Backup Settings

This topic only applies to Secret Server On-Premises.

Overview

The following configuration options are available on the Tools > Backup page of Secret Server:

  • Backup Database File Path: This folder must be accessible by the SQL server and stores the database.bak file. See File Path Settings.
  • Backup File Path: This directory must exist on the Web server and stores the zip file of the application directory. See File Path Settings.
  • Database Backup SQL Timeout (Minutes): Number of minutes that Secret Server waits for the database backup to complete successfully before timing out.
  • Enable Scheduled Backup: Enables automatic backups on a set schedule.
  • Days to Keep Operational Logs: Sets the period to keep backup-related logs that might contain PII. Secret Server automatically deletes logs older than that (in days).
  • Keep Number of Backups: Number of previous backups to keep.
  • Notify Administrators on Backup Failure: Users with the Administer Backup role permission are notified if the backup fails.

File Path Settings

There are two file path settings on the Admin > Backup page (ConfigurationBackup.aspx). The "Backup File Path" setting corresponds to the application backup. The "Backup Database Path" setting corresponds to the SQL server backup.

Generally, the "Backup File Path" setting can be set to a path local to the application server for backing up of application files. If Secret Server is running under an account that does not have permission to write to a local path, then a network share can be used. If the SQL server is located on the same server as the Web application server, the "Backup Database File Path" setting can be set to a local path.

If the SQL server is not located on the same server as the Web application server then a network share should be used. The account under which SQL server service is running either must have modify rights to that path or must be a member of a group with modify rights to that path. You must use UNC (Universal Naming Convention) notation to write to a network path. For example: \\TESTVM0\c$\backupDirectory.

If you get an error stating "Cannot open backup device… Operating system error 3," this is often due to an invalid path value.

For Secret Server to delete old database backups, the backup database path must also be accessible by the Secret Server Application Pool account.