Answer 1

Please read relevant articles in from this hub: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288664(office.12).aspx ;

SharePoint content databases does not contain instance specific data, you can backup and restore them to database server in new SharePoint farm and then attach them to web application in new SharePoint farm. SharePoint Configuration database and Central Administration content database contain instances specific data, so, you usually create new farm for test environment. And if you only copy the content databases, solutions you installed on the production farm will not appear in the new farm, you have to install them in the new farm.

An alternative is to use Physical-to-Virtual (P2V) technology to create an exact copy of your SharePoint farm in virtual machines for testing. Please read the following articles for detail:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc764232.aspx

http://download.microsoft.com/download/D/A/8/DA82C84A-1C3F-418A-BCC7-8A38CBBC1935/Virtualization_of_SharePoint_Products_and_Technologies_White_Paper_-_final1.docx

Gu Yuming

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Answer 2

You can use the commands w/ their correct parameters to backup and restore a site collection.

stsadm -o backup

stsadm -o restore

So long as the features in the old environment are all present within your new environment they should be identical.

This is very helpful for development because whenenver there is an error on staging, all that needs to be done is to take a site backup and restore it to development and walk through the code in the debugger.

Answer 3

I just wanted to add that with regard to content, your SharePoint "site" data is effectively all stored within its content database(s).

You can determine which database(s) are assigned to a Web application by navigating to Central Administration > Application Management > Content Databases.

Migrating the database is relatively straightforward depending on the size of your application - in our case we simply migrated the most recent full SQL backup to our testing environment and restored it to the backup farm.

I'm not sure what you mean by "copying" - if you have attempted to restore a full DB backup already unsuccessfully the schema error could mean that your test farm is not patched to the correct version of SharePoint. Note that in my experience I've found that hotfixes as well as service packs need to be identical to allow for a successful DB restoration.

Assuming your site uses AD authentication and you are planning on using a separate "test" domain, note that your permissions will effectively be broken in the restored site as the SIDs will not exist in the test domain. Depending on your requirements, you can obviously get around this by adding a test administrator account as site collection admin for each collection - or script that depending on how many you have within your Web application.

Answer 4

Gabriel,

I am recently involved in the same task, just want to check if you have done with yours. Any recommendation from your side to accomplish mine? what is the steps you have followed to build the lab invironment?

Many thanks in advance.