Disaster Recovery - K2 blackpearl Databases Backup and Restore

Prior to a backup or restore of a database, always remember to stop the K2 Service on all K2 Servers first

Backup of databases

Depending on the specific components your organization utilize to integrate with K2, the following databases need to be included in the backup and restoration process:

K2 databases
SharePoint databases (if any)
SQL Reporting Services databases
Custom Application databases (if any)
SQL Server databases

default K2 databases which should be backed up:

K2HostServer
K2SmartFunctions (this db has been removed since K2 blackpearl 4.5 RTM. The db will however still show if an upgrade is performed from a previous version)

If any customized reports have been created, the following SQL Reporting Service databases should be backed up:

ReportServer
ReportServerTempDb

In addition, the following SQL Server system databases should be backed up regularly:

Master
Model
Msdb

If you are using any SharePoint components, it is also advisable to back up any SharePoint databases. Any other custom application databases should also be backed up.

Backup of K2 Servers and IIS

Certain customizations of the K2 Servers and IIS are saved in the following files:

IIS Configuration files
K2 Configuration files (changes to .config or .setup files)
Logging files
Custom DLL's such as custom security providers or SmartObject Services
Other application files

It is therefore important to backup the entire K2 blackpearl installation directory of which the default is C:\Program Files\K2 blackpearl

SharePoint features are deployed to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES. It might be useful to backup this directory as well.

It is also important to note which K2 version is currently installed and all additional hotfixes or updates are installed on the system.

Restore

It is fairly easy to restore a database using the SQL Server user interface.

Restoring a database will overwrite all changes since the previous backup!

For the different database disaster recovery options provided by SQL Server and supported by K2, see Introduction

What if I don't want to stop my K2 servers during backup/restore?

The solution to this would be to perform complete backups including transaction log backups which will allow you point-in-time restore.

Use Enterprise Backup software solutions which provide continuous protection. This allows you to restore to any point in time up to the hardware or software failure.

As an alternative, if you are restoring standard backups using the default SQL backup tools, you can opt to restore to a particular point-in-time to prevent database inconsistencies. For more information on this option, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190982.aspx