Backup and Recovery
This document guides you through a backup and recovery of a StifleR Server.
Backup Operations
StifleR have several components that needs to be backed up in order to do a successful recovery if something happens to the server. The components are:
StifleR Databases
StifleR Configuration File
StifleR License File
StifleR Rules File
Extra scripts
StifleR Databases
Backup of the five StifleR databases can be done either online or offline. The benefit of the online method is that you don’t have to stop the StifleR Server service during backup, but the downside is that it forces you to run a repair job of the database before they can be used in a restore. The offline backup method means stopping the StifleR service during backup, and then start it again after backup has completed. Benefits with this method is that you don’t have to repair the database before a restore.
The StifleR databases are using the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) runtime in Windows (ESENT), and as such are often called ESENT databases. In addition to the core database files, the EDB files, ESE is also using recovery logs which are in the same folder as each database file.
By default, the databases are stored in C:\ProgramData\2Pint Software\StifleR\Server\Databases , and while the StifleR databases are not very big, we recommend storing them on data volume rather than the OS volume.
StifleR Configuration File
The StifleR Configuration File (StifleR.Service.exe.config) is located in the StifleR Server installation directory.
StifleR Rules File
The StifleR Rules File is often added to the C:\ProgramData\2Pint Software\StifleR\Rules folder, but can be in any folder as long as the IIS virtual directory knows where it is.
Extra Scripts
Additional custom scripts, like maintenance scripts, utility scripts, and generate location scripts should also be included in the daily backup.
Backup Maintenance Task
We recommend that you automate the StifleR backup by scheduling our backup script to run at least once per day. In the 2Pint GitHub repository, we provide a sample script that can be run in either online or offline mode, and if you select the offline mode, the script takes care of stopping and starting the StifleR Server service before and after the backup. The sample scripts also have sections for backing up additional files, like the rules file, that may be stored outside the normal StifleR installation directories. If that’s the case, simply modify the script to reflect your environment.
Backup Archiving
In addition to daily snapshots of the StifleR VM, or traditional daily file-level backup via your regular backup software, we recommend archiving at least a week worth of backup sets on a different server. The StifleR backups sets are quite small, rarely over 10 GB even in larger environments.
Client Behavior during Backup and Recovery
If the client cannot connect to server, due to networking roaming or other issues, the client will try to connect to the next server in the list. Failing to connect to a valid server eventually causes the client go into a disconnected state during which the bandwidth configure for disconnected mode will be applied. Once the StifleR Server has been restored, clients will automatically check in again, and go back to normal operations.
Recovery Operations
Restoring a StifleR Server is straight forward. If you have been using the offline backup, the restore process is a follow:
Make sure to install a new VM with the same server name, disk layout, and OS version
Install the version of StifleR you had before.
Stop the StifleR service, delete the empty databases, and restore the ones you have in your backup.
Restore the Configuration File
Restore the Rules file, and recreate the IIS virtual directory
Restore any additional scripts, and re-create scheduled tasks etc.
Start the StifleR service
For an online backup the process is quite similar
Make sure to install a new VM with the same server name, disk layout, and OS version
Install the version of StifleR you had before.
Stop the StifleR service, delete the empty databases, and restore the ones you have in your backup.
Repair the StifleR databases using esentutl /p
Restore the Configuration File
Restore the Rules file, and recreate the IIS virtual directory
Restore any additional scripts, and re-create scheduled tasks etc.
Start the StifleR service
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