While SharePoint technologies have always provided methods for backing up and restoring data, the scope and capabilities have changed with each SharePoint generation. From the owsadm.exe
command line tool in the original SharePoint Team Services (first generation), to unattached content database restores in SharePoint 2010 (fourth generation), backup and restore capabilities have significantly evolved and improved.
This chapter introduces you to native backup and restore options, and how to perform them using the Central Administration console and Windows PowerShell. Although the STSADM command line tool is still included for compatibility support to older versions, it is a deprecated utility, replaced and magnified by PowerShell, and is only referenced in this chapter for completeness.
Generally speaking, SharePoint 2013 backup and recovery operates around the following four primary native options:
Farm recovery...