We just lost our SQL Server due to lost network drives - and we were able to recover.. but wondering

Question

SharePoint 2007 MOSS SP2.

SQL 2005 connected to Network storage.

Network storage crashed and we lost all our data.

Other problems on the SQL server forced us to create a new VM with a fresh SQL install and restored all databases from last night.. this is a plain Tivoli SQL backup - not a SharePoint application backup or point in time backup. This worked and our farm is back up.

However, We were told this restore type is not supported by Microsoft and might not work because you can't restore the SharePoint config database... but somehow we did and everything seems fine.

1. Anything we should be checking?
2. If we have not made MOSS config changes in the last year and have no plans to make config changes in the future are there user actions that somehow cause the config db to change and get out of sync with content dbs? If so what?
3. If the answer to 2 is that nothing a user can do will change the config db, then can we assume that a restore of that specific config db in the future can be mixed and matched with newer content dbs? If no, why not?

Basically, if we are not making changes in central admin... why is a SQL restore of the config DB unsupported?

Answer 1

Because you lost the whole databases, so that's why you able to recover it at single point of time.

1. You should perform the full testing on your farm. make sure everything is working.
2. yes, their are many actions which stored in the config DB i.e creation of site collections.
3. As user action can change the stuff in the config DB so that's not supported to restore the config db.

Config database restore not supported due to timing issues. lets say you create a couple of site collections at 6:15 Pm and all related information stored in the config DB. now due to some reason you lost the Config db and forced to recover it. You recovery point is 6:00Pm (which is 15 min before you created the site collections) in that case site collections / other objects you created after recovery point will have no information in the Config db. here you will see orphan and unknown errors.