IIS, iisback.vbs and iiscnfg.vbs

Hi,

While searching for a way to do an IIS configuration backup and
restoration, I came across the following Microsoft website:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer20 03/Library/IIS/5e7e923c-b374-4872-a8f5-da85ec1315fd.mspx?mfr =true

Which has this little gem on it:

The metabase and schema of an IIS configuration include system-
specific and session-specific properties. Do not copy or import the
metabase or schema of one IIS server to another IIS server without
modification. To copy all or part of a metabase configuration from one
system to another, use Copying IIS Configurations Using Iiscnfg.vbs.

ENDQUOTE

I found this quite interesting, and took a look at the iiscnfg.vbs
page it pointed to. However, iiscnfg.vbs is an immediate solution,
there was no option to copy to another server from an existing backup
(IE in the case of disaster recovery of a failed IIS system).

So, since its a .vbs, I opened it in an editor and took a look at hte
script to see what it does - see if I could put something together
which did what I wanted. And I found something even more interesting.

All iiscnfg.vbs does during the copy from one machine to another is
the following:

1. backup the source system using iisback.vbs
2. copy the files across to the new system using a standard file copy
3. restore the files on the destination system using iisback.vbs

This is the precise action you would take manually, and is exactly the
action that MS warns you off of on the iisback.vbs page.

So what gives?! Is it safe to backup and restore IIS configuration
across machines like this or isn't it?

Regards
Richard

Re: IIS, iisback.vbs and iiscnfg.vbs

That's an interesting one, but I guess if you want to restore the metabase
to a different server there's a wide range of variables. Import/Export gives
you a lot of options,
Anthony,
http://www.airdesk.co.uk





"Richard Price" wrote in message
news:1190212768.253759.208630@50g2000hsm.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> While searching for a way to do an IIS configuration backup and
> restoration, I came across the following Microsoft website:
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/WindowsServer20 03/Library/IIS/5e7e923c-b374-4872-a8f5-da85ec1315fd.mspx?mfr =true
>
> Which has this little gem on it:
>
> The metabase and schema of an IIS configuration include system-
> specific and session-specific properties. Do not copy or import the
> metabase or schema of one IIS server to another IIS server without
> modification. To copy all or part of a metabase configuration from one
> system to another, use Copying IIS Configurations Using Iiscnfg.vbs.
>
> ENDQUOTE
>
> I found this quite interesting, and took a look at the iiscnfg.vbs
> page it pointed to. However, iiscnfg.vbs is an immediate solution,
> there was no option to copy to another server from an existing backup
> (IE in the case of disaster recovery of a failed IIS system).
>
> So, since its a .vbs, I opened it in an editor and took a look at hte
> script to see what it does - see if I could put something together
> which did what I wanted. And I found something even more interesting.
>
> All iiscnfg.vbs does during the copy from one machine to another is
> the following:
>
> 1. backup the source system using iisback.vbs
> 2. copy the files across to the new system using a standard file copy
> 3. restore the files on the destination system using iisback.vbs
>
> This is the precise action you would take manually, and is exactly the
> action that MS warns you off of on the iisback.vbs page.
>
> So what gives?! Is it safe to backup and restore IIS configuration
> across machines like this or isn't it?
>
> Regards
> Richard
>

Re: IIS, iisback.vbs and iiscnfg.vbs

Sorry, I wasn't quite clear in my post - the backup and restore steps
use the exact set of arguments that you would use if you were to do it
manually :)

So would it be reasonable to totally ignore the warning and go ahead
and do it anyway?

Regards
Richard

Re: IIS, iisback.vbs and iiscnfg.vbs

No I agree, you were absolutely clear. I was just adding that import/export
gives you the flexibility you need if you are restoring the metabase to
another server.
Anthony
http://www.airdesk.co.uk



"Richard Price" wrote in message
news:1190302734.274415.49770@o80g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Sorry, I wasn't quite clear in my post - the backup and restore steps
> use the exact set of arguments that you would use if you were to do it
> manually :)
>
> So would it be reasonable to totally ignore the warning and go ahead
> and do it anyway?
>
> Regards
> Richard
>

Re: IIS, iisback.vbs and iiscnfg.vbs

On Sep 20, 8:38 am, Richard Price wrote:
> Sorry, I wasn't quite clear in my post - the backup and restore steps
> use the exact set of arguments that you would use if you were to do it
> manually :)
>
> So would it be reasonable to totally ignore the warning and go ahead
> and do it anyway?
>
> Regards
> Richard



The wording is meant to dissuade people from opening the XML files and
copying directly from it. Because that is not what iisback.vbs does...

If you "copy" using programmatic access such as through iisback.vbs,
then you are fine, regardless if you use the VBScript or not. It is
the programmatic access which will "sanitize" one system's XML for
import into another.

In other words, it's simpler if you just followed instructions. :-)


//David
http://w3-4u.blogspot.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/David.Wang
//