In the first article, I showed you one way to use a Windows script, batch file and task scheduler to perform a backup of each Site Collection in your farm.
Next up: Backing up the entire farm
This is really very simple. As you may know, you can use the Backup/Restore function in the SharePoint Central Administration interface. Unfortunately, you can’t schedule that. The solution is to use STSADM instead. This small batch file will log the time your backup starts and completes. It uses STSADM to backup the farm to a file share. Additionally, so we don’t have to login to go check out this log file, we can have it emailed to us.
Step 1:
Create the batch file using notepad or another text editor (I like Notepad++)
@ECHO OFF
@ECHO ================================================
@ECHO Backup Script For Office SharePoint Server 2007
@ECHO Written By: Wahid Saleemi
@ECHO ================================================
@ECHO %date - %time% Backup Started >> D:\BackupBatch\farmbackup.log
stsadm -o backup -backupmethod full -directory \\Backups\Farm -overwrite
@ECHO %date - %time% Backup Complete >> D:\BackupBatch\farmbackup.log
@ECHO Execute the reporter script to email us that backups are done.
cscript D:\BackupBatch\reportfarm.vbs
Step 2:
Create a scheduled task that calls the batch file. I set mine to run using the farm service account at 3am everyday.
Step 3:
Create the vbs file using notepad, paste the following lines in.
'--------------------
' Send Email
'--------------------
Dim FSO, objShell
Dim strVirt, strPath, strReportTo
Dim strFileName, strTempFile, strLogFile
Dim dtmThisMinute, dtmThisHour
Dim dtmThisDay, dtmThisMonth, dtmThisYear
'dtmThisSecond = PadDigits(Second(Now), 2)
'dtmThisMinute = PadDigits(Minute(Now), 2)
'dtmThisHour = PadDigits(Hour(Now), 2)
'dtmThisDay = PadDigits(Day(Now), 2)
'dtmThisMonth = PadDigits(Month(Now), 2)
'dtmThisYear = Year(Now)
' Define consts
Const cdoSendUsingMethod = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing"
Const cdoSendUsingPort = 2
Const cdoSMTPServer = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver"
' This is the sender of the report
strVirt = "http://sharepoint.domain.com"
strSMTPServer = "mailserver1"
strReportTo = "portaladmin@domain.com"
strFrom = "report@domain.com"
strLogFile = "D:\BackupBatch\farmbackup.log"
' This is the subject
strSubject = "MOSS Farm-level Backup Report for " & dtmThisYear & "-" & dtmThisMonth & "-" & dtmThisDay & "-" & dtmThisHour
Set objMessage = CreateObject("CDO.Message")
Set objConfig = CreateObject("CDO.Configuration")
Set objFields = objConfig.Fields
With objFields
.Item(cdoSendUsingMethod) = cdoSendUsingPort
.Item(cdoSMTPServer) = strSMTPServer
.Update
End With
With objMessage
Set .Configuration = objConfig
.To = strReportTo
.From = strFrom
.Subject = strSubject
.AddAttachment strLogFile
.HTMLBody = "Attached is your farm-level backup for " & strVirt
End With
objMessage.Send
Set objMessage = Nothing
Set objConfig = Nothing
Set objFields = Nothing
strHTMLBody = vbNullString
strFrom = vbNullString
strSubject = vbNullString
arrEmailAddress = vbNullString
intArraySize = vbNullString
Remember to change the str values to your own. (By the way, anyone knows an easier way to do this, let me know! I know the vbscript needs to be cleaned up).
This post showed you how to automate farm-level backups using the free Windows tools and commands available to you. The files are sent to a fire share. That file share can be backed up to tape or disk for archiving if you needed.
Next up, I’ll show you some other things you should backup, such as the 12 hive, and how you can schedule that as well.
