Protect your Security Center system data by regularly backing up its databases to a location that is separate from your main server. Genetec recommends against using snapshots including those provided by VMware for Security Center database backup. Snapshot technologies must suspend all I/Os between the virtual machine and the disk system for a period of time that varies by workload and snapshot technology. This "I/O freeze" period may affect the stability or performance of your system.
Backup and restore operations should be evaluated for at least the following types of data and implementation details:
- Directory database without failover
- Directory database with failover
- Other Security Center roles databases
- Archiver and Auxiliary Archiver roles
There are restrictions that impact the backup and restoration of the Directory database when the Mirroring failover mode is enabled. For more information, see the Microsoft SQL Server Database Mirroring documentation and the Genetec Security Center Administration Guide.
Protecting the data managed by a role starts by backing up its database. For the Archiver and Auxiliary Archiver roles, the video archive data must also be backed up since the associated video files are not stored in the database.
All role databases are restored from Config Tool, except the Directory database, which must be restored from the Server Admin - Main Server page. The procedures are similar in both cases. For more information, see the Genetec Security Center Administration Guide.