This article describes how to create a snapshot using SPDocKit Consultant.

Create Snapshot

This section describes how you can use SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant or the PowerShell module to collect SharePoint farm settings and permissions.

There are two ways to create a snapshot of the selected farm (both need to be run on the selected farm).

1. SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant

SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant files can be found in the installation folder of SPDocKit Consultant or downloaded from SysKit Customers Web. To easily locate the installation folder, open SPDocKit Consultant and click the Take Snapshot button on the Backstage screen. An info window on how to take a snapshot appears. Click the Quick Open button. A folder containing the SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant is opened and the .zip file is selected.

Copy the preselected archive to the SharePoint server where you want to take a snapshot and extract the contents. Locate the SPDocKitSnapshotWizard.exe among the extracted files and run it. The SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant opens.

Note: When creating a snapshot on a clients' farm, you want to leave minimal or no traces behind you. When you use the SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant, there are no files left behind since installation is not required.

Let's take a closer look at the steps and the options available:

Welcome

• Snapshot Location - Define where to save the snapshot file after the load is completed. By default, the snapshots will be placed in the Snapshots folder, in the same location as the SPDocKit Snapshot Wizard - Consultant .exe file.
• Verbose Logging - Check this option for more detailed logging when troubleshooting.

Load Options

• Load Depth - Specify the depth to which you want to crawl your farm. You can choose between Web Applications and Site Collections.

• SharePoint

  • Farm Settings - Farm settings are loaded by default. This option cannot be changed.
  • Features and Solutions
  • Workflows

• Security

  • Database Permissions - Check this option to view the Database Permissions report. This report shows information about all users, across all databases on a SQL Server.

• Server Settings

  • Installed Programs and available Updates
  • SQL Server Information
  • IIS Settings Information

• Project Server

  • Settings
  • Projects

  To reduce the farm load time we recommend unchecking Personal Sites. You can use the load performance slider to switch between low resource usage and a high-performance load.

Target

You can choose your target to be the entire farm, Web application, or specific site collection. Click Next and the loading will start.

Loading Progress

Shows the current loading progress. When the load is finished, you can save the loading log by clicking the Save Log button.

Finish

The last step enables you to easily navigate to the created snapshot by clicking the Open Snapshot Location button.

The snapshot can now be copied to the workstation and imported with SPDocKit Consultant for further analysis.

2. SPDocKit PowerShell Module

Instructions on how to install SPDocKit PowerShell Module can be found here.

Creating a snapshot

To create a snapshot with the SysKit.SPDocKit.PS module, use the following command:

New-SPDocKitSnapshot

The load starts and the current Loading Target is displayed in the progress bar.

To find out all about the New-SPDocKitSnapshot command, use the following command:

Get-Help New-SPDocKitSnapshot -full

The documentation is also available here.