Restore SharePoint/OneDrive/Teams Sites and data
With Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection, you can restore various components, including site collections, sub-sites, lists, folders, items, and different versions of items. These components can be restored to either the original location or an alternative location.
See Supported and unsupported SharePoint Objects, Properties, Settings, and Types for backup and restore.
Customizations restore:
Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection restores customizations made within site collections, sub-sites, list settings, columns, and content types, ensuring that your unique configurations are preserved.
Permissions restore:
Permissions associated with the restored components are also reinstated, maintaining access controls and security settings.
Auto-creation of structure:
If a sub-site or list is missing at the destination for the restore, the structure of the missing sub-site or list will be created automatically, allowing data to be restored within it.
Site collection restore:
You can restore an entire site collection to a new URL if needed, which is particularly useful for migrating or recovering data to a different location.
Download option:
Additionally, you can download the items to the required location for easy access and management. See Downloading an item.
When you start the recovery process for a specific backup, the item you selected and the associated child objects, including their configurations and metadata, are restored.
If the objects being restored, such as sites, sub-sites, lists, and files, are not currently available, Cohesity Alta SaaS Protection generates them again during restore.
If sites, sub-sites, lists, and files, are not available, they are generated during restore.
To determine the existence of these objects, their names are verified. For example, the names of sites, sub-sites, lists, and files are matched to see if they exist. Site collections are verified for their existence using the site collection URL.
The following table outlines the restore behavior for each restore location and its corresponding backup component.
The restore process for Site Collections, Sites, and Lists is designed to proceed even if an error occurs. Therefore, you should continue with the restore process even if an error is occurred while restore.
Table: Supported restore locations
Backup component | Supported restore locations |
|---|---|
Folders/Items |
|
List |
|
Sub-site |
|
Site Collection | Site Collection availability:
Restore limitations:
Restore failures:
Administration portal restores:
End-User portal restores:
|
The restrictions of restore the SharePoint Online data and sites are described in the following table.
Table:
Restrictions of restore | Description |
|---|---|
The parent site availability requirement. | If you select an individual item, folder, list, or sub-site for restore from a backup, the destination parent site collection and sub-site must be available. To restore an individual item, folder, list, or sub-site from a backup, you must ensure that the destination parent site collection and sub-site are already available. |
The template type matching requirement. | To initiate the restore process for an object and its child objects, the source and the destination template types for lists, sub-sites, or site collections must match. For sites or sub-sites, you have the option to selectively choose individual child objects for restore. |
The System lists restoration. | To recreate system lists from scratch, SharePoint restores site collections or sub-sites. If you need to restore a missing system list individually, it should already exist at the destination. |
The column matching requirement. | To restore a list or site, the destination list or site must not have a column with the same ID or name but a different column type. |
The Teams Wiki lists creation requirements. | To automatically recreate missing Teams Wiki lists, you must manually create a blank Teams Wiki list within Teams, and then restore the data to it. |
The Role assignment behavior. | To assign permissions to existing roles for existing Microsoft Infra ID users and groups or SharePoint groups, when restoring role assignments at a destination other than the site level. |
The existing list or site title. | To prevent a change in the title of a list or site that already exists at the destination. |
- Access the Administration portal.
- On the left, click Content.
- On the Content page, do the following:
From the upper-left dropdown list, select the Stor that hold the data that you want to restore.
From the dropdown list next to the selected Stor, do any of the following:
To display all data in the selected Stor, select All content.
To view specific data within the Discovery cases, select the required Discovery case.
The names of the connectors are displayed on the left pane. You can enter the name of a connector in the Filter by name field to search for a specific connector.
On the left pane, click the connector.
On the right pane, do any of the following:
If you select...
Restore behavior
Site collection
A site collection along with any customizations and its child items is restored.
Destination options
The site collection can be restored to the same or a different site collection.
Auto-creation
If the site collection is not available at the specified URL, it will be recreated from scratch.
Restore limitations
Site collections cannot be restored as sub-sites of other destination sites.
A site collection with the same URL should not be present in the Recycle bin before initiating the restore.
Restore failures
If the restore process fails, recover the site collection from the Recycle bin, delete it, and then attempt the restore again.
Restores through the Administration portal:
Site creation and updates to a few site-level properties are only supported through the Administration portal.
Restores through the End-User portal
Restores performed through the End-User portal can create sub-sites and lists within a site.
Sub-site
A sub-site, along with all customizations and nested objects, can be fully restored.
Destination options
The sub-site can be restored to the same or a different site collection.
The parent site or sub-site needs to be selected at the destination.
Auto-creation
If there is no existing sub-site with the same name at the destination, the restore process will create a new sub-site.
If a sub-site with the same name already exists, the restored sub-site will merge with the existing one.
Restore limitations
A sub-site from the source can only be restored as a sub-site of the destination selection.
Sub-sites cannot be restored as independent site collections.
List
A List along with its customizations and child objects is restored.
Destination options
A list, along with its customizations and child objects, can be restored to the same or a different site collection.
If an existing list at the destination is selected, the restore process merges the columns into the destination list.
Auto-creation
If a list is not available at the destination, the parent site or sub-site needs to be selected, and the list will be recreated.
Folder or item
A specific folder or item, including its versions and associated metadata, can be restored to the same or a different site collection.
Destination option
If an existing parent list is selected at the destination, the columns are merged into the destination list, and the selected items are restored.
Auto-creation
If the parent list is absent at the destination, the parent site or sub-site must be selected to recreate the parent list. After the list is recreated, the selected items are restored.
If a folder is selected at the destination, the item is restored under that folder.
Click Restore.
- On the Restore page, do the following:
From the Restore type dropdown list, select SharePoint/OneDrive.
