Backup and Recovery in Configuration Manager

Backup Site DB

It’s always better and a preventive thought to Back-up your Daily SCCM CB Backup, (keeping a daily copy on the server and copying the backups to an alternate location). Because if your SCCM server falls down you still have a back-up!

In the process of SCCM’s daily backup (visible in smsbkup.log), there’s an ‘AfterBackup.bat‘ file used to perform post-backup actions automatically after the Backup Site Server maintenance task runs successfully. By default, the AfterBackup.bat batch file does not exist. You have to create and place it manually.

 

Starting with version 1806, install an additional site server in passive mode. The site server in passive mode is in addition to your existing site server in active mode. A site server in passive mode is available for immediate use, when needed

 

Activating site backup

ConfigMgr console > Administration tab > Site settings > Site maintainance > Backup site server:

 

Edit and fill out the needed values.

 

You can set a local or remote UNC backup path and the scheduling options. Whatever you decide you can use the AfterBackup.bat to move or archive it afterwards.

The computer account of the ConfigMgr server has to have been granted full control permissions on the remote backup location.

Creating the AfterBackup.bat file

Here is a simple script for ‘AfterBackup.bat’, which saves 7 days backup to a folder named after the first 3 letters of the day of the week, and also deletes/overwrites the older ones.

***********************************************************************************

REM @echo off

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

set target=\\Destination_Server\E$\AfterBackup\%date:~0,3%

If not exist %target% goto datacopy

RD %target% /s /q

:datacopy

xcopy “\\Source_Server\*” “%target%\” /E /-Y

***********************************************************************************

where, “Source_Server” is the Primary Server from which the backup has to be copied,

and “Destination_Server” is the Remote Server where you want to copy the Site Backup.

Source_Server (This is the UNC path specified in ConfigMgr)

\\SCCM2012\sccm$\_Backup

Destination_Server (This is where we store the backup)

\\FILE01\SCCM$\SCCM_Backup

Although the intended use of AfterBackup.bat is to archive SCCM backup snapshots, you can use that file for other tasks that you need to perform at the end of every back up operation, such as:

• Run a SQL Server DBCC test to verify that there are no integrity problems with the SCCM Site database.
• Run a site health tool, or other health tools.

Putting the AfterBackup.bat to work

ConfigMgr has the ability to run an after backup batch file which you can use to perform archiving and other administrative functions.

Start by creating the AfterBackup.bat and copy it to the location below.

{ConfigMgrInstallPath}\inboxes\smsbkup.box\AfterBackup.bat

Once it’s in place ConfigMgr will automatically execute its contents at the end of a sms_site_backup task. It runs as the computer system account.

ConfigMgr overwrites each backup when it runs the site backup task. You must use the AfterBackup.bat or manual copy to archive more than one backup.

Starting a backup outside of the schedule

You can start a backup at any time by going into the service manager which can be launched through the console.

Monitoring tab > System Status > Component State > Ribbon > Start > Configuration Manager Service Manager

Once in service manager, locate the SMS_SITE_BACKUP service and right click start. A backup will now start.

Another option is to go to Windows Services.msc and start the SMS_SITE_BACKUP service.

 

After a successful backup you will see this in your logs:

 


And the backup is copied over to your alternate backup location!

Recover a Site Database

When recovering a site database in ConfigMgr 2012 and later, use the setup from the installation media. If you’d launch setup from the site server, the option to Recover a site is greyed out. Since we’re recovering a corrupted site database, it’s necessary that we detach that corrupted database from the SQL Server first. Otherwise the recovery process would fail if we tried to recover a site database that already exists on the SQL Server.

1. Launch splash.hta from the ConfigMgr installation media and click on Install.
2. Select Recover a site and click Next.

 

3. Select Recovery the site database using the backup set at the following location.