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I am using SharePoint Server 2007 Enterprise with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise. And I am using publishing portal template. I am using the following backup and restore process to backup from site collection http://machine1 to site collection http://machine2/sites/site2. I want to know whether my backup and restore process is correct? (both source and destination are site collections.)

Another question is, I am confused in step 2, if I do not create a new content database from Central Administration, and in step 3, the restore command will output error says content database not exists? why?

Step 1: (from source machine1) backup stsadm.exe -o backup -url http://machine1 -filename e:\backup.dat

Step 2: (from destination machine2) create a site collection http://machine2/sites/site2 and create a new content database

Step 3: (from destination machine2) stsadm.exe -o restore -url http://machine2/sites/site2 -filename e:\backup.dat -overwrite

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In your example you are backing up the root site collection of machine1 and restoring it under a managed path on machine2. You may want to make those consistent.

Emad is correct about step #2, as long as the application is setup on the server you will not need to create a content db.

One last tip, make sure that you have any customizations or solutions installed. If supporting solutions are not installed you will start seeing a number of errors until all of that is worked out.

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  • "the application is setup on the server" -- currently I have an web application which is setup at machine2, and it has its root site collection at machine2. And I am restoring another root site collection from machine1 to mahcine2/sites/site2. In this scenario, I am wondering what do you mean "the application is setup on the server"? Any additional settings for me?
    – George2
    Jan 16, 2010 at 14:58
  • I have this confusion because if I do not create the content db, there will be error message from stsadm -o restore says content db not exists.
    – George2
    Jan 16, 2010 at 14:58
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    If there is already a root site collection at machine2 then you do have the iis web app created/extended already and there is a content db already in place.
    – Mike Oryszak
    Jan 16, 2010 at 16:14
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    SQL Server Express shouldn't be a factor here. The only thing I can think of is if the content db is already maxed out or not in a "Offline" state. If it is set to "Offline" no new site collections can be created into it.
    – Mike Oryszak
    Jan 16, 2010 at 17:30
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    Go to Central Administration, Application Management, Content Databases. It will list out all of the content databases for a given application. Please check to make sure you are looking at the application you want, and change the selector in the upper right if applicable.
    – Mike Oryszak
    Jan 17, 2010 at 14:44
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I think step 2 is not needed. You can restore directly to a web application (You must make sure that a web application on the destination server exists). No need to create a site collection whose database will be overwritten by the restore action anyway.

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  • "You can restore directly to a web application" -- currently I have an web application which is setup at machine2, and it has its root site collection at machine2. And I am restoring another root site collection from machine1 to machine2/sites/site2. In this scenario, I am wondering what do you mean "You must make sure that a web application on the destination server exists"? Any additional settings for me?
    – George2
    Jan 16, 2010 at 15:00

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