Overview
Customers need to back up the Gateway and the Database separate, in sync, and daily for Production Environments.
For Development Environments where Production Data (OEE Counts etc) are less important, we still recommend taking a Gateway backup before AND after any change in
the Production Module (and a DB backup to be on the safe side!)
The Gateway backup becomes less important in 3.0 since all the data is stored in the DB, but we still rely on some things like shifts or tags that are stored in the Gateway backup.
The ignition gateway backup can be taken manually or scheduled
(https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC79/Gateway+Automatic+Backups)
in Gateway → Configure → example

This includes:
- the production model (2.0 only),
- web services consumers providers (obviously if using WebServices),
- Business Connector charts (again if using BC),
- shifts, tags, windows, scripts, etc...
for the database(s) backups (as it can be two DBs if the Analysis and Runtime DB are separate),
please refer to each DB vendor as they offers different ways to back up or schedule backups.
for example (suggested links)
Scheduling Operations on Windows https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/taskschd/task-scheduler-start-page
Scheduling Operations on Linux https://opensourceforu.com/2018/06/how-to-schedule-tasks-in-linux-systems/
For Restore we recommend the following steps
Step 0 : ALWAYS test your backup and restore strategy BEFORE having an issue and regularly on a separate server to
"randomly" check the validity of your backups
Step 1 : ALWAYS take an extra backup of your Gateway and your Database(s) prior to any restore.
Store these separate. These could be fall back on a not perfect situation if the backup you thought were valid .. are not
Actual Restore Steps:
- Inform your users that you must restore. Everyone should be disconnected
- Make sure that no Operation are running
- Use the Ignition Restore Menu => we recommend performing a restore "Disabled"
that way you can control access to the Database after it was restored as well (or if you are in the very special case
mentioned above)

- Follow Ignition Documentation to Enable
- Database connection(s)
- OPC
- Tag (History/Realtime)
- Enable Projects
Applies To and Version Info
MES 2.0 GW : Production Model + Projects + Tags
DB : MES Config (Materials, States, Mode, Production Data)
MES 3.0 GW : Projects + Tags
DB : Production Model + MES Config (Materials, States, Mode, Production Data)
(for 3.0 please also refer to MES Modules Enterprise Import-Export)
Special Case
Case where
If a Site (or an Area or a Line) and its children is deleted, but nothing else was modified, and ONLY the gateway backup was restored,
then upon Production Module startup or restart we would re-enable all the equipment to match the back up.
In that case restoring ONLY the Gateway should work.
This is because all Sites, Areas, Lines, Cells, Cell Groups, etc, are stored with their UUID in the gateway backup.
But to do a full restore we need both the gateway backup and the database backup
References
https://help.sepasoft.com/docs/display/MHD/MES+Modules+Settings+Configuration
https://help.sepasoft.com/docs/display/MHD/Understanding+MES+Architectures
MES Modules Enterprise Import-Export
Keywords
Ignition, Backup, Restore, Production Model, Gateway, Database, DB, Production-data.