To help prevent data loss and reduce the amount of time lost to a hardware or software failure, you can back up the databases that Team Foundation Server (TFS) depends on. If you are familiar with backing up and restoring SQL Server databases, you'll find the process of backing up and restoring TFS very familiar. All of the information required for restoring a TFS deployment is stored in SQL Server databases. You do not have to worry about backing up Team Foundation client computers or application-tier servers.
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Cumulative Update 2 for TFS 2012 includes the Scheduled Backups feature, which makes backing up and restoring your deployment much simpler. |
The complexity of backing up and restoring your deployment depends largely on the topology of your deployment and on whether you are restoring data to existing hardware, or if you are restoring a deployment after hardware failure. It also depends on whether you are backing up and restoring part of your deployment instead of the entire deployment. For example, if you want to back up an individual team project collection and then restore it to a different deployment of TFS, you must first remember to detach the team project collection before backing up the database. Otherwise, you will not be able to attach the team project collection to the new deployment. Backing up and restoring a deployment is also made more complex if you have extended your deployment with SQL Server Reporting Services or SharePoint Products. In addition to the TFS databases, you must also back up and restore the databases in those programs that are associated with your deployment.
If one of the servers in your deployment experiences a hardware failure or otherwise becomes unavailable, you can use the procedures in this section to help restore your deployment to an operational state. You will also need to reinstall software on new servers before you restore the databases. A tutorial is available specifically to assist administrators of single-server deployments to restore to new hardware, but the information in that tutorial should be useful for any administrator restoring a deployment. For more information, see Restoring a Single-Server Deployment to New Hardware [Tutorial].
Common Tasks
Common Tasks | Supporting Content |
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Determine the best backup strategy for your deployment: You can review the types of backups available for your data and choose a backup strategy that best suits your business needs. | |
Back up your data: You can schedule jobs to back up the databases that TFS uses. If your deployment uses reporting, you must also back up the encryption key for reporting services. If you use the Scheduled Backups features to back up your deployment, you will back up the encryption key as part of that process. | |
Restore databases from backup: You can restore the databases that TFS uses to the same server or servers on which they were installed, or you can restore them to a different server or servers. | Restoring a Single-Server Deployment to New Hardware [Tutorial] |
Recover from a hardware failure: If your application-tier server has a hardware failure, you can install software and configure a new server to act as the application-tier server. If your data-tier server has a hardware failure, you can install software and restore the databases that TFS uses to the new server. If the hardware that supports your single-server deployment fails, you can restore it to a new server. | Restore an Application-Tier Server Restoring a Single-Server Deployment to New Hardware [Tutorial] |
Back up and restore Lab Management components: In this release, backing up and restoring Visual Studio Lab Management requires additional steps. |
See Also
