Restoring from Backups

Restore an XML-based website from a backup in no time

The general procedure of restoring an XML-based website from a backup includes these steps:

1. Remove (or rename) the old website
2. Unpack the backup in place of the old website

However, based on your environment (production, staging, testing), file management tools (Remote Access, FTP, C-Panel etc), uptime requirements etc, you should choose what your best approach is to restore the website from a backup.

Important: Please note that this only concerns XML-based websites. SQL Server-based websites are not considered here. For information about backing up and restoring SQL-based websites, please read "How to back up and restore an SQL-based website?".

As an example, let's consider this simple scenario. You are running an XML-based website on IIS7. You can directly access the server's file system (Windows Explorer). And it is possible for you to stop the website for a few minutes. You have already installed the Composite.Tools.XmlBasedSiteBackup package and made one or more backups.

1. Log in to the C1 Administrative Console, switch to the System perspective, select XML-based site backup and click Open.
2. On the backup view, click the link of the backup file you want to use. It will be downloaded to your local PC.
3. Unpack the backup ZIP file to a folder.
4. On IIS, stop the website you are about to replace.
5. Rename the physical folder mapped to on IIS as the root virtual folder of your website (e.g. "CompositeC1" > "CompositeC1.old").
6. In the same parent folder, create the folder with the original name (e.g. "CompositeC1").
7. Move all the unzipped files (from Step 3) to this folder.
8. Start the website.

If the website is up and running as expected, you may consider moving all the backup files from ~\App_Data\Backups\XmlBasedSiteBackup on the old website to the same folder on the restored website.