Backup for SharePoint 6.12 - User Guide

Backup Service requirements

Install the Backup Service on every SharePoint Web front end (WFE) server and database server in the SharePoint 2013, 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition farms that you back up.

What are the hardware and software requirements for the Backup Service?

Any server that hosts the Backup Service must meet the following requirements:

·2.0 GHz or faster CPU

·2 GB or more memory. The required memory size varies, depending on the size of the SharePoint objects you back up

·50 MB free hard disk space

·Microsoft .NET framework

oVersion 4.0 for SharePoint 2013

oVersion 4.5 for SharePoint 2016

·One of the following Windows versions, either 32-bit or 64-bit:

oWindows Server 2012

oWindows Server 2012 R2

oWindows Server 2016

oWindows Server 2019

oWindows Server 2022

What are the permission requirements for the Backup Service user account?

When you install the Backup Service, you specify a user account that the Backup Service uses to access the farm.

The Backup Service account that you specify requires the following permissions to perform backups and restores:

Windows permissions

The Backup Service account must have write permissions to the installation folder on the WFE and to the folder where you store backup sets. To perform Farm Backups of SharePoint 2013, 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition farms, the Backup Service account must be a member of the local Administrators group on the server that hosts the Backup Service.

On SharePoint 2013, 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition farms, the Backup Service user account must also be able to perform Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) operations on the computer that hosts the Backup Service. Normally, members of the local Administrators group have these permissions, but they can be removed by a group policy setting. If your group policy settings make changes to the local Administrators group privileges, you should ensure that the Backup Service user has the following privileges:

·Act as part of the operating system

·Backup files and directories

·Create a token object

·Log on as a service

·Manage auditing and security log

·Restore files and directories

·Take ownership of files and other objects

SharePoint permissions

If the SQL Server is a part of the farm, the Backup Service account must be a member of the SharePoint farm administrators group.

If the farm uses a standalone SQL Server, there is no SharePoint farm administrators group on the server.

SQL Server permissions

Metalogix Backup for SharePoint needs access to all SharePoint databases to perform farm content backups.

You should manually grant these permissions for the Admin Content and SharePoint Config databases to the Backup Service user account before you install the Backup Service.

For all other databases, you can manually grant these permissions, or the Backup Service timer job can grant the permission automatically.

When it runs, the Backup Service creates a SharePoint timer job. The job is named Metalogix Backup for SharePoint Confirm Backup Service Permissions. The Backup Service queues the job immediately when it creates the job. In addition, the timer job is scheduled to run at the beginning of every hour. Depending on the state of your timer job queue, execution of the timer job may be delayed. If desired, you can use the SharePoint Central Administration page to check the job status.

The timer job assigns the db_owner role on every SharePoint database to the Backup Service user account that you specify. In addition, the timer job assigns the Full Control policy for every Web application in the farm to the Backup Service user account.

The timer job ensures that the Backup Service can access every SharePoint database to perform backups. Normal SharePoint operations, including creating a new Web application or a service application, can create new databases. If you disable the job, you must manually assign permissions for the new databases or backups can fail.

When you perform an operation that creates a new database, you can use the SharePoint 2013, 2016, 2019 or Subscription Edition timer job controls to manually start the job. You can also wait until the start of the next hour for the job to run on schedule.