SharePoint Designer Site->Administration->Backup Web Site... ".cmp" file created has a limitation of 24 MB???

Question

When I backup a site greater than 24 MB and go to restore it, we get an error message, "Could not find the file ‘C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\f611fafc-73d8-4b48-bc1e-f9ef6d7cb991\Exportsettings.xml’ "

Is there a means to increase the size that I can backup/restore using the SPD .cmp method?

I use hosted services, so stsadm is not an option.

Thanks!

-- Jim

Answer 1

What version of sharepoint are you using?

 

When you say you are using hosted services, and stsadm not being an option, is that because you don't have access to stsadm?  If so, you should be able to just download sharepoint and install it, just to extract stsadm and use it from your machine.

 

If you provide a little more detail on what you're trying to do, I may be able to help.

Answer 2

Sorry for the vagueness! I will provide details. We are in hosted WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 environments.This is not an internal or experimental situation. This is real world production activity under a strict governance model for SharePoint development we've created/adopted.

 

I have over 100 clients that are new to WSS and MOSS because of its low cost point of entry and flexibility to align with their business needs. We help them create sites like https://www.innovationworkswestmichigan.com. You can see that the site is customized using SharePoint Designer (members have a very-customized experience).

 

The site is implemented in a true Software as a Service (SaaS) infrastructure (Software Plus Services in Microsoft terminology) hosted by N-VINT (http://www.n-vint.com/sharepointHostedSolutions.aspx) who maintains, updates, and backs-up all for a very low monthly rate - which makes it most easy to introduce my customers to technologies like WSS and MOSS.

 

While I fully trust my partnering infrastructure organization to be managing my infrastructure against best practices of operation (like MOF - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc506049.aspx), they cannot protect me from myself doing development and making mistakes.

 

So, I like to back up the production site using SPD and deploy it on a virtual development environment before I choose to make major changes (doing so in the production environment can sometimes be damaging - read posts about broken lists). Once I have my modifications tested, I can incorporate them into production.

 

So my dilemma:

• Production sites are hosted - low cost of entry but no access to the server (rightly so!)
• I don't want to make production changes live as there are times WSS/MOSS breaks my lists or I simply break my site myself
• I want to be able to backup my production work and deploy it to a virtual development environment
• My sites aren't all that large, but they do sometimes exceed 24 MB an apparent maximum for SPD site backups

Perhaps I'm operating my development efforts in an improper manner and you can correct my practices, I'm always open to knowing better practices. At any rate - a backup limitation of 24 MB (or 10 MB for creation of site templates) seems rather limiting.

 

I hope this helps frame my request a bit more properly!

 

Thanks for any advice and direction you can offer.

 

--Jim

 

Answer 3

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately this is a bug in SharePoint Designer 2007.

There are some workaround for you although there is not hot fix till now.

Based on your situation, you cannot use stsadm command to import the site, but you still can use stsadm command to export the site. I suggest to you use the following command to export site and then import the site to the destination by SharePoint Designer

Here is the command:

stsadm -o export -url http://www.mysite1.com -filename c:\mysite1.cmp -cabsize 1024 -includeusersecurity

-cabsize 1024 makes the backup file size 1024 megabytes instead of standard 25 (which is the error limit in SPD).

- includeusersecurity remembers the security settings of the sites.

 

Please review this article to get more information and detailed steps:

"Cannot find c:\...\exportsettings.xml" error when restoring with SharePoint Designer

 

If you totally cannot use stsadm command, here is another article from Michael Herman fits for your needs.

SharePoint Designer 2007 Backup: Totally Broken for Sites Greater than 24MB in size

 

Hope the information can be helpful.

-lambert

Answer 4

Kudos to Microsoft for presenting some less-than-glamerous references! I will have to follow the Herman "hack" as I do not have access to stsadm on any of my hosted servers, but will investigate ion my local virtual servers.

The obvious question is, "when will this be fixed", but I realize that is not fair as you really are in no place to offer what will appear in future releases.

Might I suggest that the view of WSS/MOSS/SPD be more along the lines of a "development environment" such that more frequent patches/service packs be scheduled? Knowing what it takes to release a service pack - I respect that what I seek seems easy and logical on my end, but remains most difficult in delivery!

The field-level push that I represent is that we are delivering solutions to our customers in which we must be responsible that best practices in operations, maintenance, and feature enhancements can be followed. Developing on "live" systems is not my first choice once a solution is released and in production.

Thanks for your reply - it answers my inquiry and even somewhat gives me a work-a-round!

-- Jim

Answer 5

Thanks for your reply, I’m glad the information is helpful for you.