For backup and restoration of SharePoint, we have always used the STSADM.exe command for SharePoint. Note: It is highly recommended that a backup is also created for the SQL Database. The STSADM.exe utility is a very simple command line tool used to modify several different parts of SharePoint. Our main use is disaster recover. It is very simple. Log on to the SharePoint server or use remote desktop. Open the command prompt, and browse to the following:
SharePoint 2007 – c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\bin\
SharePoint 2010 – c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\14\bin\
Now type in the following for a backup:
stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://enterurlhere -filename c:\enterbackupnamehere.bak
Wait for the operation to complete. Hey look, you have a backup that holds all permissions, settings, content, etc.
Restoring the site is like this:
stsadm.exe -o restore -url http://enterurlhere -filename c:\enterbackupnamehere.bak -overwrite
Other commands can be used can be found here. (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261956.aspx)
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