Sharepoint 2013 : Backup and Restore (part 6) - Farm Backup and Restore - Performing a Restore, Using PowerShell

Performing a Restore

Performing a SharePoint farm restore is much the inverse of the backup process. Assuming you have performed a successful farm backup, the following steps demonstrate the farm restore process:

1. Navigate to the Backup and Restore main page in Central Administration.
2. Click the Restore from a Backup link.
3. SharePoint displays a page like that in Figure 10.

   

   Figure 10. Restoring the farm from backup

4. Provide the backup directory location.
5. Choose the backup instance from the history list, and then click the Next button.
6. SharePoint shows a page like that in Figure 11.

   

   Figure 11. Farm restore selection

   Similar to the backup process, this selection screen allows you to choose what configuration and content in the farm to restore.

7. Make your selection and then click the Next button.
8. The next page (too large to illustrate here) shows various options for the selected service and content configuration.
9. Choose whether you wish to overwrite configuration or create new.
10. The option to create new services from backup is useful when restoring a new farm from scratch after a disaster.
11. Use Overwrite when replacing the existing configuration.
12. Click the Start Restore button to begin the restore process.

Using PowerShell

As one might expect, SharePoint allows administrators to perform farm backup with PowerShell.

Follow these steps to back up the farm using PowerShell.

1. From the Start menu, choose All Programs.
2. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Products.
3. Click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell to launch the console.
4. Type the following text into the console, replacing the appropriate placeholders:

   Backup-SPFarm –Directory <Backup Folder> -BackupMethod {Full | Differential} [-Verbose]

5. Add the [-Force] parameter to force overwrite of existing backup files.
6. Add the [-ConfigurationOnly] option to backup configuration without content.

Follow these steps to restore a farm from backup using PowerShell.

1. From the Start menu, choose All Programs.
2. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Products.
3. Click SharePoint 2013 Management Shell to launch the console.
4. Type the following text into the console, replacing the appropriate placeholders:

   Restore-SPFarm –Directory <Backup Folder> -RestoreMethod {New | Overwrite} [-Verbose]

5. Add the [-Force] parameter to force overwrite of existing backup files.
6. Add the [-ConfigurationOnly] option to backup configuration without content.