Back up your installation

Back up your Lansweeper Classic installation regularly, and always before an update. An unexpected shutdown during an update can corrupt your database. A manual backup is also required if you want to move your installation to another server.

What to back up

A complete backup covers three things:

• Your database. Lansweeper data, reports, and settings are all stored here.
• Custom files you added. Documents, images, widgets, and similar files live in subfolders of the Website folder.
• Your encryption key. The Encryption.txt file, if it exists.

Check which database server you use

The procedure you follow depends on your database server: Microsoft SQL LocalDB, Microsoft SQL Server, or the deprecated Microsoft SQL Compact. Identify which database server Lansweeper is using with the ConfigEditor tool or in the web console.

Back up a SQL LocalDB or SQL Server database

1. Stop the Lansweeper Server service in Windows Services.

2. Stop your web server service in Windows Services. Your web server service is either IIS Express or World Wide Web Publishing Service (IIS).

3. Log in to SQL Server Management Studio. If SQL Server Management Studio isn't installed on your Lansweeper server, we recommend downloading it from Microsoft first.

   If your database is hosted in SQL LocalDB, enter (localdb)\.\LSInstance as the SQL instance name and log in with the Windows user that initially installed Lansweeper. If your database is hosted in SQL Server, use the instance name and password you configured when you installed SQL Server.

4. Right-click the lansweeperdb database and select Tasks > Back Up... to open the backup wizard.

5. On the General tab of the backup wizard, configure the source and destination. By default, the destination is a .bak file on your disk drive.

   Option	Value
   Database	lansweeperdb
   Backup type	Full
   Backup component	Database

6. On the Media Options tab, select Verify Backup When Finished. This checks the integrity of the backup once it's created.

7. On the Backup Options tab, give the backup set a name other than lansweeperdb, then select OK to create the database backup.

8. If you added documents, images, widgets, or other files to Lansweeper, back these up as well. See where Lansweeper data, reports, and settings are stored to find out which folders hold which files.

   Do not back up the entire Website folder. Only back up the specific subfolders you need. Backing up and restoring the entire Website folder can lead to issues.

9. If Program Files (x86)\Lansweeper\Key\Encryption.txt exists, create a backup copy of that file as well.

10. Restart the Lansweeper Server and web server services in Windows Services.

Back up a SQL Compact database

SQL Compact was an old database server option that is no longer supported. If you still use SQL Compact as your Lansweeper database server, convert your database to SQL LocalDB or SQL Server.

1. Stop the Lansweeper Server service in Windows Services.

2. Stop your web server service in Windows Services. Your web server service is either IIS Express or World Wide Web Publishing Service (IIS).

3. Create a copy of your SQL Compact database file, found at Program Files (x86)\Lansweeper\SQLData\lansweeperdb.sdf.

4. If you added documents, images, widgets, or other files to Lansweeper, back these up as well. See where Lansweeper data, reports, and settings are stored to find out which folders hold which files.

   Do not back up the entire Website folder. Only back up the specific subfolders you need. Backing up and restoring the entire Website folder can lead to issues.

5. If Program Files (x86)\Lansweeper\Key\Encryption.txt exists, create a backup copy of that file as well.

6. Restart the Lansweeper Server and web server services in Windows Services.

Next steps

• Restore your installation from a backup
• Update Lansweeper Classic
• Move your Lansweeper installation to a different server