Restore the system

System backup and restore is only to be used as a means of disaster recovery. Do not attempt to restore a system to a configured Gateway. System Restore must not be used for any other purpose, for example, as a method of cloning Gateways when creating a peer group. Use Configuration Backup & Restore as a means of archiving configurations.

Secure Email Gateway enables you to backup and restore a system configuration from an FTP server. In the event of a system failure, a backup can be restored to a newly installed Gateway with minimal data loss.

To restore a backup, you must have full access to the FTP server that stores backup files from the Gateway.

Tell me about...

• System areas available for backup and restore

  You can backup and restore any of the following areas of the system:

  System Area	Includes...
  Configuration	The content security policy defined in the Policy menu, configuration options selected in the System menu, SMTP settings, PMM settings, and custom reports created in the Reports menu.
  Held Messages	Messages currently detained by the content security policy.
  PMM	PMM user information including user email addresses and Trusted Senders.
  Tracking and reporting database	Report data and message information that acts as the source for reports produced in the Report menu.
  System logs	System logs produced by the Gateway. Logs can be examined to investigate problems and events.

  If a system area has not been backed up, you will not be able to restore it.

• Gateway settings affected by a System Restore

  After performing the restore operation, the Gateway is fully functional in the state it was configured at the time of the most recent backup.

  However, as a background task, any restored held messages are automatically re-indexed. If there is a large number of messages to restore, this operation could take several hours to complete. Messages cannot be viewed until they have been re-indexed. When the re-indexing operation completes, a Restore Completed Successfully alarm is raised.

  Any new areas of the system configuration (for example, lexical expressions and content rules) that do not exist in the backup will not be removed during the restore process.

  PMM activity (for example, PMM users releasing or deleting messages) is not restored.

How do I...

• Restore the system from a backup?

  1. From the Home page, click System > Backup & Restore. The Backup & Restore page is displayed.
  2. In the Task Pane, click Restore System. The Restore System Now dialog box is displayed.

  3. Enter the the FTP server details .

     Setting	Description
     Server type	Type of connection: FTP, FTPS (implicit), FTPS (explicit) or SFTP.
     FTP Server	The fully qualified domain name or IP address of the FTP server.
     Port	The port connecting the Gateway to the FTP server. Firewall ports for a list of default ports.
     User name	Logon credentials for the FTP server.
     Password	Logon credentials for the FTP server.
     Remote folder	The folder in which transaction log files will be stored. This folder is created automatically during the export process if it is not found on the server.

     If you change any of the FTP settings, you must also re-enter the Password to save the changes.

  4. Click Connect. The Gateway connects to the FTP server.

     The dialog displays the host name of the Gateway, the software version and the date and time of the most recent system backup. If the backup was performed on a group of peered Gateways, the details of each Gateway are displayed.

  5. Select the row displaying the system you want to recover. The details are displayed.
  6. Select the system areas you want to restore.
  7. Click Restore. The dialog displays a notification indicating that The restore operation has started.

  8. Click Close. The System Restore Status page is displayed, indicating the progress of the restore operation. When the operation is complete, the welcome page is displayed and the Gateway reboots.

     On the System Restore Status page, the sizes displayed in the Transferred column might differ from the sizes of the folders stored on the FTP server. This is because the files on the FTP server are compressed, while the transfer is not.

See also...

• Backing up the System
• Backing up and Restoring a Configuration