.

11.  Repeat steps 1-10 for each farm database.

Ref: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428316.aspx

Backup and recover SharePoint faster than ever

How are you backing up your SharePoint farm? If you’re using a general server backup solution, chances are you’ll hit some snags when you need to put your farm back together after a crash.Idera SharePoint backup can help. It provides fast, full-farm backup and restore, powerful search capabilities, easy item-level recovery plus tools to schedule, manage and monitor backups farm-wide. Get fast, easy, and reliable backups with these features: Lightening-Fast Backups – With powerful compression and encryption technology Full-Farm Protection – Covers content databases, farm config, service applications and more! Real-Time Status Alerts – Measure progress for backup and restore operations Self-Service Document Recovery – Recovery for site users that saves time Here’s what one happy customer had to say: “The best part of working with SharePoint backup is that it’s easy to use and configure. Compared to similar products, it offers features that are easier to use and cost less!” –Gerald Parish, SharePoint Architect, Resurgent Capital