About the contents of a SharePoint Server backup and a SharePoint Foundation backup

SharePoint offers metadata features including tags, social bookmarks, and content ratings. These types of metadata are stored in the service applications that reside outside of the content database. For example, content ratings reside in the Managed Metadata Service application. You can also create custom service applications and store metadata in them. You should make sure to back up all of your service applications to ensure that all metadata is protected.

Since metadata is stored outside of the content database, it cannot be restored using Granular Recovery Technology (GRT). You can, however, use GRT to restore SharePoint data with metadata attached to it. As long as the metadata resides in the same service application, SharePoint maintains the link between the two items.

Table: SharePoint Server components and SharePoint Foundation components lists the SharePoint Server farm or the SharePoint Foundation components that you can protect with NetBackup for SharePoint.