Server Meltdown

So, the worst has happened and a production server with Sharepoint Portal has
gone down. This is not a project that I am involved with and have very
little knowledge of the site but have been asked to help restore the system.
As it stands, I know we have the following information in backup:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60
folder with all the SPS information

A stsadmin backup from the month of May.

Custom web parts

We lost the AD that was on the machine and held the users and at the moment,
it looks like the SQL Server is gone as well. I am looking into the
posibility that someone did a manual backup of the SQL Server at some point
but I am running under the assumption that the above is all we have. What is
going to be the proceedure to follow to get he system back? Steps by steps
to follow would be helpful as I will have to hand this off to other team
members.

Thanks!

Shane
Wed Jun 29 11:54:41 CDT 2005

How did you have so much die at once? I think you have bigger problems than
a simple newsgroup posting can help you with. If you have specific
questions we can try but you have a lot of broken pieces right now.

Sorry

--
Shane Young
http://www.lucruminc.com

Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html


"Marc" <Marc@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:89F4B316-A42C-42E9-A604-77373EC834D3@microsoft.com...
> So, the worst has happened and a production server with Sharepoint Portal
> has
> gone down. This is not a project that I am involved with and have very
> little knowledge of the site but have been asked to help restore the
> system.
> As it stands, I know we have the following information in backup:
>
> C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60
> folder with all the SPS information
>
> A stsadmin backup from the month of May.
>
> Custom web parts
>
> We lost the AD that was on the machine and held the users and at the
> moment,
> it looks like the SQL Server is gone as well. I am looking into the
> posibility that someone did a manual backup of the SQL Server at some
> point
> but I am running under the assumption that the above is all we have. What
> is
> going to be the proceedure to follow to get he system back? Steps by
> steps
> to follow would be helpful as I will have to hand this off to other team
> members.
>
> Thanks!

Marc
Wed Jun 29 12:22:03 CDT 2005

Yeah...this is a bad deal. Stems from bad management and no backups going on
for the production machine. Basically, this system had the AD, SPS and SQL
Server host on one box (yes, I said that was a bad idea!) and on top of that
on one harddrive that was partitioned to c: and d: When the drive failed,
then the whole thing went up in flames. I am just trying to find what pieces
are left over and where that puts me in terms of recovery.

I have a feeling that im going to need a bigger boat!

One thing that is really worrying me is the AD. Does SPS tie its users to
AD via GUID? We may be looking at a situation were we have to recreate the
users in AD and they will not match up with the users in SPS via GUID.

"Shane Young" wrote:

> How did you have so much die at once? I think you have bigger problems than
> a simple newsgroup posting can help you with. If you have specific
> questions we can try but you have a lot of broken pieces right now.
>
> Sorry
>
> --
> Shane Young
> http://www.lucruminc.com
>
> Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
> http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html
>
>
> "Marc" <Marc@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:89F4B316-A42C-42E9-A604-77373EC834D3@microsoft.com...
> > So, the worst has happened and a production server with Sharepoint Portal
> > has
> > gone down. This is not a project that I am involved with and have very
> > little knowledge of the site but have been asked to help restore the
> > system.
> > As it stands, I know we have the following information in backup:
> >
> > C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\60
> > folder with all the SPS information
> >
> > A stsadmin backup from the month of May.
> >
> > Custom web parts
> >
> > We lost the AD that was on the machine and held the users and at the
> > moment,
> > it looks like the SQL Server is gone as well. I am looking into the
> > posibility that someone did a manual backup of the SQL Server at some
> > point
> > but I am running under the assumption that the above is all we have. What
> > is
> > going to be the proceedure to follow to get he system back? Steps by
> > steps
> > to follow would be helpful as I will have to hand this off to other team
> > members.
> >
> > Thanks!
>
>
>

Steven
Wed Jun 29 12:26:05 CDT 2005

The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had a
hard drive failure.

For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
STSAdm back up made back in may.

My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)

Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
liklihood of restoring this Portal site?

If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed, along
with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
bring up and rebuild a Portal site?

Steven
Wed Jun 29 12:27:03 CDT 2005

The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had a
hard drive failure.

For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
STSAdm back up made back in may.

My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)

Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
liklihood of restoring this Portal site?

If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed, along
with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
bring up and rebuild a Portal site?

Shane
Wed Jun 29 12:59:46 CDT 2005

The AD piece is my biggest concern. If you have the DB's from SharePoint I
can help you get back all of the content no problem. I am just betting that
you have to recreate AD. If that is the case you will then have to go back
to SharePoint and set all of your users up again. If you did everything
with AD group and SPS sitegroups shouldn't be too horrible. If you used
individual permissions then that is another fun structure to redo. :)

Is the hard drive physical broke or just blue screening/not booting into
windows?

