Backup and restore (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)
Applies to: FAST Search Server 2010
Before you put a FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm into production, you should plan your backup strategy. Make sure that you back up the farm on a regular basis, and that you also make a backup before you introduce major changes to the system. You should combine the backup of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint with a backup of Microsoft SharePoint Server. You can also combine the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint backup with third-party backup systems.
There are two kinds of backups for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint: configuration backup and full backup.
In this article:
About configuration backup
About full backup
What parts of the system are included in the backup
About configuration backup
A configuration backup backs up configuration data, including the schema data, the relevance configuration, and other configuration files. The searchable index and the indexed documents themselves are not included in the backup. The configuration backup is faster, uses fewer system resources, and requires less storage space than a full backup.
If you unsuccessfully modify the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint system, you can use the configuration backup to restore a safe set of system configuration data. You can also use a configuration backup to migrate a configuration to a different set of servers.
When you run a configuration backup, you do not have to shut down any services. The backup is non-intrusive and operates without interrupting services.
You can restore a configuration backup on a running system. After the configuration has been restored, you must shut down and restart the system to restart the services.
About full backup
A full backup backs up the complete FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint farm. You can decide whether you want to include or exclude the searchable index in the full backup.
Depending on the size of the system and the data in the index, a full backup can require a large amount of hard disk space.
Before you run a full backup, you must stop the feeding and indexing parts of the system. You also have to shut down the system to restore a full backup.
What parts of the system are included in the backup
The following table shows what components that are covered by the different backup and restore options of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
| Component | Configuration backup | Full backup | Full backup + SharePoint Server backup |
|---|---|---|---|
Files generated by the installer |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Configserver files |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
FSA admin configuration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
SPRel configuration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Web Analyzer configuration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Web Analyzer lookup/link database |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
FAST Crawler configuration |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Binaries and DLLs |
No |
No |
No |
Searchable index |
No |
Yes* |
Yes* |
FIXML files |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
PeopleSearch |
No |
No |
Yes** |
Content SSA state |
No |
No |
Yes** |
* Can be disabled with the –excludeindex parameter in the backup.ps1 script.
** The states of People Search and Content SSA are not covered by the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint backup, but by the SharePoint Server backup. See Backup and recovery for SharePoint Server 2010.
See Also
Concepts
Plan the backup and restore strategy (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)
Backup and restore prerequisites (FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint)