SharePoint Offline Mining

Topics | How To

Overview

Prerequisites

• Planning
• License Requirements

Configuration

• Out-of-Place Restore
• CDR
• SnapProtect Backup
• SQL Server Dump File (Stand-alone or Single-Server Deployment)

Operations

Best Practices

Important Considerations

Overview

SharePoint Offline Mining is available from the CommCell Console. Offline mining allows you to browse and recover SharePoint document and picture libraries from an offline copy of a SharePoint Database. This is especially useful in cases where there is not a granular level backup available that contains the data to be recovered. However, offline mining cannot be performed on SharePoint 2010 setups.

This procedure requires creating an offline copy of one SharePoint Configuration database and one or more SharePoint Content databases. The Configuration database stores the SharePoint configuration settings and the Content databases store and manage site content. Essentially, these databases are SQL databases that contain Microsoft SQL Server data.

The offline copy can be created in several ways, which are discussed below in Configuration. In case SharePoint Servers do not use enterprise-level SQL servers, the offline copy can be created by restoring a SharePoint Database backup.  Once the offline mining database is available, you can browse and restore SharePoint documents from the CommCell Console.

Prerequisites

The following are prerequisites to using this feature:

Planning

In addition to the Configuration database, plan a recovery strategy by identifying which SharePoint Content databases that you would like to perform a data mining operation on, and the time range (latest data or point-in-time) for the image of the database to be restored to an offline copy. Only one Configuration database can reside in an offline mining database, but it can contain one or more Content databases.

License Requirements

This feature requires a Feature License to be available in the CommServe.

Review general license requirements included in the License Administration section of Books Online. Also, for step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information, see View All Licenses in Books Online.

The SharePoint Offline Mining Tools require the Offline Mining Enabler for SharePoint license.  This license is consumed when Enable Offline Mining is selected in the General tab of the agent Properties dialog box of the SharePoint Server iDataAgent.

Client Requirements

Offline SharePoint Mining requires no specific installation steps. However, to mine offline SharePoint documents:

• The source client machine must have:
  • SharePoint Server application
  • SharePoint Server iDataAgent (optional)
  • SQL Server iDataAgent

• The destination client machine* must have:
  • SharePoint Server iDataAgent
  • SQL Server iDataAgent

* The SharePoint Server application itself is not required on the destination client machine.

Configuration

An offline mining database can be created with one of the following methods:

• Out-of-Place Restore
• CDR
• SnapProtect Backup
• SQL Server Dump File (Stand-alone or Single-Server Deployment)

The method that you choose depends on your preference and the hardware that is available in your environment.

When restoring the SharePoint Content Databases, the name must be the same as was used for the source Content Databases.

Out-of-place Restore

The offline mining database can be created with an Out-of-place Restore operation.

1. On the source client machine, use the SQL Server iDataAgent to back up a SharePoint Configuration database and one or more SharePoint Content databases. See Getting Started - Microsoft SQL Server Backup for details.
2. Restore the backup to a remote destination on the SQL Server of the destination client computer. See Restore to a Different SQL Server Instance for step-by-step instructions.
3. On the destination client machine, browse and restore documents using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent. When browsing, ensure you specify the SQL instance and configuration database for the offline mining database.  See Browse and Restore Documents for SharePoint Offline Mining for step-by-step instructions.

ContinuousDataReplicator (CDR)

The offline mining database can be created with CDR by replicating the SharePoint Configuration and SharePoint Content databases from the source client to the destination client machine.

1. Follow the step-by-step instructions in Using ContinuousDataReplicator with Microsoft SQL Server to configure consistent recovery points for the SQL Server data.
2. Copy the databases from the Recovery Points to a writable disk and attach the replicated database to the SQL Server on the destination client computer.
3. Attach the replicated database to the SQL Server on the destination client machine from the recovery point location.
4. On NetApp Filer the snapshots created by the Recovery Points must be shared to make it accessible to the application. See Share a Snapshot for Offline Mining on ONTAP for step-by-step instructions.
5. On the destination client machine, browse and restore documents using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent. When browsing, ensure you specify the SQL instance and configuration database for the offline mining database. See Browse and Restore Documents for SharePoint Offline Mining for step-by-step instructions.

SnapProtect Backup

The offline mining database can be created by creating a SnapProtect backup of the SharePoint Configuration and SharePoint Content databases to create a point-in-time snapshot of the data.

1. On the source client machine, Enable (or Disable) Clients for SnapProtect Backup, Create a Snapshot Copy, Setup Snap Proxy for SnapProtect Backup, and Start a Full/Incremental/Differential SnapProtect Backup of the SharePoint Configuration and SharePoint Content databases.
2. Once the backup is complete, mount the snapshot to the SQL server on the destination client
3. Attach the database to the SQL Server on the destination client machine.
4. On the destination client machine, browse and restore documents using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent. When browsing, ensure you specify the SQL instance and configuration database for the offline mining database. See Browse and Restore Documents for SharePoint Offline Mining for step-by-step instructions.

SQL Server Dump File (Stand-alone or Single-Server Deployment)

An offline mining database can also be created by creating a dump file (*.dmp) using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent on the source client machine. This dump file is manually copied to the destination client machine and restored using a SQL Server application (e.g., SQL Server Management Studio).

1. On the source client machine, use a Database backup set in SharePoint Server iDataAgent and back up a SharePoint Configuration database and one or more SharePoint Content databases. See Start a Backup for details.
2. Using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent, browse the backup created in the previous step.
3. On the source client machine, restore the backup and save it to a dump file. See Restore Database to SQL Dump File for SharePoint Offline Mining for step-by-step instructions.
4. Manually copy this file to the destination client machine.
5. On the destination client machine, restore the dump file using a SQL Server application (e.g., SQL Server Management Studio).
6. On the destination client machine, browse and restore documents using the SharePoint Server iDataAgent. When browsing, ensure you specify the SQL instance and configuration database used by the offline mining database. See Browse and Restore Documents for SharePoint Offline Mining for step-by-step instructions.

Operations

After preparing the offline database on the destination client machine, data is ready for mining and recovery. The following unique operation can be performed for SharePoint Offline Mining:

• Browse and Restore Documents for SharePoint Offline Mining

• Restore Database to SQL Dump File for SharePoint Offline Mining

• Share a Snapshot for Offline Mining on ONTAP

Best Practices

Best practice guidelines include the following:

• Do not use the offline mining tools on a live production database. These tools should only be used with offline copies of the database.

Important Considerations

Consider the following important issues:

• Offline data is always mined from a copy of the SharePoint Database which must be made available through one of the methods above described in Configuration.

• When the Browse data from SQL browse option is selected in the Browse Options dialog box, virtual server names are displayed instead of virtual server URLs while browsing content of an offline SharePoint 2003 database.

• When the Browse data from SQL browse option is selected in the Browse Options dialog box, items from Libraries located in Portal Areas are not available for restore while browsing content of an offline SharePoint 2003 database.

• The following types of data cannot be retrieved when mining SharePoint data from an offline mining database:

  • Documents from Portal Area Libraries for SharePoint 2003 databases. 

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