From the Destination dropdown list, select the Export service that is configured for your tenant.
For more details, contact Cohesity Support.
The destination site is populated in the Site collection URL field based on the item you selected for restore. Alternatively, you can enter the required URL if you want to restore it to an alternate location.
Important: To perform a restore using the End-User portal, the end user must be the Primary Admin of the site selected as the destination site for the restore.
For a successful restore of SharePoint/OneDrive items to their original source location, the web templates for both the source and destination must be the same.
Click Browse and then select the location for restore.
Configure the following SharePoint settings:
Settings
Description
Restore all versions
This option determines which versions of items are restored from the backup.
If selected: All versions of items are restored.
If cleared: Only the latest version of items is restored.
For example, if you have a library in SharePoint Online that contains a file called example.docx. Over time, the user has made several changes to the file, and each change has created a new version. The version history of the file will look like this: Version 1: Initial upload, version 2: Edited by John, version 3: Edited by Jane, and version 4.
You performed a backup of the document library.
When you restore the document library from the backup and select this check box, all four versions of example.docx will be restored: version 1, version 2, version 3, and version 4. If you clear this check box, only the latest version that is version 4 will be restored.
Reset the 'last modified time' of restored files to the time of restore.
Selecting this check box will reset the 'last modified time' of the last restored version of files to the time of restore. Note that this option is only supported for Document and Page libraries. This change will affect policies based on the 'last modified time' configured in the connector.
For example, if this check box is selected and a policy is in place to stub files based on the 'last modified date', the 'last modified time' of restored files will be updated to the restore time. This may result in delays in stubbing these files. If you choose not to select this check box, the 'last modified date' will remain unchanged and reflect the backed-up content, preventing delays in stubbing the files.
Overwrite settings, columns, content types for site collections, sites, and lists
This option determines how settings, columns, and content types are restored.
If selected: The restore operation overwrites the existing settings, columns, and content types for an existing site or list with those from the backup.
If cleared: The restore operation only restores missing settings, columns, and content types without affecting the existing ones.
Example:
Suppose you have a SharePoint Online site collection with a custom list named Project Tasks. Over time, you have added custom columns like Priority and Status, and you have also created a custom content type called Project Milestone.
You performed a backup of the site collection.
If you restore the site collection and select this check box, the existing custom columns (Priority and Status) and content types (Project Milestone) in the Project Tasks list will be overwritten with the versions from the backup.
If you clear this check box, only any missing columns or content types will be restored. The existing Priority and Status columns, as well as the Project Milestone content type, will remain unchanged.
By default, this check box is not selected.
Restore permissions
This option determines whether permissions should be restored during the restoration process.
If selected:
Permissions are restored only on SharePoint/OneDrive sites, lists, folders, and the items that are newly created during the restore process.
Role definitions and site administrators are restored for the root site if it is created during the restore.
SharePoint Groups are restored on any sites and sub-sites that are created during the restore process.
Role assignments are restored for sites, sub-sites, lists, folders, and items, except for stubs.
If cleared:
Permissions are not restored.
All objects inherit permissions from their parent.
Site administrators are not restored.
The site is created with default permission objects.
By default, this check box is not selected.
Suppress 'Removed from source' content
This option determines whether to restore the content that is removed from the source.
If selected: Content that was deleted from the source will not be restored. This setting is enabled by default.
If you need to change this configuration, contact the Cohesity Support team.
If any data gets deleted from the source SharePoint, after backup, it gets marked as 'Removed from the source' at the next backup. However, during the restore, the marked data can cause some issues. Hence, you can select this check box to skip the restore of such data.
Exclude Destination System Lists
This option determines whether system lists should be excluded from the restore process.
When restoring system lists, like the Master page, theme gallery, and taxonomy hidden lists, and so on, an Access denied error can occur if the destination site requires the Add and Customize Pages permission.
If selected: Items from hidden lists or catalogs (except the Teams wiki list) are excluded from the restore operation. Any skipped items are recorded in the diagnostic logs.
If a system list or a folder within a system list is chosen as the destination and this check box is selected, the restore operation will fail with an error, indicating that restoration to the selected system list is not allowed.
If cleared: The system lists, such as the Master page gallery and theme gallery, will be included in the restore operation.
Restore only stubbed items
This option determines whether only stubbed items should be restored during the restore process.
If selected: Only the items that are stubbed are restored. No site/list/folder, settings or metadata will be restored.
Note:
Stubbed items are placeholders for the original content that has been offloaded or archived.
The stubbed item must be available at the original location during the restore.
Stub restore behavior
When a stub is rehydrated to restore, the name and permission of the original file are preserved.
It differs from cases where a missing document is restored or replaced with permission restoration, where sharing links are neither retained nor restored.
Overwrite items
If you choose the Overwrite items check box, you need to select one of the following restore behaviors:
Recycle existing items before restoring: This option removes the existing items and replaces them with a file from the backup.
Restore to existing item (recycle existing versions): This option retains the existing items. File versions restored from the backup copy are maintained.
Restore to existing item (keep existing versions): This option retains the existing items. Both file versions at the destination and those restored from the backup copy are maintained.
Restore all, Point-in-time, Specific range
See Configure Restore all, Restore all versions, Point-in-time, and Specific range restore options.
Send notification to
Enter the email addresses of the users to send a notification on restore completion. Use a semicolon to add multiple email addresses. After all the configurations are completed, click Restore.
- Navigate to the destination location to confirm that the restore has happened successfully.
You can go to the Restore dashboard to see the status of the restore.
: If an error occurs while restoring the settings of a Site, SubSite, or List, the restore job does not fail; it will log the error and continue to restore the remaining items.