RHEL v6x Master Server NBU v7.1.0.4, Win2008 R2 Std Media servers also v7.1.0.4, Sharepoint 2007 and 2010 farms
I was asked some Sharepoint Policy questions that I could not answer with much detail. I have read and studied the Sharepoint Policy configuration guide multiple times. Here are some of the questions I was asked about:
Are you telling me that a Sharepoint Farm requires four policies? File backup, Sharepoint Full, Sharepoint GRT and MSSQL? The Windows File backup should backup everything except MSSQL.
My lame answer: The Sharepoint configuration is not recognized as a standard file system, i.e. C:\, D:\... but rather as Microsoft Sharepoint Resources:\ and the standard File level backup won't properly protect the resource.
Ok, You are backing up Microsoft Sharepoint Resources:\* to me that means you are getting everything. Why then do you need a Sharepoint GRT policy.
You can only restore Sharepoint as a full restore from the Sharepoint Full Policy: Microsoft Sharepoint Resources:\* you can not break down the restores to be able to recover, for instance, a single sharepoint file or link. There is a checkbox in the Policy for GRT. We do not check the box for a Full backup. The GRT Policy has these important differences: The resource selection is Microsoft Sharepoint Resources:\ALLWebs and we do check the GRT box. Also in order to do a GRT backup / restore a Sharepoint Full backup is required and the restores require an NFS client.
I could not explain any of the "inner" workings of the policy. I made a guess on the GRT backup that the Policy opens the Sharepoint DB and somehow connects pointers to the objects to add to the backup so that for a GRT restore it would know where each object (file) was in the DB. I don't know if the objects are stored in the DB as BLOBs or otherwise how any of this policy works. As you can read the best I could do was to discuss the configuration of the Sharepoint Policies but nothing else. We have had a miserable time getting regular successful Sharepoint backups and Restores which is why I'm on the line with this. At this point I believe the problem is either with frailties in Netbackup for Sharepoint or that our Sharepoint installations have configuration issues. We are considering alternate products to do the backup/restore: Idera, Docave, MS DPM. Can you folks help me out here?
thx
