On-premise installation Backup Guidance

This page describes all the necessary details for preparing a full backup of an interworks.cloud Platform on-premise installation that ensures that restore of your environment could be performed on a new clean installation.

Security Keys

The following keys are necessary for encryption/decryption algorithms used by interworks.cloud Platform in order to protect sensitive data:

• AesEncryptionPassword

• AesEncryptionSalt

• Sha256EncryptionPassword

• Sha256EncryptionSalt

• SymmetricKeyAlgorithm

• SymmetricKeyPassword

• SymmetricKeySource

• SymmetricIdentityValue

These keys are generated during the initial installation of the interworks.cloud Platform Administration component and stored in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\interworks.cloud using Data Protection API (DPAPI) encrypt.

The registration of the keys to the registry for the rest of the interworks.cloud Platform components (BSS, Storefront) is made using the Security.config file available at the root folder of the interworks.cloud Platform Installer (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Interworks Cloud Platform Installer).

Backing up of registry values is not adequate to recover the security keys on a new installation/server, as these values are valid only for a specific server and are not working on a new one.

The security keys could only be reused on a new installation/server only using Security.config available on the root folder of the interworks.cloud Platform Installer (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Interworks Cloud Platform Installer).

From the above details is obvious that a backup procedure should keep safe the Security.config file in order to enable the recovery of registry keys whenever is necessary.

The backup of the file should be made regularly as the file could change during upgrades performed by the interworks.cloud Platform. The backup of the file could be made only from the Administration server and is not necessary to be collected from all servers as the file remains the same for all servers.

Databases

In case of the default installation of interworks.cloud Platform, the following databases are created:

• iCPBSS - Main Database

• iCPBSSLogs - Logs Database

• iCRM2Config - Config Database

Performing regular database backups and applying a database backup policy for the above databases is important for protecting critical data stored by interworks.cloud Platform.

There are many available options for applying a backup policy and you may select the one that best suits your needs.

A well defined and powerful option is using Ola Hallengren’s database backup solution available at https://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-backup.html.

A step-by-step guide applying this solution for your infrastructure is available at Sql Server Maintenance Plan

Files

The interworks.cloud Platform uses a file system to store files related to uploaded documents, email attachments, images, excel files, etc.

Backup of the files stored by the interworks.cloud Platform on that location is important for protecting the interworks.cloud Platform functionality in some cases and prevent any data loss in case of storage failure.

The location that the interworks.cloud Platform stores that files could be

• a fixed file path like C:\CloudPlatform\Data in case all components installed on the same server

• a UNC path like \\commonstorage.mydomain.com\data accessible by all application servers in case a multi-server environment is configured

In case the location that the interworks.cloud Platform stores that files is not obvious then you can find that info using either of the following ways:

• via Main Database (iCPBSS) you could find the location of file storage using the following query

  SELECT MailTempDir FROM System

• via IIS you could find the location of file storage by inspecting the Data application available under BSS or Storefront website site

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