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Backup SharePoint Designer Workflows while backing up SharePoint Sites and Restore fails

I have a huge Site Collection and in which for a particular Web application I have developed several SharePoint Designer Workflows.

When I am trying to take the backup of that particular Web application using stsadm export command, I was able to take the backup successfully without any errors but while restoring the same, I am not getting the SharePoint Designer Workflow associations with List and Columns... So I need to do the complete rework on the SharePoint Designer Workflows as there are no associations after restoring of the application and hence restoration fails.

Is there something that I am missing in taking the Backups for SharePoint Designer Workflows along with the SharePoint Sites, so that I don't miss the associations as a part of backups... Kindly suggest me for the right way to take the Backup of SharePoint Site which includes SharePoint Designer Workflows and also the Userprofiles.

 

6 Answers Found

 

Answer 1

Moving to Admin as it seems to be more of a Backup problem than a workflow  one.
 

Answer 2

Hi Mike,

I appreciate your immediate response and also thanks for providing the links.

I have gone through the links that you have provided and haven't found a work around to take the backups  for Customizations.

To be more clear on what I am looking for, here is the scenario:

I am working for a Client where the application consists of a SiteCollection in which for one of the web  Application I have implemented several sharepoint  Designer workflows and now the application  is up and running.

Now that when I am trying to backup  this Web Application, I am not able to successfully restore  it as the SharePoint designer  Workflows are not getting backed up. And as a result I have to re-associate all the lists and the columns  which is almost like re-doing the whole SharePoint Designer Workflows.

And so I have to take the Backup for this Web Application along with the SharePoint Designer Workflows.

This is What I have tried:

1)   Using the SQL Server Backup is not a right option as the size of the SQL Backup is huge  and I want to take the backup of a particular Web Application,
2)   Moreover the size of this Web Application is more than 25MB and hence the SharePoint Designer Backup is also not recommendable (If I am not wrong), &
3)   Finally using stsadm  command export  to Backup and import to restore which ends in not getting the SharePoint Designer Workflows.

Is there something that I am missing  in stsadm command  to get the SharePoint Designer workflows  along with site  Backup or is there any other way that I have to follow to successfully  achieve this.

Kindly specify me the right approach for taking  the Backup so that I can get the SharePoint Designer Workflows along with it.


Thanks

 

Answer 3

Steps:

1) Create new application  with site  collection.

2) Delete content database.

    central administration - > application management - > sharepoint  web application management - > content databases

    i) click on wss_content_xxx
   ii) select "remove content databases"
  iii) click OK

3) Restore backup  database (using moss functionality)

4) Run following command  from command prompt

   stsadm.exe -O addcontentdb -url http://xxx:111/sites/zzz -databasename wss_content_xxx

Thanks,
Pradip Pardeshi

 

Answer 4

Hi Pradip,

Thanks for the response, I haven't got a thought about the option that you have mentioned while trying to resolve this issue, which will be definetly helpful for some more guys out there - That was great...!

However, this option isn't consistent as I do not want to take risk on the Production Server, instead, I would like to try out this locally on DevEnvironment and for that I have to download the Content DB which is of almost 350GB for the Site Collection and downloading that DB file from the ProductionServer to my localoffshoreDevenvironment is not suggestible.

The reason for me to not take the risk is, for the application  that I wanted to take the Backup is just a part  of the whole Organization's Intranet Portal and I do not want to mess up with the other Web Applications.

So kindly  can you suggest  me any other option where I can achieve this. I can do what ever experiments with the Backups that I have taken for this Web Application which is about 50GB file, locally in my Dev environment..

Desperately waiting for the reply.......


Thanks,
Mahesh Dola
 

Answer 5

>I appreciate your immediate response and also thanks for providing the links.

The links are my sig and jhave nothing to do with the question here ...

-------------------------

On another matter: Do NOT post information articles to these forums. Such articles should be posted to your blog. 

If then (later) a question comes up in the forum that your blog item can help with, THEN reply to that question with some brief information on your blog item and with the blog URL.


(I have deleted the information post that you posted earlier today.)

 

Answer 6

It's probably too late for Mahesh but if all your dev had taken place within a single Site collection  then you could/should have used stsadm -o backup/restore instead of export/import. The former provides a full-fidelity backup.

Taking it a step further you could also associate a dedicated content DB to the site  collection (or webapp) in which case you would be able to use the delete/add content DB approach outlined above, or traditional SQL methods, custom stsadm commands etc.

And if you just wanted the workflows  you could have published them out to the file system from SP Designer for re-use in the destination site. There are several caveats around this - one being that it is unsupported. :)

I won't provide instructions here as there are numerous online sources already in existence and are also dependent on the complexity of your workflow.

If at first you don't succeed, ask an MVP.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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