Backing Up and Restoring the Metabase

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

Creating backups of the metabase is a vital part of maintaining metabase reliability. The ability to create backup files and to restore the metabase by using backup files has been enhanced in IIS 6.0. You can now restore the backup on other computers if portable backup has been chosen. History file copies of the metabase are created automatically by IIS, and an IIS administrator using IIS Manager can create them on demand. All backups, regardless of how they were created, are stored together and displayed together in IIS Manager.

Restoring a backup from an earlier version of IIS is not supported. After you install or upgrade to IIS 6.0, it is recommended that you perform a metabase backup as soon as possible to preserve your configuration data.

Backing up the metabase should be supplemented with proper metabase security practices. For more information about metabase security, see Metabase Security and Auditing.