--
Shane Young
http://www.lucruminc.com

Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html


"Steven" <Steven@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9415CF0F-906D-4DB5-B8FD-8C531083A634@microsoft.com...
> The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had
> a
> hard drive failure.
>
> For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
> STSAdm back up made back in may.
>
> My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
> posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)
>
> Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
> usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
> liklihood of restoring this Portal site?
>
> If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed,
> along
> with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
> bring up and rebuild a Portal site?

Marc
Wed Jun 29 13:18:01 CDT 2005

We are currently scanning the drive for recoverable data. When we get the
good/bad news then a follow up post will show up.

Thanks for the offer of help!

"Shane Young" wrote:

> The AD piece is my biggest concern. If you have the DB's from SharePoint I
> can help you get back all of the content no problem. I am just betting that
> you have to recreate AD. If that is the case you will then have to go back
> to SharePoint and set all of your users up again. If you did everything
> with AD group and SPS sitegroups shouldn't be too horrible. If you used
> individual permissions then that is another fun structure to redo. :)
>
> Is the hard drive physical broke or just blue screening/not booting into
> windows?
>
> --
> Shane Young
> http://www.lucruminc.com
>
> Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
> http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html
>
>
> "Steven" <Steven@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9415CF0F-906D-4DB5-B8FD-8C531083A634@microsoft.com...
> > The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had
> > a
> > hard drive failure.
> >
> > For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
> > STSAdm back up made back in may.
> >
> > My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
> > posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)
> >
> > Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
> > usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
> > liklihood of restoring this Portal site?
> >
> > If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed,
> > along
> > with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
> > bring up and rebuild a Portal site?
>
>
>

Steven
Wed Jun 29 13:22:04 CDT 2005

MBR Corruption on the hard disk. No appearant physical damage.


"Marc" wrote:

> We are currently scanning the drive for recoverable data. When we get the
> good/bad news then a follow up post will show up.
>
> Thanks for the offer of help!
>
> "Shane Young" wrote:
>
> > The AD piece is my biggest concern. If you have the DB's from SharePoint I
> > can help you get back all of the content no problem. I am just betting that
> > you have to recreate AD. If that is the case you will then have to go back
> > to SharePoint and set all of your users up again. If you did everything
> > with AD group and SPS sitegroups shouldn't be too horrible. If you used
> > individual permissions then that is another fun structure to redo. :)
> >
> > Is the hard drive physical broke or just blue screening/not booting into
> > windows?
> >
> > --
> > Shane Young
> > http://www.lucruminc.com
> >
> > Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
> > http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html
> >
> >
> > "Steven" <Steven@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:9415CF0F-906D-4DB5-B8FD-8C531083A634@microsoft.com...
> > > The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had
> > > a
> > > hard drive failure.
> > >
> > > For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
> > > STSAdm back up made back in may.
> > >
> > > My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
> > > posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)
> > >
> > > Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
> > > usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
> > > liklihood of restoring this Portal site?
> > >
> > > If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed,
> > > along
> > > with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
> > > bring up and rebuild a Portal site?
> >
> >
> >

Shane
Wed Jun 29 13:50:50 CDT 2005

I haven't played with hardware in a while but can't you just rebuild the
MBR?

--
Shane Young
http://www.lucruminc.com

Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html


"Steven" <Steven@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5C6AA7A8-C399-4394-9B6B-3B80B5CD6B4A@microsoft.com...
> MBR Corruption on the hard disk. No appearant physical damage.
>
>
> "Marc" wrote:
>
>> We are currently scanning the drive for recoverable data. When we get
>> the
>> good/bad news then a follow up post will show up.
>>
>> Thanks for the offer of help!
>>
>> "Shane Young" wrote:
>>
>> > The AD piece is my biggest concern. If you have the DB's from
>> > SharePoint I
>> > can help you get back all of the content no problem. I am just betting
>> > that
>> > you have to recreate AD. If that is the case you will then have to go
>> > back
>> > to SharePoint and set all of your users up again. If you did
>> > everything
>> > with AD group and SPS sitegroups shouldn't be too horrible. If you
>> > used
>> > individual permissions then that is another fun structure to redo. :)
>> >
>> > Is the hard drive physical broke or just blue screening/not booting
>> > into
>> > windows?
>> >
>> > --
>> > Shane Young
>> > http://www.lucruminc.com
>> >
>> > Writing SharePoint training classes is fun!
>> > http://www.sharepointsolutions.com/advinfrastructure.html
>> >
>> >
>> > "Steven" <Steven@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> > news:9415CF0F-906D-4DB5-B8FD-8C531083A634@microsoft.com...
>> > > The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually,
>> > > Rackspace, had
>> > > a
>> > > hard drive failure.
>> > >
>> > > For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond
>> > > a
>> > > STSAdm back up made back in may.
>> > >
>> > > My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
>> > > posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)
>> > >
>> > > Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data
>> > > is
>> > > usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as
>> > > to the
>> > > liklihood of restoring this Portal site?
>> > >
>> > > If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed,
>> > > along
>> > > with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data
>> > > to
>> > > bring up and rebuild a Portal site?
>> >
>> >
>> >

