About the SharePoint Server backup types

Table: Description of types of backups describes the type of backups that are available with the SharePoint Agent.

Table: Description of types of backups

Type of Backup

Description

Full Backup

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

For SharePoint 2007, see Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS objects.

For SharePoint 2003, see Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS objects.

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 Incremental backup

This type of backup is not supported for SharePoint Server.

Differential Incremental backup

Select this backup type to only back up the changes that are made 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.

For SharePoint 2007, see Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS objects.

For SharePoint 2003, see Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS objects.

Note:

The SharePoint 2003 Index database and the SharePoint 2007 Shared Search Index database and Index Files only support full backups. Therefore, Symantec recommends that these databases are excluded from the differential incremental schedule. If these databases are included in this type of schedule, a full backup is performed as part of the incremental backup.

Note:

Incremental backups are not supported for granular-level backups.

Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS objects describes the schedule types that are supported for SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS objects.

Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS objects

SharePoint 2007/WSS objects	Schedule type
Configuration DB	Full backup , Differential Incremental backup
Global Settings	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Single Sign-On	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Web Appplication/Content DB/ (including individual document restores)	Full backup
WSS Help Search/Index Files	Full backup
WSS Help Search/Search DB	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
WSS Administration/Web App/Content DB	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Shared Services/Services DB	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Shared Services/Shared Search Index/Index Files	Full backup
Shared Services/Shared Search Index/ Search DB	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Shared Services/Web App/Content DB	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup

Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS objects describes the schedule types that are supported for SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS objects.

Table: Schedule types supported for SharePoint Server 2003 and WSS objects

SharePoint 2003 /WSS objects	Schedule type
Configuration database	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Single Sign-on database	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Portal sites	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Content databases	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
User profile database	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Services database	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup
Index databases	Full backup
Team databases	Full backup, Differential Incremental backup