Squadron - Backup & Restore Permissions

Squadron is a Free SharePoint Administration tool available at www.sharepointcto.com.

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What is Backup & Restore Permissions Add-in?

This is a new add-in in SharePoint that allows backing up existing permissions in SharePoint securable object & restoring it elsewhere.

The following are the levels of backup possible:

  • Web Application
  • Site Collection
  • Site
  • List
  • Item

Squadron also provides URL based filtering for backing up permissions. This will enable speed, context & reduce the size of the backup data.

What is contained in Permissions?

The following are the content of a Permission:

  1. Title
  2. URL
  3. User/Group Name
  4. Members in Group
  5. Owner if Group
  6. Role Assigned

How to perform Backup?

Please use the following procedure to perform a backup:

Step 1 : Execute Squadron

Execute Squadron from "Start Menu" - "SharePointCTO" folder. In the screen that appears use the URL.

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Step 2 : Click Permissions

From the left pane, click the Permissions item.

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Step 3 : Click Backup

Click on the Backup button in the appearing screen. You will get the following wizard.

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Step 4 : Check the Items

Expand the Web Application root item & check the items to be backed up. You can right-click & choose the "Check All" command to check the sub-items.

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You can also use the "Filter By URL" on the bottom to filter by URL.

Click the "Next" button to continue.

Step 5 : View Permissions

In the next page you will see the Iterated Permissions as in the following:

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The first column shows the Title of the Site / List / Item. The Type is displayed in the second column. The URL column is the key-column that will be used to identify the item uniquely.

The PermissionType column displays whether the permission is Unique or Inherited. The remaining rows contain the SharePoint Group / Domain User along with the role assignment.

The Role Assignment can be Full Control, Contribute, Read or Custom Level.

Click the "Next" button to save the file.

Step 6 : Choose File

In the next page, choose the file name for saving the backup.

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Step 7 : Final Page

On clicking "Next" button you will see the last page that displays a summary of the export.

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It displays the number of web items, list items and, library items along with unique/inherit permission types.

Click the "Finish" button to close the wizard.

Now we have successfully performed the Backup operation.

The file generated is in Microsoft Excel format & you may edit it for further optimizations. Please ensure the format of columns is retained while editing.

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You can right-click on the initial page to see the Expand All / Check All / Uncheck All options. This will aid quick selection of items.

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How to perform a restore?

In the Restore Wizard, we are using a previous backup file to restore in a UAT/Production system. Click the "Restore" button from the Permissions Add-in.

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You need to select the backup file in the next page.

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The next page displays the file contents, as in the following:

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In the next page choose the URL of the site to perform the backup.

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Please note that the URL column of the backup file will be used to match the target items.

Please note that this feature is only available for SharePoint 2010.

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On clicking "Next" you will see the matching objects. A match is performed through URL & Type.

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You can verify the Source Objects in the file & the Destination Objects in the destination Site URL specified.

On clicking "Next" you will see the Confirm prompt.

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Click the "Yes" button to continue.

The restore operation will be performed & you will see the result as in the following:

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This concludes our Restore Operation.

References

Permissions & Permission Levels http://bit.ly/YoKoX8

Summary

In this article we have explored the new feature in Squadron 2010. I believe this feature will be useful in backing up existing permissions before applying new ones. The Backup & Restore can be applied combined in scenarios of UAT Backup & Production Restore OR vice-versa.