Archive SharePoint Site Pages

In the ever-evolving landscape of enterprise content management, the issue of archiving venerable but historically significant sites often arises. Microsoft SharePoint, a robust platform for intranet portals and document management, offers robust features for archiving, including the ability to archive entire site pages.

Archiving SharePoint site pages is crucial for preserving institutional knowledge, complying with legal and regulatory requirements, and ensuring business continuity. It's a delicate balance, however, as archives should be easily accessible yet not disrupt current operations. This article explores best practices for archiving SharePoint site pages, ensuring your organization's digital history remains secure, accessible, and does not hinder current productivity.

Understanding the SharePoint Archive Feature

SharePoint's archive feature is designed to migrate entire site collections to an archive site. Site collections encapsulate all the sites, libraries, and lists in a single, logical unit. Archives are read-only, ensuring that historical data is preserved from any accidental or malicious alterations. Archiving site pages involves suspending the site collection's functionality while maintaining its data, thus striking a balance between preservation and accessibility.

Archiving sites in SharePoint is not the same as deleting them. Rather than erasing the data, SharePoint moves the entire site collection to an archive site. The original site collection is suspended, meaning it's inaccessible to users but still consumes storage space. The archive site, on the other hand, isn't fully functional but maintains all its data and structure. Users can view this data but can't modify it, ensuring historical integrity.

Preparing for an Archive: What to Consider

Before initiating an archive, it's crucial to evaluate the site collection to be archived. Identify the size of the content, the number of users who may still access it, and the potential impact of the site's suspension on current operations. Archiving irrelevant or inactive site collections can free up storage space and improve overall SharePoint performance. Conversely, archiving active or critical site collections can disrupt business operations.

Additionally, consider the type of site collection you're archiving. Team sites, communication sites, and modern sites are all handled differently in an archive. Also, factor in automation. SharePoint allows for automated archive and restoration, which can be invaluable for regular archiving cycles.

Archiving Site Pages in SharePoint

To archive site pages in SharePoint, navigate to the site collection you wish to archive. Click on "Settings", then "Site Settings". Under Site Collection administration, click "Site collection asteroid". Here, you'll find the option to "Archive" your site collection. The archive will be placed in a preconfigured archive web application. A notification will be sent to site collection administrators for approval. Upon approval, the site collection will be suspended, and its data will move to the archive site.

Once archived, users can view but not modify the archived site's content. The original site collection is suppressed but still consumes storage space. To limit this, consider deleting the suspended site collection after successful archiving. This frees up storage space but makes it impossible to restore the site without the archive data.

Restoring Archived Site Pages

SharePoint's archive feature also includes the capability to restore archived site collections. This can be useful when relevant data from an archived site is still needed. To restore, navigate to the archive site, click on "Settings" then "Manage all site collections". Here, you can restore the site collection to its original location, transforming the archive into a functioning site again.

Alternatively, you can create a new site collection and restore the archive data into it. This can be useful when you want to preserve the historical data in an archive while restoring the functionality of the site to a new location. Restoration may also include automated processes to recreate lists, libraries, and any data dependencies.

The Role of Retention Policies in Archiving

Retention policies play a significant role in SharePoint archiving. SharePoint’s Deletion and Retention policies can be configured to automatically archive or delete site collections after a specified period. This can help manage storage space and ensure that only relevant data is maintained.

To create a retention policy, navigate to "Settings", then "Site Collection management". Under Legal hold and Compliance, create a new retention policy. Define the retention period, scope, and location. You can also specify that the site collection be archived instead of deleted after the retention period.

In conclusion, archiving SharePoint site pages is not merely a process of removing site collections but a delicate balance between preservation and accessibility. With proper planning and use of SharePoint's archiving features, your organization can maintain its digital history without hindering current operations. Always remember, an archiving strategy should be part of an organization's overall document management and governance policy.