How to Backup and Restore IIS Websites Using Web Deploy: A Complete Guide

There are several ways to back up and restore a website hosted on IIS. This article focuses on backing up and restoring an IIS site using Web Deploy.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you need to install Web Deploy. This tool simplifies the migration, management, and deployment of IIS web servers, web applications, and websites. You can download Web Deploy from the official link here. Web Deployment: Official Microsoft IIS Site

backup

To create a backup of an IIS site, follow these steps. In this example, we will back up “Default Web Site.”

1. Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.

○ Open a command prompt with administrator privileges.

○ Navigate to the Web Deploy installation directory. In this example, it is C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy V3.

○ Find msdeploy.exe in this directory. If you find it, you are in the right place.

2. Execute the backup command.

○ Once in the correct directory, run the following command to create a backup.

msdeploy -verb:sync -source:appHostConfig="Default Web Site" -dest:package="C:\Backup\DefaultWebSiteBackup.zip"

Replace “Default Web Site” with your site name. The package parameter determines the location and name of the backup file. To verify that the backup was successful, go to the specified backup location and check that a .zip file has been created.

Restore

You can restore a backup to the same server or to a different server. If you restore to a different server, copy the backup .zip file to the target server. If the site already exists, it will be overwritten by the backup, and if the site does not exist, a new site will be created.
Open a command prompt with administrator privileges and navigate to the Web Deploy installation directory. Then run the following command:

msdeploy -verb:sync -source:package="C:\Backup\DefaultWebSiteBackup.zip" -dest:appHostConfig="Default Web Site"

Make sure you have specified the correct path to the backup file. Verify the process by checking IIS Manager after the restore to ensure the site has been restored properly.

conclusion

Backing up and restoring websites in IIS using Web Deploy is a simple and efficient process. Following the steps outlined in this guide will ensure that your website data is safely backed up and can be easily restored, whether on the same server or a different server. This method helps maintain the integrity of your website and provides peace of mind knowing that your data is protected and recoverable.