Professional Microsoft® SharePoint® Designer 2007

18.2. Backup Plans

"Save early, save often" has been a computing mantra ever since the first computer program stored information in memory. Even with the resilience of a server farm architecture, clustered database servers, and redundant disks, accidents happen. And when they do, there is no substitute for the comfort of having a complete, current backup.

18.2.1. Backing Up through SharePoint Designer

SharePoint Designer provides backup and restore options via Site Administration. These can be used both for standard file-based web sites and for SharePoint sites. Non-SharePoint sites can also be backed up by using the SharePoint Designer publishing feature to copy them to the file system or to a different server.

18.2.1.1. SharePoint Designer Backup

Backing up a site through SharePoint Designer is a simple process. It uses the SharePoint Server Content Migration API to package the site content into a file called a Content Migration Package (CMP), which is then downloaded onto the PC on which SharePoint Designer is running.

The Content Migration API is a large interface, used by many parts of SharePoint for various purposes. You may wish to consult the SharePoint SDK to learn more about its many facets.

When you select Site Administration Backup Web Site, the dialog shown in ...