Restore SharePoint MySites from Backup

All managers from the company were waked with this emails like:

Subject: The My Site of X Y is scheduled for deletion

The My Site of X Y is scheduled for deletion in 14 days. As their manager you are now the temporary owner of their site. This temporary ownership gives you access to the site to copy any business-related information you might need. To access the site use this URL: https://mysites.portal.domain.local/personal/xy

Pretty uncomfortable. The day before this I deleted the AD Sync Connection from SharePoint's User Profile Service Application and this caused it. The sync job ran and with no connections SP thought that all the users have been deleted.

Theoretically there should be 14 days until these profiles are deleted but for some reason I can't see past activity for the use users.

Long story short, I need to restore MySites from a backup. 

The Process

The restoring process is simpler than thought. Later I found out that I had to restore the User Profile Service Application as well, I will detail that later.

Restoring MySites from Backup 

1. Unmount the MySites Content Database

Unmount the MySites content database by going to Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Content Databases.

Select the MySites Web Application on the right



Check Remove Content Database and click OK

2. Restore the Database in SQL Server Management Studio from backup

3. Add back the content database in Central Administration

Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Content Databases.

Select the Mysites Web Application on the right

Click on Add Content Database and fill out the form

I had another issue: The profiles' data was wiped. I am referring to the content seen under the marked tabs:
This data is stored in the User Profile Service Application's databases (Profile Database and/or Social Database, not sure). So these had to be restored as well. 

Restoring the User Profile Service Application from Backup

The process is fairly simple as long as you have the SQL backups.

1. Stop the User Profile Service and User Profile Synchronization Service in Central Administration -> Manage Services on Server


2. Restore the Profile DB and Social DB from backup on the SQL Server
3. Start the User Profile Service and User Profile Synchronization Service in Central Admin.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"There's a configuration problem preventing us from getting your document. If possible, try opening this document in Microsoft Word." Office WebApp Error

Problem: When Opening a word document I get the following error when Office Web Apps tries to render the document " There's a configuration problem preventing us from getting your document. If possible, try opening this document in Microsoft Word. " Initial Hypothesis: Check the ULS logs on the Web Front End (SharePoint Server) as this doesn't tell me much.  I found the following issue in my UL S: WOPI (CheckFile) - Invalid Proof Signature for file SandPit Environment Setup.docx url: http://web-sp2013-uat.demo.dev/Docs/_vti_bin/wopi.ashx/files/6d0f38c0d5554c87a655558da9cedcad?access_token... Resolution: Run the following PS> Update-SPWOPIProofKey -ServerName "wca-uat.demo.dev" More Info: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219460.aspx
Continue Read

"We’re sorry. We ran into a problem completing your request. Please try that again in few minutes." Excel Service SharePoint

Image
This article explains about Excel related issue in our SharePoint 2013 Environment. Whenever user tries to open excel files uploaded in document library, it launches browser to open the file and then displays below error- " We’re sorry. We ran into a problem completing your request. Please try that again in few minutes." Also see below screenshot- As part of issue analysis, following checks were performed- 1.) Check if Excel Services is running. ( This was running in our case. ) Open Central Administration -> System Settings -> Manage Services on Server -> Excel Calculation Service -> Started 2.) Check if Excel Service Application is associated to Web Application in question. ( This was configured in our case. ) Open Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage Web Applications -> Select Web Application -> Select Configure Service Associations 3.) Check if Trusted File Location is configured for Excel Service...
Continue Read

Deployment error "The web.config is invalid on this IIS Web Site"

I've developed a webpart that deploys and works properly in my DEV environment. When I attempt to deploy to PROD I get the following error: SOMESERVER : http://acme.com/ : SharePoint - 41981 : Error: The web.config is invalid on this IIS Web Site: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\41981\web.config. SOMESERVER : http://acme.com/ : SharePoint - 41981 : Error: The web.config is invalid on this IIS Web Site: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\41981\web.config. SOMESERVER1 : http://acme.com/ : SharePoint - 23994 : Error: The web.config is invalid on this IIS Web Site: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\23994\web.config. None of these virtual directories exist. Any ideas how to resolve? Solution : In Central Administration-> Operation-> Services on Server, please stop the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service , SharePoint will remove the sites in IIS. And then start the Windows SharePoint Services Web Application service agai...
Continue Read