Data Back up and Restore

Patch Manager Plus stores information like configuration details, status of deployed configurations, and details about reports, like User Logon reports and Active Directory reports, in a database. Creating a backup of this database and certain important files like configuration files is necessary to prevent loss of data.

You can back up data automatically, by scheduling a back up using Patch Manager Plus, or taking a back up manually. You can also restore this data when required. For example, assume that your hard disk crashes and you have to re-install Patch Manager Plus. You can use the last back up you took to restore all the required information. Note that this is possible only if the backup file is stored in a computer other than yours.

Best practises for Back up and restore

These are the few best practices recommended for Back Up and Restore option,

• It is always recommended to Schedule the back up during non-office hours.
• Make sure that you have a minimum of 5GB space to store the back up data.
• Make sure that you specify a Valid destination folder.
• Make sure that the remote database if configured, should be running during back up.

Scheduling Data Backup

You can use Patch Manager Plus to take a back up of the database regularly. For example, if you want to take a back up of the database every Friday at 5 p.m., you can schedule the same using Patch Manager Plus.

To schedule back up of data, follow the steps given below:

1. Select the Admin tab
2. In the Tools section, click Database Backup
3. Specify the time at which you want the back up to be taken, in hour:minute:second (hh:mm:ss) format.

   The time should be specified in the 24-hour format. For example, if you want the database back up to be taken at 6 p.m., the time should be specified as 18:00:00.

4. Select the number of backup files that you want Patch Manager Plus to save.

   Using this option you can select how many database backup files should be saved. The older backup files will be deleted. For example, if you want only 7 backup files saved, select 7. This will ensure that at all times only 7 backup files are saved.

5. Specify the location where you want the backup files to be stored.
6. Check the Notify when the database backup fails checkbox.
7. Specify the email address (es) to which you want an e-mail message sent, if the database backup fails note that you should have configured your mail server settings to get notified,

   Ensure that you have configured your mail server settings to receive notifications

8. Click Save Changes

You have scheduled an automatic data backup to take place automatically at a specified time.

Manual Data Backup and Restore

You can manually back up and restore the database. You can do this using the Backup-Restore Utility GUI.

Opening the Backup-Restore Utility Graphical User Interface (GUI)

To open the Backup-Restore Utility GUI, follow the steps given below:

1. Right-click start>Explore> Local Disk (C:)>Program Files>PatchManagerPlus_Server>bin
2. Double-click backuprestore.bat

You have opened the Backup-Restore Utility GUI.

Creating a backup file

1. On the Backup-Restore Utility GUI, click the Backup tab
2. Select the location where you want to save the backup file

   If you're using a network share, the directory should have write permission for everyone in the network.

3. Click Backup

A backup file is created and saved in the specified location. The file will be named using the build number-date-time.zip format. For example, 70120-Oct-25-2010-13-26.zip where 70120 is the build number, Oct 25th 2010 is the date and 13:26 is the time.

Restoring a backup file

Ensure that you have shut down the Patch Manager Plus server before restoring a backup file

1. On the Backup Restore Utility GUI, click the Restore tab
2. Browse and select the required backup file.
3. Click Restore

   The build number of the Patch Manager Plus server should match the build number of the backup file you are restoring. Ensure that you choose the correct architecture of the Patch Manager Plus installation, such as 32-bit or 64-bit. You can verify the details by viewing the Support tab, on the Patch Manager Plus web console.

   This will restore the specified data to Patch Manager Plus server.

   If remote database is configured with the Patch Manager Plus server, ensure that it is running on a remote machine. After restoration, the changes made after the backup date will not be available.