Performing Granular Backup Using the SharePoint Central Administration

Granular backup of SharePoint 2010, previously available only from the STSADM command-line tool, is now available from within the GUI.

Backing Up a Site Collection

To back up a site collection using the SharePoint Central Administration tool, perform the following steps:

1.	Open the SharePoint Central Administration site on a SharePoint Server (Start, All Programs, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, SharePoint 2010 Central Administration).
2.	Select Backup and Restore in Quick Launch.
3.	Select Perform a Site Collection Backup, under the Granular Backup section.
4.	On the Site Collection Backup page, select a site collection to backup from the drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Performing a granular SharePoint site backup.
5.	Enter the backup location and the filename ending with extension .bak in the Filename box. Select Overwrite Existing File if you want to overwrite, and then click Start Backup.

After starting the backup, SharePoint 2010 displays the Granular Backup Job Status page. On this page, the granular backup progress can be monitored and displays site collection backup status and content export status.

Note

Site collection backups don’t include workflows.

Unlike the Farm Backup and Restore operation, a detailed history of the granular backup operations cannot be viewed. Second, a backup of the site collection done using SharePoint Central Administration cannot be restored via the SharePoint Central Administration GUI. This backup can be restored only using Windows PowerShell cmdlet Restore-SPSite.

This method is recommended in situations in which a once-off backup of a site collection is required, either in a scenario in which the site collection content needs to be archived or in a scenario in which the site collection needs to move under a different web application.

Note

Granular backup and export is a processor-intensive function in comparison to farm backup operation.

Export a Site or List Using the Central Admin Console

To export a site or a list using the SharePoint Central Administration, perform the following steps:

1.	Open the SharePoint Central Administration site on a SharePoint Server (Start, All Programs, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products, SharePoint 2010 Central Administration).
2.	Select Backup and Restore in Quick Launch.
3.	Select Export a Site or List, under Granular Backup section.
4.	On the Site or List Export page, select a site collection, select the site, and then select the list to export from the drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Exporting a list using Central Admin backup.
5.	Enter a backup location and the filename ending with extension .cmp in the Filename box. Select Overwrite Existing File if you want to overwrite.
6.	The next toggle gives an option to export full security, including author, editors, created by times, and modified times. If the selection is not at the list level, but at the site level (that is, exporting a site), then Full Security Export will include all users in the site. Select this option if required.
7.	The next drop-down menu gives options to export the version history for files and list items. The options are All Versions, Last Major, Current Version, Last Major, and Minor Versions. Select the desired choice from the drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 2, and then click Start Export.

After starting the export, SharePoint 2010 displays the Granular Backup Job Status page. On this page, the granular backup progress can be monitored and displays the content export and site collection backup status.

Unlike the Farm Backup and Restore operation, a detailed history of the granular backup operations cannot be viewed. Secondly, content export done using SharePoint Central Administration cannot be imported via the SharePoint Central Administration GUI. The import operation can be done only using Windows PowerShell cmdlet Import-SPWeb.

This method is recommended in situations in which a site needs to be moved to a different site collection or more commonly moving a SharePoint list to a different site. Earlier this level of export and import was made available in SharePoint Designer 2007 and FrontPage 2003. This feature is not available in SharePoint Designer 2010 and is now made available from SharePoint Central Administration.