Back up your installation

[Nils]

This page provides instructions for backing up a Lansweeper installation, which should be performed regularly.

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This page is for Lansweeper Cloud. For Lansweeper Classic, see Back up your installation.

It is recommended that you back up your Lansweeper installation on a regular basis, especially prior to performing any updates. An unexpected shutdown of your Lansweeper server could lead to an update failure and subsequent database corruption. A manual backup is also required to move your installation from one server to another.

Lansweeper data, reports and settings are stored in a database. Your database is hosted in either the Microsoft SQL LocalDB or Microsoft SQL Server. You can verify which database server you are using with the ConfigEditor tool.

Backing up your installation

1. On your Lansweeper server, stop the Lansweeper Server and web server services in Windows Services. Your web server service is either IIS Express or World Wide Web Publishing Service (IIS).
   
2. Log into SQL Server Management Studio. If SQL Server Management Studio isn't installed on your Lansweeper server, we recommend downloading it online.
   
   If your database is hosted in SQL LocalDB, the SQL instance name you need to submit in Management Studio is (localdb)\.\LSInstance and you can log in with the Windows user that initially installed Lansweeper. If your database is hosted in SQL Server, you would have configured your SQL instance name and password when you installed SQL Server.
3. Right-click the lansweeperdb database and select Tasks > Back Up... to open the backup wizard.
   
   
   Scanned data, reports, and settings are stored in your database. Scanning servers, which only run the Lansweeper Server service, don't store any data or settings. They retrieve settings from the database and send scanned data directly to the database.
4. In the General tab of the backup wizard, configure the source and destination options. By default, the backup destination is a .bak file on your disk drive.
   • Database: lansweeperdb
   • Backup type: Full
   • Backup component: Database 
5. In the Media Options tab of the backup wizard, tick Verify Backup When Finished. This ensures the integrity of the backup is checked once created.
6. In the Backup Options tab of the backup wizard, make sure the name of the backup set is something other than lansweeperdb, to avoid overwriting your existing database. Select OK to create the database backup.
7. If it exists, create a backup copy of the following file as well: Program Files (x86)\Lansweeper\Key\Encryption.txt.
8. Restart the Lansweeper Server and web server services in Windows Services.

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