vDP 6.1 backing up Sharepoint 2013 - fails on sources

[SHKServerTeam]

Hi,

I've been following the Admin guide for vDP 6.0 and application server backups. There's one anomaly which is on page 179 at this step (step 3)

1 On the Data Type page, select Full Server and click Next.

2 On the Backup Sources page:

  a Click the arrow beside Microsoft SharePoint Servers(s) to expand the list.

  b Select the checkbox next to the SharePoint Server that you want to back up.

  c Click Next.

3 On the Backup Options page, scroll down, if necessary, to locate the SharePoint Server you have installed
as the front end:

  a In the Farm Administrator Credentials section, type the administrator Login ID and Login

password;

  b Select the Enable multi‐stream backup option to allow multiple threads of execution during the

backup. Use the slider barto select the number of streams to use, and then select Database or Volume

in the Group by menu;

  c Click Next

Firstly, in the previous step, I see the four sharepoint servers I have installed the application client on and select them accordingly. On step 3 though, I don't get an option to select the single front end server to make the backup through. I just see the space to insert my credentials.

Setup:

1 x SP web servers (application/front-end client installed)

1 x SP web server (application/back-end client installed)

2 x SP SQL servers (application/back-end client installed)

When I run the job if I just put the 1 web server with front tend client on it succeeds, but if I add the other SP servers in at step 2, I get 3/4 failures stating that backups must be done through the fornt end server only. Is this natural behaviour in 6.1? As the admin guide is for 6.0. Just wondering if I'm missing something obvious here?

[RyanJMN · Accepted solution]

In both 6.0 and 6.1 admin guide there is this statement listed before the Hardware Requirements and Supported SharePoint Servers.  I believe you are running into issues because you can only backup 1 system per farm.

"VDP supports the backup and restore of Microsoft SharePoint Servers. Only one SharePoint Server system per farm is currently supported. NOTE Restoring only the SharePoint Server Configuration or Administrator’s database can corrupt the SharePoint Server application. Therefore, if you are not restoring only content databases, you must restore the entire backup."

[SHKServerTeam]

Yes that's fine - it's just an ambiguity in the documentation then. Basically I don't get the screen to select the 'single' server to back up. I suspect this is now auto detected from the backup sources. It's just not clear. I've done a full backup of the farm now though and it appears to have worked as I can see all site and content databases. From the documentation it reads as though you select all servers designated as part of the farm and then you select the primary front end backup client. However, real world usage means I select only one backup source and vDP does the rest. Weird.