SharePoint 2010 Restore-SPSite problems

In answer to the remarks:

There's no checklist. The problem is the dynamic nature of SharePoint. Team Sites come and go, as do documents and libraries. Who's to say one of your users didn't delete a document library and then you think after a restore something is missing.

I think the best bet would be to require your users to do a quick scan after a restore, see if they miss anything major, like sites or libraries that are supposed to be there. You yourself could have a "homemade" checklist that you follow to check if all major features deployed by you (features, timerjobs etc.) are still there.

Most probably you cannot find backup/restore tools that allow restoring configuration database because it is considered a bad practice. When you migrate or restore a farm, you fist create a new configuration database, then reattach the content databases which are configuration independent.

So, a good option is to prepare everything else and then attach the content databases. Several good scripts for scripted installs of SharePoint can be found on the web, I've used an adopted version of this one: http://josephfluckiger.blogspot.com/2009/01/scripted-sharepoint-install.html

In fact, you can script nearly everything, just you have to define the "everything" for your case. What I can think of:

• IIS metabase configuration, which can be obtained by using iisback.vbs
• web.config files from wwwroot
• custom feature files from c:\program files\common files\microsoft shared\web server extensions\12\template\features (but you can restore them by calling "stsadm -o upgradesolution" to any of your .wsp files)
• custom templates, also from \12\template\controltemplates
• images from \12\template\images (and actually, everything you have ever put under \12\ direcctory)
• assemblies required in GAC (but these can also be restored when you call "upgradesolution)