Automate SharePoint 2010 Farm Backups with Powershell

***Update (01/07/2013): We recently noticed that installing KB2506143 (Windows Management Framework 3.0) breaks the ability for SharePoint Powershell to run the backup. Uninstall it and the script should start working again.***

We've had a lot of requests for more details on how to setup automated SharePoint backups with PowerShell, so we've gone ahead and created a detailed ebook which outlines the steps and permissions you need to get your backups up and running. In addition to screen shots, there are also copies of the scripts we use as well as an email notification section that will let you know if your backups failed. Simply click on the Buy Now button below and you can pay with your Paypal account or credit card. At only $9.99 USD, it's thousands cheaper than a 3rd party solution and will let you sleep a little sounder at night. If you're not satisfied, we'll gladly refund your money! For the basic steps minus some of the more advanced funtionality, see below.

I recently built several server farms for our developers to work on. In order to make sure I could restore the farms to their original condition, I setup the following automated backup process. Below is a brief outline of the steps.

1. Create a folder on a local drive of the SharePoint 2010 server called backups (E:\backups). Share that folder as "backups" and give the account you used to install SharePoint as well as the farm and SQL database accounts full access (share permissions and NTFS).

2. Create a folder in E:\backups called Scripts. Inside there you create 4 files:

• backupsharepointfarm.ps1 – This script will backup your entire farm to the share you created. This script will contain the following:

Add-PsSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell
Backup-SPFarm -Directory \\ServerName\Backups -BackupMethod full

• cleanbackups.ps1 – This script will check the spbrtoc.xml file and delete backups older than 7 days so you don’t run out of disk space. You can change $days value. This script will contain the following:

# Location of spbrtoc.xml
$spbrtoc = "E:\Backups\spbrtoc.xml"

# Days of backup that will be remaining after backup cleanup.
$days = 7

# Import the Sharepoint backup report xml file
[xml]$sp = gc $spbrtoc

# Find the old backups in spbrtoc.xml
$old = $sp.SPBackupRestoreHistory.SPHistoryObject |
? { $_.SPStartTime -lt ((get-date).adddays(-$days)) }
if ($old -eq $Null) { write-host "No reports of backups older than $days days found in spbrtoc.xml.`nspbrtoc.xml isn't changed and no files are removed.`n" ; break}

# Delete the old backups from the Sharepoint backup report xml file
$old | % { $sp.SPBackupRestoreHistory.RemoveChild($_) }

# Delete the physical folders in which the old backups were located
$old | % { Remove-Item $_.SPBackupDirectory -Recurse }

# Save the new Sharepoint backup report xml file
$sp.Save($spbrtoc)
Write-host "Backup(s) entries older than $days days are removed from spbrtoc.xml and harddisc."

• Backup.bat – This is a simple batch file to run the above backupsharepointfarm.ps1 script. Create a scheduled task to run it every night. The file contains the following:

powershell -command E:\Backups\Script\BackupSharePointFarm.ps1

• Clean.bat – This batch file will run the script to clean out older backup files (cleanbackup.ps1). The file contains the following:

powershell -command E:\Backups\Script\cleanbackups.ps1

3. Create a scheduled task that will run both of the .bat files you created and set them to run at night when no one’s around. You have to make sure the scheduled tasks are set to run with the SharePoint farm account. After a full week you’ll have a directory with 7 days worth of backups similar to the following:

Note: In order to run PowerShell commands on your server, you need to open powershell and execute the following command: Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted

There are several factors involved in running a successful scripted backup which are covered by Todd Klindt in the following Microsoft SharePoint forum thread: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepoint2010setup/thread/f755e7c1-bd0a-4c00-9be6-bbca83cf666b/.

1.Your Central Admin app pool account must have read/write access to the location of the backups.

2.Your SQL Service account must have read/write access to the location of the backups.

3.If you're running a farm backup from STSADM or Windows PowerShell, the account you're running it as must have read/write access to the location of the backups

4.The location must be accessible from the SharePoint machine the backup is running on.

5.The location must be accessible from the SQL instance that SharePoint is trying to back up.

6.This is why all the examples are UNCs, \\server\share, and not local paths, C:\backups

That’s about it. Give it a try and let me know if you have any problems. The file and share permissions are critical!