Backing up the server
To back up the server, make a backup copy of the database and application data directory. Both frequent online backups and occasional offline backups are required.
Make sure that you take backups of the filesystem and the database at the same time, or as close as possible. The bigger the gap between backups, the bigger the data skew is likely to be. Using a backup of the server directory and the database taken from different times may cause the following problems when you restore the backups:
- If you back up the file system before the database, then the database may know of the versions or step logs that were created after the file system was backed up. This may lead to problems attempting to deploy those versions or to view those step logs.
- If you back up the database before the file system, then the file system may contain versions and step logs that the database is not aware of. Due to this, you may not get the correct available file system size.
Offline backups
Offline backups happen when the server is stopped, for example during a monthly maintenance window when you install operating system updates and other updates on the server and agent systems.
Online backups
Online backups happen frequently, and without stopping the server. For online backups, you need to back up only the database.