Restore Sharepoint content

[LinkeLoe]

Hi all,

We have a SharePoint 2013 webserver running, with the content and configuration databases on a dedicated, separate database server. Both VM's are included in a single backup job in Veeam 7.0 R2a. Now, I would like to restore SharePoint data directly into the SharePoint environment, but when I open the SharePoint Item restore wizard, I see all the SharePoint sites with an exclamation mark. The message is "SQL Server VM hosting the content database is missing".

How should I set this up in a way I can restore content directly into the SharePoint site? Or do I have to do a file level restore of the content database first?

[foggy]

Leo - yes, you should initiate file-level recovery session, start Explorer for SharePoint from there, and point it to the database file. No need to actually restore the database file to disk.

[Gostev]

You should not have to do all this if both VMs were backed up with application-aware processing enabled... in that case, we will know where to look for the content database, so the SharePoint recovery wizard will just work.

[LinkeLoe]

Dear both,

Thanks for your (somewhat contradictory) replies...

The error message I get when continuing the restore, states that I need to do a file level restore indeed. However, I assumed it would be possible to do it without a file level restore, like Gostev said.

Both VM's are being backed up application aware. I even added the backup service account to the site owner group of every site, to make sure it has permissions on that site, but that didn't work out either...

[foggy]

Do you have any warnings related to application-aware processing in the job session? Also, even in case of successful application-aware processing, there might be a failure to collect SharePoint topology (for example, if one of the sites is unavailable for some reason). I recommend contacting technical support to troubleshoot this. And while the investigation is underway, you can utilize the mentioned FLR workaround.

[LinkeLoe]

Hi...

No I don't have any warnings in the backup job...

I will contact support and create a case for this. Thanks...

[veremin]

It will be appreciated, if post your ticket number here, so that we could follow the case. Thanks.

[smcauley]

Morning everyone... We are having an issue when we try to restore SP items. If we go to the SP server backups and try to Restore MS SP content we see an error which says, "SQL Server VM hosting the content database is missing". We also tried using the Veeam Explorer for SP which loads but does not show the content database. As a workaround we can grab the content db and log file from the backup and then attach this in the Explorer to view the content. This is time consuming though and not normal behaviour from what I understand.

The backup jobs for our SQL server and SharePoint server both have application aware processing turned in.

Case number is 01700912.

Appreciate any guidance anyone can give me.

[smcauley]

Support have come back and resolved my issue. Hopefully this can help someone else in the future.

1. Create HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\SPSToSQLMap\ key (Type: REG_SZ). It should be a sibling to the Veeam Backup and Replication key, not its child.

2.Add String values, where Name is the Sharepoint server NetBIOS name (if NetBIOS doesn't work, try FQDN), and Data = "<SQL_SERVER>\<SQL_INSTANCE>".
E.g. Name = DHPSP1 (or e.g. DHPSP1.domain.local), Data = DHPSPSQL1\SP2013.

3. If you have multiple SQL servers for a single Sharepoint, separate instance names by ; e.g. DHPSPSQL1\SP2013;DHPSPSQL2\SP2013.

4. Add as many as needed if there are multiple Sharepoint servers.

5. Restart Veeam Backup Shell.

[VanillaMastermind]

I am having a similar issue. Do you make this registry change on the SharePoint APP/WEB servers only, or do you need this on the database servers as well?

[foggy]

This is done on the Veeam B&R server.

[mtrx]

I'm stuck with the same problem.
We are using different Staging server . The only way to do a Single Item restore is to dump the MDF/LDF file to the local disk and start SharePoint Explorer.
If I do a Guest file restore and point both files for SharePoint item level recovery nothing happens .

Imported the Reg key into the B&R server but still the same problem.
Any ideas ?

[foggy]

Martin, please contact technical support to get assistance with this.

[VanillaMastermind]

I can confirm that the steps posted by smcauley (making a registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Veeam\SPSToSQLMap\ and keying in the mappings there) worked in my environment as well. I no longer see the exclamation point with the error "SQL Server VM hosting the content database is missing". Thanks!

[tknaller]

Tried the registry key aswell, but with no luck.

Could the cause be that SharePoint is backuped via VMware directly and SQL-Server via Veeam Agent for Windows?

[veremin]

Correct, that's pretty much the reason.

[tknaller]

is there any chance of this getting added to the wishlist?

because otherwise the sharepoint item level restore apparently doesn't work. if i use the sharepoint explorer directly on the sql server, i can see all databases, but when expanding them with '"+", which mounts them on the staging server, they are empty.

the reason for this inconsistency is that our dedicated sql server is a windows failover cluster with its storage attached via windows icsi initiator inside vmware, and the seperate sharepoint server is inside vmware aswell.

[veremin]

Your voice has been heard, but as always we cannot promise anything.

[tknaller]

awesome, thanks!