How to Backup Lync (Part 1)
A question that I am frequently asked after we get Lync installed and running is “How do we backup Lync?” This is a great question and one that is easy to answer. Thanks to the Central Management idea and Topology Builder, we only have to backup a few items in order to get the entire Lync environment backed up.
There are two crucial pieces for most environments. First is the topology itself and then secondly, we need the user’s data (Contacts, etc). To do the first piece, we use Export-CsConfiguration from the Lync Management Shell. An example:
Export-CsConfiguration -FileName MyTopologyBackup.zip
To backup the users data, we need to use the dbimpexp.exe tool. This tool is available in the root folder of the Lync Server installation media. It is also installed at Program FilesCommon FilesMicrosoft Lync Server 2010Support as part of the Core Components. Here is an example of how to run the dbimpexp.exe command:
Dbimpexp.exe /hrxmlfile:<path and backup file name> /sqlserver:<SQL Server FQDN><instance name>
dbimpexp.exe /hrxmlfile:MyUserDataBackup.xml /sqlserver:mysqlserver.domain.com
With these two pieces you can get most of your Lync environment. In the next article I will detail how to backup other Lync components such as the Location Database, Group Chat and Response Group settings.
Adam Ball, PEI
