The backup script must be run on the primary Administration Console. It creates a ZIP file that contains all certificates that various devices use and an encrypted LDIF file that contains configuration parameters for all imported devices. You do not need to back up the configuration of individual devices. By backing up the primary Administration Console, you back up the configuration of all Access Manager devices.
The backup script backs up objects in the ou=accessManagerContainer.o=novell container. It does not back up the following:
Admin user account and password
Delegated administrator accounts, their passwords, or rights
Policy View user accounts, their passwords, or rights
Role Based Services (RBS) configuration
Modified configuration files on the devices such as the web.xml file
Local files installed on devices such as log files
Custom login pages, custom error pages, or custom messages
You need to perform you own backup of custom or modified configuration files. For more information, see Backing Up the Access Manager Configuration.
You need to restore a backup when Administration Console fails. If another device fails, replace hardware, reinstall the device using the IP address of the failed device, and the device imports into Administration Console and acquires the configuration of the failed device.
For the details of this process, see Restoring an Identity Server and Restoring an Access Gateway.
If Administration Console fails, you need to restore the configurations you backed up. Replace hardware and reinstall Administration Console by using the DNS name and IP address of the failed console. Then use the restore utility to restore the certificates and the device configuration. Administration Console notifies all devices that it is online and they resume communicating with it rather than using a secondary console.
For details of this process, see Restoring the Configuration on a Standalone Administration Console.
If Identity Server is installed with Administration Console, the backup file contains only the Tomcat configuration details for Administration Console. After you install Administration Console and restore the configuration, install Identity Server. Identity Server acquires its configuration parameters from Administration Console. For details of this process, see Restoring the Configuration with an Identity Server on the Same Machine.