Planning for Backup and Restore

This post details the critical aspects of creating a backup and restore plan for Team Foundation Server deployments. It outlines the data sources requiring backup, including relational databases (work items, source code, build results, reports), OLAP databases, ADAM files for group membership, and project portal data stored in Windows SharePoint Services. It emphasizes the need to shut down IIS and specific services during backup operations. The post also covers key considerations for planning, such as the scope of backups, responsibility assignment, backup storage and retrieval strategies, selection of backup software, and the crucial step of testing backup integrity through trial restorations. It provides scenarios for data-only and server recovery for single and dual-server deployments, and details what to back up for each tier (data and application). Advanced preparation includes recording deployment details and maintaining offsite copies of backups. It also discusses media management for backup sets.