Run a SharePoint PowerShell Backup Script using Windows Scheduler

SharePoint administrators need to run regular backups using PowerShell, the STSADM tool or in Central Administration. There is no "built in" way to automate these backups. Wouldn't it be great to devise a method to automate these jobs.

The solution is just to create a batch file that can execute a PowerShell script, and then launch it from the Windows Task Scheduler.

PowerShell Command to Backup SharePoint Site Collection

backup-spsite -identity http://moss2010/ -path D:\Backup\Backup.bak

So, you can use the backup-spsite command to do site backup (the example shows http://moss2010/). The following script will start a full backup to D:\backup where you can send a site collection URL and backup file name as a parameter to the PowerShell Script.

$args[0] = http://moss2010/ [Source site location URL]

$args[1] = D:\backup\backup_site.bak [Destination path]

Create Windows PowerShell script

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

backup-spsite -identity $args[0] -path $args[1] -force

Save it as PowerShell D:\Scripts\BackupSPSite.ps1

Create Batch Script to execute PowerShell script

@echo off

SET SOURCE_SITE=http://moss2010/

SET DEST=D:\backup\Backup_site.bak

echo "backup Started at" %DATE% >> D:\backup\Log.txt

powershell -command D:\Scripts\BackupSPSite.ps1  %SOURCE_SITE% %DEST%

echo "Backup completed successfully at %DEST%" on %DATE% >> D:\backup\Log.txt

@echo on

Save it as Batch file D:\Scripts\BackupSPSite.bat.

Now you have to run this script.

Run Batch Script to execute PowerShell script

• Run batch script to check successful backup and log creation at D:\backup.
• Now run it from the Windows Task Scheduler.In the Task Scheduler, the account needs to be set with admin permissions to run it properly. So now you can automate your daily backup of a SharePoint Site.

You can also run an entire Farm backup just by using the following command in a

PowerShell Script (i.e. D:\Scripts\BackupSPSite.ps1)