Procedure to backup/restore SharePoint 2013 site collections with Access Apps and other SharePoint Apps in the same farm - Overview

If you are working on SharePoint 2013 SharePoint Apps including Access Apps, you will be wondered how to backup and restore the site collections that have SharePoint Apps and Access Apps installed. In this blog, I will highlight the key procedure to back up site collections and recover all the site content along with SharePoint Apps, Access Apps, Security token, and Managed metadata on the site. The detailed procedure how to test the each step will be explained in separate blog.

In order to enable SharePoint store and the configuration, you would need the following services and sites.

• App Management Service -- Enables you to install SharePoint apps from the Office Marketplace or the Corporate Catalog and is required for running any Access app
• App Catalog site collections on each WebApp -- Enables you to control access to available apps for each WebApp 

In addition,  AccessServices requires a minimum of the following services:

• Access Services 2010--Enables viewing, editing, and interacting with Access Services 2010 databases in a browser. Note that as long as you have started the Access Services service, you can publish existing Access 2010 Webs apps on SharePoint Server 2013. This is not required if you do not need back compatibility.
• Access Services--Enables viewing, editing, and interacting with Access Services databases in a browser.
• Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Subscription Settings Service--This service does not appear in the list of services in the Farm Configuration Wizard; however, if you manually add services, you must make sure to start this service.
• Secure Store Service--Provides capability to store data (e.g. credential set) securely and associate it with a specific identity or group of identities. The SharePoint Secure Store Service manages authentication and authorization for Access apps. In a later step, you will create a secure store key for this service.

Out of all the services and site listed that are required for SharePoint Apps and Access Apps, only the following services relies on the database tables. Without proper procedure to backup and restore them along withe site collection,  you will find the those functions will be broken. Here is the list of the services and site that need to be backed up and restore along with the site collection.

• App Management Service - Store all SharePoint Apps and Access Apps licensed, monitored
• App Catalog - Store SharePoint Apps and Access Apps approved to be available for the Webapp
• Security Store Service - Store any security application configured for the site
• Management Metadata service - Store both global and local Management Metadata used
• Access Apps - Each Access App will have separate database to store Access App content. The content DB for the site collection will have reference to the Access App instance.

In order to recover all the artifacts including SharePoint Apps, Access Apps, Security token, and Managed metadata along with a certain site collection, here is high level procedure you could follow. I will list all the detailed procedure and testing procedure in future blogs.

1. Restore App Management Service
•  Backup SharePoint 2013 App Management Service database in SQL server
•  Restore SharePoint 2013 App Management Service database in SQL server
•  Create a new SharePoint 2013 App Management Service using the restored service database
2. Restore App Catalog site
•  Restore SharePoint 2013 App Catalog site database in SQL server
•  Mount App Catalog site to the correct WebApp
•  Register the App Catalog site with App Management Service
3. Restore Security Store Service - you do not need this is security store not used on the site
•  Backup SharePoint 2013 Security Store Service database in SQL server
•  Restore SharePoint 2013 Security Store Service database in SQL server
•  Create a new SharePoint 2013 Security Store Service using the restored service database
•  Recover existing information using the SharePoint Security Store passphrase
4. Restore Management Metadata Service
•  Backup SharePoint 2013 Management Metadata Service database in SQL server
•  Restore SharePoint 2013 Management Metadata Service database in SQL server 
•  Create a new SharePoint 2013 Management Metadata Service using the restored service database
5. Restore the site collections
• Backup SharePoint 2013 site collection database in source SQL server 
• Restore SharePoint 2013 site collection database in destination SQL server
• Change the database owner to the correct destination SQL server owner
• Mount-SPContentdatabase to the correct Webapp 
6. Restore Access Apps
• Save the each Access App from the site collection as .app file for new App
• Add the new app to the restored site collection when adding the Access app

In the next few blog, we will provide the detailed procedure how to backup and restore each of the service and procedure to test it in next blog.


Here are some good articles used in this and next blog.

Set up and configure Access Services for Access apps in SharePoint Server 2013

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj714714%28v=office.15%29.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748653%28v=office.15%29.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161236%28office.15%29.aspx

Excellent Access app configuration

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2013/07/14/access-services-2013-setup-for-an-on-premises-installation.aspx

Restore service applications in SharePoint 2013

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee428305%28v=office.15%29.aspx

Restore apps

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj871010%28v=office.15%29.aspx

Recreate app manager service

http://community.bamboosolutions.com/blogs/sharepoint-2013/archive/2014/01/01/user-s-guide-to-configuring-an-environment-for-apps-in-sharepoint-2013-part-3-how-to-configure-the-app-management-service-application.aspx

DNS entry for app management service

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fp161236%28v=office.15%29.aspx