Metabase Reliability
Creating backups of the metabase is a vital part of maintaining metabase reliability. The ability to create backup files and to restore the metabase using backup files has been enhanced in IIS 6.0 in that you can now restore the backup on other machines if secure backup has been chosen. Backups of the metabase are created automatically by IIS, and they can be created on demand by an IIS administrator using IIS Manager. All backups, regardless of how they were created, are stored together and displayed together in IIS Manager.
Restoring a backup from a previous version of IIS is not supported. After you install or upgrade to IIS6.0, 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.
The following table compares the two methods of restoring the metabase:
| Metabase Restore from Backup Files | Metabase Restore from History Files |
|---|---|
| The metabase can be restored to a different installation of Windows, even on a different computer. | The metabase can be restored only on the same installation of Windows from which the history files were created. This is because of encrypted data that is included in the backups. |
| Backup files can be created on demand, scheduled through IIS Manager, or created by using a programmatic administration script. | History files can be created automatically (when the IIS history feature is enabled) or by using a programmatic administration script. |
| Backup files can be restored from IIS Manager, by using application programming interfaces (APIs), or by using programmatic administration scripts. | History files can be restored manually or by using IIS Manager. |
This section includes the following topics:
- Backing Up and Restoring the IIS Metabase: Describes how to to create secure or nonsecure backup files of your IIS metabase, and how to use those backup files to restore your IIS configuration.
- Rolling Back the Metabase Using History Files: Describes how to use automatically generated history files to restore your IIS configuration.