Nick
Wed Jun 29 16:40:38 CDT 2005

Did the computers actually catch on fire? I have never seen that!
well I have once before back when I was taking intro to hardware and
the only 2 girls in our class plugged the cd audio wire into the
motherboard instead of the sound card.

Andy
Wed Jun 29 17:21:39 CDT 2005

yeah, you need to get your ad back before you worry about anything
else.. in fact i thought sharepoint wouldnt even install on a PDC!

-without the domain it was installed into, getting sharepoint back to
"the way it was" is imho impossible.

SO, if you cant get it back and you can restore the databases you can
at least get the meat back out of it (xxx_SITE.docs.content in the db).
maybe you could get the db files off the drive and simply attach them?



did the hard drive fail? cough up lots of money and send it to Ontrack
(they are miracle workers), you might be able to get the whole thing
back ($$).

my 2c..

good luck, to some extent, we have all been there ;)

UKDeluded
Thu Jun 30 07:07:02 CDT 2005

Going back to your MRB question.

If you boot from the install CD you should have the option to repair an
existing OS. Click R and it will take you to a command prompt where you have
to choose the location of the Windows directory (it will prompt what is
available), put in your local admin password, and then type 'fixmbr'.
This should get your HD up and running again. You may also need to do a
'fixboot' command.

I lose sleep about backups which do work ... no backup at all?!?

"Steven" wrote:

> The premise here is that we had a drive failure. Actually, Rackspace, had a
> hard drive failure.
>
> For all intents and purposes we have NO back up what so ever, beyond a
> STSAdm back up made back in may.
>
> My specific question is this: We have the physical hard drive in our
> posession now; rackspace shipped it overnight. (Maxtor 200gb drive)
>
> Provided we figure out a way to extract relevant data, and that data is
> usable (readable, in tact etc) can anyone give me a general idea as to the
> liklihood of restoring this Portal site?
>
> If you had a perfectly good hard drive that has SharePoint installed, along
> with the DBs (config, content etc) would you be able to use that data to
> bring up and rebuild a Portal site?

Marc
Thu Jun 30 10:28:04 CDT 2005

It looks like we were able to get the sql server files back. The AD is toast
and will need to be recreated.

So, with the database should we restore all of the database back to the
server and then reinstall SPS. At install we will be able to attach to the
existing db tables correct?

From there we will have to recover our customizations and then deal with
hooking the users from SPS back into the newly created AD tree.

Thanks for the help and the sympathy!

"Andy L" wrote:

> yeah, you need to get your ad back before you worry about anything
> else.. in fact i thought sharepoint wouldnt even install on a PDC!
>
> -without the domain it was installed into, getting sharepoint back to
> "the way it was" is imho impossible.
>
> SO, if you cant get it back and you can restore the databases you can
> at least get the meat back out of it (xxx_SITE.docs.content in the db).
> maybe you could get the db files off the drive and simply attach them?
>
>
>
> did the hard drive fail? cough up lots of money and send it to Ontrack
> (they are miracle workers), you might be able to get the whole thing
> back ($$).
>
> my 2c..
>
> good luck, to some extent, we have all been there ;)
>
>

Andy
Fri Jul 08 23:43:37 CDT 2005

yes. start over with portal.. get your content out and put it in a
safe place.. that should be easy, just attach the database and use
sharepoint database explorer. you only need to restore the xxx_site
database to get your data back. at least if you unghosted you can
textcopy that stuff out(requires SQL auth and cmd line), i think all
the GUI's filter that out of the docs table. if you have hard-edited
some files, maybe you can re-implement them, take a look in c:\program
files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extentions\60\*

good luck.

without a portal backup, and only the newsgroups to help, im afraid you
gonna be doing some overtime :(