Backing up databases

You can protect the data in a role’s database by regularly backing up the database. It is best practice to back up your databases before an upgrade.

What you should know

WARNING: Do not use virtual machine snapshots to back up your Security Center databases. During the snapshot process, all I/Os on the virtual machine are suspended, which can affect the stability and the performance of your system. We strongly recommend that you follow the procedure described below.

All role databases are backed up from Config Tool, except for the Directory database, which must be backed up from the Server Admin main server page. The procedures are similar in both cases. Therefore, only backing up from Config Tool is described here.

NOTE: The following cases are exceptions:

To back up the Archiver and Auxiliary Archiver role databases with their associated video files, the backup must be performed from the Archive transfer page in the Video task.
To back up the Directory database while the Backup and restore failover mode is enabled, the backup must be performed from the Directory Manager role's Database failover tab in Config Tool.
There are restrictions regarding the backup and restore of the Directory database when the Mirroring failover mode is enabled. For more information, refer to the Microsoft SQL Server Database Mirroring documentation.

To back up a role’s database:

From the Config Tool home page, open the System task, and click the Roles view.
Select a role, and click the Resources tab.
Click Backup/Restore ().
In the Backup/Restore dialog box, beside the Backup folder field, click Select folder (), and select the folder where you want to save the backup file.

NOTE: The path is relative to the server hosting the role, not to the workstation where you are running Config Tool. To select a network drive, enter the path manually, and make sure the service user has write access to this folder.
(Optional) Switch the Compress backup file option to ON to create a ZIP file instead of a BAK file.
If you select this option, you’ll need to unzip the backup file before you can restore it.
IMPORTANT: The Compress backup file option only works if the database is local on the same server.
Click Backup now.

A backup file is created in the backup folder with the file extension BAK. The name of the file is the database name, followed by “_ManualBackup_”, and the current date (mm-dd-yyyy).