In this blog, find the ways and detailed procedures to backup Site Collections in SharePoint Server.
A SharePoint Server backup is a disaster recovery practice that is recommended to perform regularly. SharePoint backup includes the backups of the content database, apps, configuration database, Secure Store Service application, App Management service application database, etc. Among these backups, the SharePoint Site Collections backup is also important as it stores the SharePoint apps. It is an important consideration for those who perform SharePoint backups.
The manual ways to backup Site Collections in SharePoint Server 2013 and newer versions are –
Main Agenda: Utilizing the SharePoint Server Central Administration features to perform the Site Collections backup manually.
Pre-Requirements:
Procedure:
Follow these instructions to perform the backup of SharePoint Site Collections using the Central Administration of the SharePoint Server.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Main Agenda: Executing the command for the backup of SharePoint Site Collections in PowerShell.
Pre-Requirements:
Procedure:
Once all the pre-requisites are fulfilled, and the permissions are assigned, users can move forward to perform the actual process.
Provide the bolded details in the above command – Site Collection GUID or URL (for backup) and the backup file folder path (created in advance on the system).
Note: The additional parameters in the above command are:
These parameters are optional, and users can use it as per their requirements.
Users can run this command in the SharePoint Management Shell to restore the Site Collection in the SharePoint Farm.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
We had described everything related to manual methods, including their advantages and disadvantages. Some drawbacks drive the users to have a second thought on utilizing the manual backup method.
For the backup of older SharePoint Server versions and Office 365 SharePoint Site Collections, you need an alternative solution. It is due to the lack of any manual solution to fulfill these requirements.
We have selected the most reliable solution from those available in the market – Kernel Migrator for SharePoint. It is a third-party utility which along with facilitating migrations between different SharePoint On-premises Servers versions and between SharePoint Online. This SharePoint Migration tool allows us to download SharePoint Online/SharePoint On-premises Server data (including Site Collections) to the File System. The process is direct with minimum steps, and allows selective data migration with its filters.