SBS Best Practice: Backup and Restore of IIS Configuration

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[Today's post comes to us courtesy of Justin Crosby]

Today we will be sharing an IIS best practice.  Before you make any changes to IIS we recommend that backup your current configuration.  By changes to IIS I mean activities such as: making changes in IIS manager, creating a new web site, installing a program that has an IIS component, or updating a program that has an IIS component. Today's post will cover backing up and restoring your IIS configuration.

To backup your IIS configuration:

  1. Open IIS Manager

  2. Right-click your server name and choose "All Tasks", choose "Backup/Restore Configuration..."

  3. Click "Create Backup..."

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  4. Enter a descriptive backup name, you can also optionally specify a password, and then click "OK"

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The backup should complete in under a minute. To restore a backup:

  1. Open IIS Manager

  2. Right-click your server name and choose "All Tasks", choose "Backup/Restore Configuration..."

  3. Select the backup you wish to restore and click "Restore"

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  4. You will receive the following notice, click "Yes" to proceed

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  5. If you specified a password during the backup you must enter it now and click "OK"

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  6. Once the restore is complete you will receive this message:

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  7. Occasionally you will need to restart IIS to make the restored settings go into effect.