SharePoint 2010 Cookbook: Backup a Site Collection Automatically with a PowerShell Script

OneofthemostimportantthingsthatallSharePointusers,andespeciallyadministrators,shoulddoregularlyisbackupdata.Nevertheless,itisoftenoverlookedbymanypeoplejustbecausetheprocessmightseemtotakehours,andwedon'thavethetime
ortheinclinationtorunbackupsonaregularbasis.Inrecognitionofthisbehavior,whatiftherewasascriptforbackingupSharePointdatawhichcouldbescheduledtorunautomatically?Nowthat'sawholedifferentstory!Inthispost,Iwilldemonstrate
howtobackupaSharePoint2010sitecollectionautomaticallythroughtheuseofaPowerShellscript.

Challenge:

HowcanIbackupaSharePoint2010sitecollectionautomaticallyonaregularbasis?

Solution:

Forthesakeofthisexercise,I'mgoingtoassumethatyoualreadyhaveabackuplocationsetup.Let'ssayit's"C:\Backup\MySite".

First,verifythatyoupossessthefollowingpermissions:

SharePointFarmAdministrator.
LocalServerAdministratoronallWebservers.
db_ownerpermissiononthecontentdatabase.
FullControlpermissiononthebackupfolder.

Step1:CreateaPowerShellscriptforbackingupasitecollection(BackupSite.ps1):

Add-PsSnapinMicrosoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

Start-SPAssignment-Global#Thiscmdlettakescareofthedisposableobjectstopreventmemoryleak.

$mySite="http://mySite"#ReplacewithyoursitecollectionURL

$backupLocation="C:\Backup\MySite"#Replacewithyourbackuplocation

$logFile="$backupLocation\BackupLog.log"#Replacewithyourdesiredlogfilelocation

$today=Get-Date-format"MM-dd-yyyyHH.mm.ss"#Getcurrentdateandformatittoavoidinvalidcharacterssuchas"/"and":"

write-HostStartbackingup$mySiteto$backupLocation

try

{

#Createanewbackupfileandnameitbasedoncurrentdate.Ifyouwanttocreateonly1backupfileandoverwriteiteachtimethebackupisrun,youcanreplace"$today.bak"withyourdesiredfilename.

Backup-SPSite-Identity$mySite-Path$backupLocation\$today.bak-force-eaStop

write-HostBackupsucceeded.

#Writesuccessmessagetothelogfile

write"$today$mySitesuccessfullybackedup.">>$logFile

}

catch#Iftheprocessfailed

{

write-HostBackupfailed.See$logFileformoreinformation.

#Writeerrormessagetothelogfile

write"$todayError:$_">>$logFile

}

Stop-SPAssignment-Global

Remove-PsSnapinMicrosoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

write-Host"Finishedscript."

Basically,theabovescriptwilldothefollowing:

Assignalltheneededinformationtostartbackup.
Trytocreateanewbackupandnamethefilebasedoncurrentdate.
Ifsuccessful,itwillwriteasuccessmessagetothelogfile.Otherwise,itwilllogtheerror/exception.

Step2:Createabatchfiletorunthescript(RunBackup.bat):

cd/d%~dp0

powershell-file".\BackupSite.ps1"

Step3:CopyboththescriptandbatchfiletoafolderontheSharePointServer.

Step4:RunthebatchfiletostartbackingupthesitecollectionimmediatelyoruseWindowsTaskSchedulertoscheduleit.

Ihaveattachedboththescriptandthebatchfileattheendofthispostforyourconvenience.

Notes:

ThismethodworkswithbothSharePoint2010FoundationandServer.
Whileperformingthebackup,theSharePointsitecollectionwillbesettoRead-Onlytopreventdatacorruption,soit'srecommendedthatyourunthisscriptduringoff-peakhours.

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/sharepoint-2010/archive/2010/12/21/sharepoint-2010-cookbook-powershell-script-to-backup-a-site-collection-automatically.aspx