Backup and recovery of distributed storage areas

A method for backing up distributed storage areas associated with a plurality of distributed content systems in an enterprise by a central backup server running a centralized backup application, the plurality of content systems of the enterprise being connected to the central backup server, the central backup server providing centralized backup management of the plurality of content systems, each content system having a content server running a backup client process of the centralized backup application on the central backup server, comprising:

• causing a primary content server of said plurality of content systems to identify the locations of said distributed storage areas associated with said plurality of content systems;
• launching by said centralized backup application the backup client process on each of the content servers of said content systems associated with one or more of said identified distributed storage areas;
• and
• controlling said backup client processes on said content servers by said centralized backup application to back up selected ones of said distributed storage areas to backup media;
• wherein said distributed storage areas store managed content, and said method further comprises backing up metadata associated with said managed content in a database, and updating an index file of content backed up in said distributed storage areas;
• wherein said content systems each have a local clock, and said method comprises compensating for out-of-sync clocks of said content systems for a logical backup session.