I post this article in response of one of my colleague's problem . Suppose that you delete by accident the dbs of the SSP (Shared Service Provider) and you have to restore it afterwards.
Back up Your SSP
Before restoring it, the first thing to know is how to backup it. :)
Back up using the user interface
1. Go to the operations page in the Central Administration, in the Backup and Restore Section, Click Perform a backup.
2. Select the SSP you want to backup. Click to Continue to Backup Options.
3. On the Backup Options page:
o Verify if your SSP is present.
o The type of backup needs to be Full.
o Select the UNC path of the backup folder.
4. Click OK.
If you go to the status page you will see the status of your backup. It refreshes every 30 seconds.
Back up using the SSP using the command line
Execute this command :
stsadm -o backup -directory SERVER\FOLDER_NAME -backupmethod full -item SSP_NAME
If you have a warning or an error you will find information in your log file spbackup.log in the folder you specified.
Back up the SSP using the SQL Server
1. Go to the SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your database server.
2. Expand Databases in the Object Explorer.
3. Right click on the SSP database, go to Tasks, then click Back Up.
4. Select the full Backup Type.
5. Select the Database option.
6. Type the name and the description of the backup.
7. Set when it will expire.
8. Specify the location to store the backup.
9. Click OK.
Restore Your SSP
Now that you know how to back up your SSP, here the way to restore it.
Restore the SSP using the user interface
1. Go to the operations page in the Central Administration, in the Backup and Restore Section, click Restore from Backup.
2. Enter the UNC path to the backup folder in the Backup File Location section.
3. Select the backup file that you want to restore, click Continue Restore Process.
4. Select the SSP you want to restore, Click Continue Restore Process.
5. On the Restore Option page :
o Verify if you select the good SSP.
o Select Same configuration in the Restore Options and accept the warning message.
o Verify the names and URLs.
6. Click OK.
Restore the SSP using the command line
1. Catch the GUID of the backup you want to restore in executing this command :
o stsadm -o backuphistory -directory UNC_PATH_TO_BACKUP_FOLDER
2. Now get the name of the SSP you want to restore using this command :
o stsadm –o restore –showtree -directory UNC_PATH_TO_BACKUP_FOLDER -backupid GUID
3. And now restore the SSP (the PATH_FROM_TREE is the full farm path as showed by the -showtree parameter) :
o stsadm -o restore -directory UNC_PATH_TO_BACKUP_FOLDER -backupid GUID -item PATH_FROM_TREE -restoremethod overwrite
4. Type y and press ENTER.
5. Type the user name and the password.
If you have a warning or an error you will find information in your log file sprestore.log in the backup shared folder.
Restore using the SQL Server
1. Stop WSS Timer service and don't restart it until you restore the database. Make sure all running procedures have completed before you continue.
2. Go to the SQL Server Management Studio and connect to your database server.
3. Expand Databases in the Object Explorer.
4. Right click on the SSP database, go to Tasks, then to Restore, click to Database.
5. Specify the destination and the source and select the backup you want to restore.
6. Click Options in the Select a page section.
7. Click OK.
8. Restart the WSS Timer service.
For more information regarding Back up and Restore I invite you to consult those articles on TechNet as I did for writing this article :
Back up SSPs (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Restore SSPs (Office SharePoint Server 2007)
Back up databases
Restore Databases
