When I discuss disaster recovery, I
am really talking about minimizing loss of user data and access to that
user data. Loss of actual data (documents, files, web page content,
data in a database or line of business system, and so on) is a
disaster, and we strive to avoid it in any trustworthy data management
system, but loss of access to data because of downtime of the
management system is almost as bad. In today’s connected world, users
rely on the uptime of data management systems—like SharePoint—and trust
that these systems maintain the integrity of their content.
Fortunately, SharePoint provides a number of approaches to maintaining
content/data integrity.
SharePoint stores all content of your site in a
content database. SharePoint content databases may contain one or many
site collections, associated with a web application. One site
collection may not span multiple content databases, which is
important to note because backing up your content databases ensures
complete recovery of your site collection.
Database backup is good in a disaster scenario.
What if a user loses a single document from a document library and
wants to recover it? A complete database restore would be overkill, not
to mention considerable work in restoring the database to a separate
location to retrieve the file. As administrators, we know users tend to
lose files all the time. Fortunately, SharePoint includes features to
retain content and data integrity without the need for complete
database restore after small losses.
The Recycle Bin
Since SharePoint 2007 (WSS 3), the Recycle
Bin has provided a mechanism for users to retrieve deleted lists and
list items—this includes documents and document libraries. Users can
find the Recycle Bin on the top right of the Site Contents page (see Figure 1).
In addition to lists and libraries, since SharePoint 2010 Service Pack
1, SharePoint allows administrators to recover deleted sites.
The Recycle Bin works in two stages, as described in Table 1, and scopes to the web application level. Different web applications may have different configurations for their Recycle Bin.
Table 1 . Recycle Bin Stages
| Stage one |
Site |
The stage one Recycle Bin is available to users with Contribute,
Design, or Full Control permissions. Items and lists deleted at the
site level reside in the stage one Recycle Bin until a time (defined by
the administrator in Central Administration—typically 30 days) when the
content moves to the stage two Recycle Bin. Content in the stage one
Recycle Bin counts toward user storage quota.
|
| Stage two |
Site Collection |
The stage two Recycle Bin lives at the site collection level and is
populated from stage one Recycle Bin content by a timer service. Only a
site collection administrator may restore content from a stage two
Recycle Bin, and content resides in this Recycle Bin for a time or
until the Recycle Bin reaches a size, both specified by an
administrator in Central Administration, before SharePoint deletes the
oldest items. In addition to lists and list items, populated from the
stage one Recycle Bin, the stage two Recycle Bin contains deleted sites.
The
size of the stage two Recycle Bin is a percentage of the quota
allocated to the entire site collection. Items in the stage two Recycle
Bin do not count toward user storage quota, but they do eat up space in
the overall site collection quota. |
The following steps demonstrate how
administrators may configure the Recycle Bin from Central
Administration, to allow different item expiration times.
- Open Central Administration.
- Click the Manage Web Applications link under the Application Management heading.
- Select the desired web application.
- Click the General Settings icon on the ribbon.
- Scroll to the Recycle Bin section (see Figure 2).
The following steps demonstrate working with the stage one and stage two Recycle Bins:
- Navigate to a SharePoint site with at least contributor permissions.
- Navigate to the All Site Contents page.
- Click the Recycle Bin link.
- Figure 3 shows my stage one Recycle Bin for my root site.
- Check the boxes next to the items you wish to restore to original
location before deletion, or to delete, and send to the stage two
Recycle Bin.
Note The root site collection Recycle Bin is not the stage two Recycle Bin; the root site also has a stage one Recycle Bin.
Items in the stage one Recycle Bin remain there until you either delete them or the time elapses (see Figure 2)
and SharePoint moves the items to the stage two recycle bin. Once they
are in the stage two Recycle Bin, you can view these deleted items, as
follows:
- Navigate to the root site of the site collection.
- Clear the gear icon and select the Site Settings menu option.
- Click the Recycle Bin link under the Site Collection Administration heading.
- Click the link in the left navigation to show items deleted from the end user Recycle Bin.
- Figure 4 shows the site collection stage two Recycle Bin page.
You might be wondering about the difference
between the views for the End User Recycle Bin items and Deleted from
End User Recycle Bin. As I demonstrated previously, the link for
Deleted from End User Recycle Bin shows all items moved from stage one
Recycle Bins in subsites to the stage two Recycle Bin in the site
collection. The link for End User Recycle Bin shows all items that
currently reside in stage one Recycle Bins across the site collection
hierarchy.
In similar fashion to the stage one Recycle
Bin, you can delete items from the stage two Recycle Bin by selecting
items in the Deleted from End User Recycle Bin page and clicking the
link to delete selection.
Note You cannot recover any item deleted from the stage two Recycle Bin.
