Recover data from an unattached content database - Sharepoint 2010

Wow One more amazing feature .

Now you can Recover data from an unattached content database . you dont have to add the content database to a web application

As a Sharepoint administrator there might be a need to restore only some but not all content within a content database. How would you do that in SharePoint 2010 .

In earlier versions of SharePoint, to restore or recover content from a backup file, we had to restore the backed up file to a database server and had to attach that restored database to a another SharePoint farm. Then we needed to export the required content from this new temporary farm and then migrate it to the original farm where we wanted to recover it. This whole process required a huge time investment and rigorous planning.

To recover content from an unattached content database by using Central Administration

* Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group and is a member of the db_owner fixed database role.

* In Central Administration, on the Home page, click Backup and Restore.

* On the Backup and Restore page, in the Granular Backup section, click Recover data from an unattached content database.

* On the Unattached Content Database Data Recovery page, type the database server name in the       
    Database Server text box and type the database name in the Database Name text box.

* Select the database authentication method that you want to use.

* Select the Browse content option, and then click Next.

* Click Start Restore.

* On the Browse content page, select the site collection, site, and or list that you want to restore, select the
   Backup site collection or Export site or list option, and then click Next.

Complete the process to restore the content.

To recover content from an unattached content database by using Windows PowerShell

Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

On the Start menu, click All Programs.
Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.
Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.
At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command

Get-SPContentDatabase -ConnectAsUnattachedDatabase  -DatabaseName <DatabaseName> -DatabaseServer <DatabaseServer>

Where:
<DatabaseName> is the name of the unattached database from which you want to recover content.
<DatabaseServer> is the name of the database server that hosts the unattached database from which you want to recover content

For reference - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh269601(v=office.14).aspx

Recover / Retrieve The Farm passphrase in Sharepoint 2010

Today one of my Clients wanted to add a server to the farm and had forgot the Farm passphrase . it had been a day and he was not able to find the right one . He had not documented the same .

We tried researching on how to retrieve the Passphrase however were not able to find the right Solution . May be its possible to pull from the sql server after running some Query however was not able to find one

I Came to know that there is no way to lookup the Passphrase in the Database and the only way is to reset the Passphrase and without a valid database or SQL connection this is not possible .

The Best way i could find is to Reset the passphrase using the Powershell commands .

Start =>  All Programs => Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products => SharePoint 2010 Management Shell right click the link and run as administrator.

At the PowerShell prompt input

$passphrase = ConvertTo-SecureString -asPlainText –Force

You will be asked to input a new passphrase in plain text.

Set-SPPassPhrase -PassPhrase $passphrase –Confirm

After inputting the command above you will be asked to reenter the new passphrase
Enter Y = Yes N = No to complete the change.

Once it is done run the Wizard. and you will be able to add the server to the farm with the new passphrase .

It may Happen that you may get some error related to Sql . At this point of time as you have lost the connectivity with Sql

Check for all the permissions of the account you are logged in with on the sql . At times still it would not connect . then the only thing is disconnect the server from the farm and reconnect it

Note : If you know how or if you have any Idea of retrieving the Passphrase Please share .