Daily and Weekly SharePoint 2010 Site Collection backup using Powershell

Backup instructions for Site Collection, read TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748617(office.14).aspx
I want to backup the site collection daily and keep a backup of every week of the year. I created a Powershell script and scheduled the script.

The Powershell script does the following:

• checks if SharePoint Powershell Snapin is loaded;
• checks if backup location exists;
• backups the site collection;
• copies the daily backup to the weekly if necassary;
  

The ‘Backup Site Collection.ps1’ code:

"-------------------------------------"
"Yellow & Red SharePoint Backup script"
"-------------------------------------"
"- One daily backup"
"- And weekly backup"
#Backup location
$backupLocation = "\\XXX\d$\_backups\XXX\"
#Site collection location
$sitecollection = "http://XXX"
#daily filename
$dailybackupfile = Join-Path -Path $backupLocation -ChildPath "backup_yarintranet_daily.bak"
#weekly filename (using uformat as format doesn't have week option)
$weeklybackupfile = Join-Path -Path $backupLocation -ChildPath ("backup_yarintranet_" + (Get-Date -UFormat %Y%W) + ".bak")
# check to ensure Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell is loaded
$snapin = Get-PSSnapin | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq 'Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell'}
if ($snapin -eq $null) {
    Write-Host "Loading SharePoint Powershell Snapin"
    Add-PSSnapin "Microsoft.SharePoint.Powershell"
}
if(!(test-path $backupLocation -PathType Container))
{
    "Backup location (" + $backupLocation + ") not found."
    break
}
"Starting backup process"
Backup-SPSite -Identity $sitecollection -Path $dailybackupfile -Force
"Finshed backup process"
"Copy daily backup to weekly if necessary"
if((test-path $weeklybackupfile -PathType Leaf))
{
    "Weekly backup file found, so no backup will be made"
    break
}
copy $dailybackupfile $weeklybackupfile -Force
"Finished"

 

Schedule the a task using the Windows 2008 scheduler.

Make sure that:

• you set the correct Identity that has access to the backup location;
• task runs even when user is not logged in;
• Set interval of script execution in ‘Trigger’ tab;

 

In ‘Action’ Tab set the execution of the Powershell script:

• Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
• Arguments: -file "<full path location to your Site Collection backup Powershell script>" (exclude the <, include the ")

And as always, make sure you test your backup. Otherwise you’ll have a very bad day when disaster strikes.