Data Back up and Restore

Endpoint Central MSP stores information like configuration details, status of deployed configurations, and details about 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 Endpoint Central MSP, 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 Endpoint Central MSP. 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.

1. Make sure that you add the exclusion list for Anti Virus. When directories containing the  MySQL / PGSQL data are scanned by anti virus software, they misidentify the files content as spam and does not allow to back up that data. Refer the following links which will guide you, how to exclude the Anti Virus. 
   McAffe :  https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB50998    
   Symantec : http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH99955 
   Kaspersky : http://support.kaspersky.com/us/faq/?qid=208284276  
2. It is always recommended to Schedule the  back up during non-office hours.
3. Make sure that you have a minimum of  5GB space to store the back up data.
4. Make sure that you specify a Valid destination folder.
5. Make sure that the remote database if configured, should be running during back up.

Scheduling Data Backup

You can use Endpoint Central 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 Endpoint Central.

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

1. Select the Admin tab

2. Under Database settings 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 Endpoint Central 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 back up failslease 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 --> directory where DC server folder is present -->bin

2. For example, right click start -->Explore -->Local Disk (C:) -->Program Files -->DesktopCentral_Server -->bin

3. Double-click backuprestore.bat

You've 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

3. Click Backup

4. You can choose to encrypt the backup file by providing a password.

A backup file is created and saved in the specified location. The file will be named using the buildnumber-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 Endpoint Central 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

4. In case you have opted for encrypting the backup file, you will have to provide the password for restoring the backup.

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

This will restore the specified data to Endpoint Central server.

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