Item-Level Restore of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 / 2013 (RBS-Remote BLOB Storage)
Creation Date: December 03, 2012
Revision Date: March 14, 2013
Product: DS‑Client (Windows)
Summary
This article describes the steps to perform item-level restore of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 with Remote BLOB (Binary Large Object) storage configuration.
See Also
Details
Microsoft supports backup of the Microsoft SharePoint Content databases via SQL VDI. Microsoft does not support backup of the SharePoint Content databases via VSS.
When DS-Client performs database backup of Microsoft SharePoint (either through the ‘classic’ Microsoft SharePoint backup set or the VSS-aware backup set type), the assumption is that all information from the SharePoint server is stored in its SQL content databases.
However, when Microsoft SharePoint is configured with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS), the SharePoint server only stores links in its SQL database that point to the BLOB data file(s) where the actual data is stored.
The VSS-aware backup set type is only able to backup the content of the SQL database and not the BLOB data file(s). The BLOB data files are required, since they contain all the SharePoint data. To have a complete backup that is usable for restore, a few extra steps must be performed.
How to backup Microsoft SharePoint with RBS-BLOB storage configuration
If you need to backup Microsoft SharePoint Content databases for a Microsoft SharePoint server with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS):
1. Create a ‘classic’ Microsoft SQL Server backup set type (with VDI) of the Microsoft SharePoint Server. This will backup the data and the Content databases.
2. Perform a backup of the Microsoft SQL (with VDI) set.
How to restore to Microsoft SharePoint with RBS-BLOB storage configuration
To restore a Microsoft SharePoint server configured with Remote BLOB Storage (RBS), you should have created the backup set described in the previous section. To perform the item-level restore, the DS-MLR service must be installed and running on the target restore (Microsoft SharePoint) server.
1. Enable filestream on the Microsoft SQL Server instance where you want to restore the Content databases.
2. Restore the Microsoft SharePoint Server database(s) from the ‘classic’ Microsoft SQL Server (VDI) backup set to a running Microsoft SQL server instance outside of the SharePoint server.
3. Open the Restore Wizard for a Microsoft SharePoint VSS-aware backup set (this backup set is required only to access the Granular Restore Wizard, if you do not have an existing Microsoft SharePoint set, create a backup set that can be backed up quickly and use that set in the following steps).
a) In the Select the VSS Restore Method screen, select “Granular Restore and then select Step 2. Items Restore. Click Next.
b) At this point, select the Microsoft SQL Server instance where you have restored the database(s) as in step 2. Click Next.
c) Select restore to Original Location (default). Click Next.
d) Browse and select the Microsoft SharePoint items you want. Click Next.
e) In the Select restore options screen, you must supply the Web Application URL and Temporary Export Path. Click Finish.