Disaster Recovery

There are several critical files on MOVEit Central which should be backed up regularly. (Many installations actually use MOVEit Central to copy these files to a remote server for backup to tape or to configure a hot standby on a regular basis.) These files are in the Program Files\MOVEit directory:

• miccfg.xml - MOVEit Central configuration file. Contains a complete list of tasks, hosts, certificates and other information.
• michash.xml - MOVEit Central "hash" file. Contains tamper detection information.
• PGPPath\secring.pgp and PGPPath\pubring.pgp - PGP keyrings. Contains the PGP keys used by MOVEit Central, if the optional PGP capability has been licensed. (These files are found in the PGPPath subdirectory of the MOVEit directory.)

Additionally, the following critical folders should be backed up, contents included. These folders are also in the Program Files\MOVEit directory:

• StateFiles – Contains MOVEit Central "state" files for individual hosts/tasks. These files contain important information such as date/timestamps for folders and files, saved directory listings for synchronization tasks, and more.

Please note that the configuration file and state files are encrypted. In order to make changes to them, you must use MOVEit Central Admin to authenticate to MOVEit Central first.

The Statistics database should also be backed up regularly. This information is stored in a database. If you are using MySQL as your database engine, the database server is usually installed in the "C:\mysql\" or "D:\mysql\" directory. All files in the "..\mysql\data\MICStats" directory should be backed up to protect the statistics database. If you are using Microsoft SQL Server, contact your database administrator for information on backing up the database.

The Microsoft Windows certificate store contains the SSL server certificate used to secure communications with MOVEit Central's clients. If you are using client certificates , S/MIME or AS1/AS2/AS3, the Windows store also contains the related certificates. The client certificates in particular should be backed up. You can create a backup of the client certificates by running a MOVEit Central task that utilizes the "Certs Backup" script. It is less important to back up the MOVEit Central SSL server certificate used to protect MOVEit Central Admin and MOVEit Central API connections because since a new server certificate can be created by doing a fresh install.

Additionally, portions of the registry should be backed up:

• The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Standard Networks\MOVEitCentral contains values such as:
  • A pointer to the SSL server certificate used to secure communications between MOVEit Central and MOVEit Central Admin/API
  • The ODBC DSN used for the statistics database
  • The temporary cache directory
  • The license key that enables MOVEit Central
• The Windows user database. If you have created Windows users and/or groups for use by MOVEit Central Admin users, the Windows user authentication database should also be backed up. This database is part of the Windows registry.

The registry is typically not changed often, so occasional backups should be sufficient.

Configuration Aging

Each time MOVEit Central successfully saves a copy of its XML-based configuration files (miccfg.xml, etc.), it also ages up to four older versions in a simple grandfather scheme. For example, the "three saves ago" file is titled "miccfg.OL3".

If one of these files gets corrupted (often by an over-zealous virus or backup utility), it is often possible to restore MOVEit Central to a close-to-current state by copying one of the aged copies over the appropriate configuration file. (Contact MOVEit support for more information.)