In this article, we will review the data restore process using FluentBooks.
Data restoration is done using separate FluentBooks wizards, in fact, uploading the Configuration, Project Plans and templates, and SharePoint settings and Sites.
To restore data to your PWA using FluentBooks, perform the following:
Open the storage where your data was downloaded to and find the required folder by date and/or data type.
Please note: During the restore process FluentBooks will overwrite the existing data on your PWA, so we recommend restoring your data to a Test PWA first and checking if everything looks good before restoring your data to the Production PWA.
To preserve data integrity, the sequence of data upload is very important. The Configuration elements should be present on the PWA before you upload Projects and SharePoint Sites.
1. Upload PWA Configuration.
The first step of data restoration is to upload PWA Configuration. If any of the PWA Configuration elements were deleted they should be restored first, as Resources and Projects data relies on these elements.
To upload the configuration please follow the steps described in the 'Upload PWA Configuration' article.
Also, FluentBooks offers comparison wizards for PWA Configuration that you can use to see if there are any differences between the current configuration and the configuration from the backup file.
Using this wizard you can not only compare the configurations but also automatically create a workspace that will include only the data that is different from your current PWA. You can use this workspace to upload configuration elements to the PWA, if these elements were lost or if you need to restore them to the state of any certain date.
Please note: FluentBooks overwrites the existing elements, but it does not delete anything. For example, if you have new lookup values added to the PWA since the backup file creation, these elements will not be deleted from the PWA during the upload, only the missing ones will be added.
For more details, please refer to the 'Compare Workspace with PWA' article.
2. Upload SharePoint setting.
If you need to restore any of the SharePoint Sites, please make sure to upload the site settings first. For example, if any of the site templates got deleted, you will need to restore them first, before restoring the Sites (to apply these templates during the sites creation).
With the Root PWA Site settings, you can also restore the navigation, look and feel, permissions on the SharePoint level, etc.
Please refer to the 'Upload SharePoint Root Site' article for more details.
3. Upload Projects and Project Plan Templates.
If you are sure that all the Configuration elements are present on the PWA, you can upload Projects.
Projects can be uploaded together with the Project Plan Templates if there is such a need.
If you have more than 100 projects, we recommend splitting them into batches of 50-100 Projects for upload.
Please make sure to select the correct folder with the FPP Files for restoration.
For more details about Projects upload please refer to the 'Upload Projects from FPP files' article.
4. Upload SharePoint Sites.
The sites are uploaded when the Site Templates (Solutions) are present on the PWA and after the Projects are uploaded.
When uploading the SharePoint Sites, FluentBooks allows specifically select the items you need to upload. If any of the documents or items were lost, you can select only these elements for upload, instead of the whole site.
For more details please refer to the 'Upload SharePoint Sites' article.
💡 FluentPro offers a separate application designed specifically for backup and restore of Project Online data. The following video shows how to restore your PWA data which was previously backed-up using G.A. Suite.