SBS Best Practice: Backup and Restore of IIS Configuration

[sbs-team]

First published on TechNet on May 15, 2008

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

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"
   
   
4. You will receive the following notice, click "Yes" to proceed
   
   
5. If you specified a password during the backup you must enter it now and click "OK"
   
   
6. Once the restore is complete you will receive this message:
   
   
7. Occasionally you will need to restart IIS to make the restored settings go into effect.