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 2010 Central Administration Web site and the Shared Services Administration Web site is not supported.

Note:

For SharePoint Server 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services 2.0, you cannot restore a top-level site from a backup that uses GRT. In this case, you must restore the Content database. You can restore libraries, documents, and lists if the top-level site exists.

Note:

When you restore an item, it is safe to ignore certain bprd errors in the Activity Monitor similar to the following:

7/12/2007 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 hosts in the farm.

  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.

  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.

  9. In the Contents of pane, select the item(s) 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, if an individual object has the user permissions that are defined with a level of "limited access," permissions for those users are not restored with that object.

  10. Choose Actions > Restore.

  11. In the Restore Marked Files dialog box, click the Microsoft SharePoint tab.

  12. Choose your restore options, as follows:

    If versioning is enabled on the restore destination

    Select one of the following options:

    • 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 the restore destination

    Select one of the following options:

    • 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 version of an item

    Check this option if you only want to restore the most recent versions of any individual 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.

  13. Select the other restore options you want.

  14. Click Start Restore.

More Information

Configuring restores for multiple SharePoint Server hosts

Specifying the server, client, and the policy type for a SharePoint Server restore operation

Microsoft SharePoint tab

Restore options for SharePoint Server