What and How to Back Up in System Center Essentials

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To be prepared for a potential restore operation, you need to properly back up data from Essentials 2007, Operations Manager, Microsoft SQL Server, and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), as described in the following sections.

Essentials 2007 Data Backup

Back up the following Essentials 2007 data:

  • The management server encryption key

  • Certificates

    • WSUS Publishers Self-signed certificate (referred to as the WSUS code signing certificate) in a PFX format from the Certification Local Computer/WSUS store.

    • Two Essential 2007 certificate files from the InstallDir/Certificates folder.

    • If applicable, the certificate in a PFX format user for service provider or workgroup agent management.

  • Registry keys under HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SystemCenterEssentials

Operations Manager Data to Back Up

Back up the following Operations Manager data:

  • The Operations Manager database

  • The Operations Manager data warehouse (OperationsManagerDW)

SQL Server Data to Back Up

Back up the following SQL Server data:

  • SQL Server Reporting Services databases (ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB)

  • SQL Server master and MSDB system databases

For information about how to back up SQL Server data, see the SQL Server 2005 documentation.

WSUS Data to Back Up

Back up the following WSUS data:

  • The WSUS database, named susdb

  • The folder that contains the update files. If Essentials 2007 is configured to store the update content files locally, then you can find the location of the local folder from the following registry key:

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Update Services\Server\Setup\ContentDir

For information about how to back up WSUS data, see the Backing Up Windows Server Update Services topic on the Microsoft TechNet Web site at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=128971.

Active Directory Data to Back Up

Back up the following Active Directory data:

  • Group Policy objects

  • Accounts information

For information about how to back up data from Active Directory, refer to the Active Directory Help.