Move a SharePoint site from one server to another

Recently i got a task to backup a running SharePoint site from a development server and to restore in another server for deployment.SharePoint server 2007 comes with a nice web interface called sharepoint central administration.in central administration there is a section for backup and restore section in Operations -> Backup and restore -> Perform a backup . although backups work (sometimes) restore jobs failed completely.

Then i tried the stsadm command which worked for me ultimately.

Using command prompt cd to the directory “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\BIN” where the Sharepoint is installed

then type

   1: stsadm -o backup -url http://bakupsite/ -filename backup.bak

At the server you need to deploy the site,create new SharePoint site and then type

   1: stsadm -o restore -url http://restoresite/ -overwrite -filename backup.bak