So, you’re doing your SharePoint farm backups regularly with Central Administration, or maybe with a scheduled a batch file that runs stsadm backup with the “-backupmethod full” option. Such backups include all content databases, index files, and the configuration database. The configuration database, however, will not be restored when you need to bring the farm back! The reasons for this are described in this TechNet article, in short – you don’t want to run into any issues just after restoration due to inconsistent farm configuration. But the config database still has a lot of very useful information that can help you during recovery! The question is – how do I get to it?

And there is an answer now: the DR Advisor tool. What does this tool do?

• Reads your farm configuration from the database backup or from the live config database (the latter is only recommended for test purposes)
• Lists all the servers, databases and services in the farm
• Verifies availability of all these components in real time
• Verifies and re-creates (if needed) appropriate SQL Server logins to enable SharePoint services access to the databases
• In a DR situation, advises on the psconfig.exe commands needed to provision SharePoint front end, Central Administration, and application servers

You can download the DR Advisor freeware now from the Quest Labs zone on SharePoint For All community site. DR Advisor is also available as a companion tool with Recovery Manager for SharePoint, but when you download it as a freeware, it is only supported via the Recovery Manager forum on this site. Please leave your questions and comments here, we want to hear what you think!