How to Backup Your SOLIDWORKS PDM Database
Article by Jay Khajuriwala updated February 17, 2022
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Now that your organization has invested in a SOLIDWORKS PDM system, it’s important to ensure that the data it manages is properly protected. A well-planned backup strategy helps safeguard your intellectual property and enables recovery in the event of hardware failures, accidental deletions, system corruption, or other unexpected issues.
Backing Up the SOLIDWORKS PDM Databases:
The SOLIDWORKS PDM databases contain critical vault information, including file metadata, workflows, user accounts, permissions, data cards, and file references. Regular database backups are essential to ensure this information can be recovered in the event of server failure, database corruption, or accidental data loss.
To create and manage database backups, you will need Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). This application is not installed automatically with SQL Server and must be downloaded separately from Microsoft. Once installed, SSMS provides the tools needed to back up both the vault database(s) and the ConisioMasterDB, which are required for a complete SOLIDWORKS PDM recovery.
In the following steps, we’ll walk through the process of locating and backing up the required SOLIDWORKS PDM databases.
Two Methods of Backup
With everything installed, you are now ready to go. Let’s start with the SQL databases. There are two ways to do backups:
- One is to do an on-demand backup;
- The other is to schedule the backup as part of a maintenance plan.
1. On-demand PDM backup:
- Launch SQL Server Management Studio.
- Connect to your SQL Server instance.
- Expand Databases.
- Right-click the vault database. Select Tasks > Backup.
- Choose a backup destination.
- Click OK to create the backup.
- Repeat for:
- Every vault database
2. Scheduled PDM Backup:
For the scheduled backup, expand Management, right mouse click on Maintenance Plans > Maintenance Plan Wizard. This will allow you to pick back-up as an option, and you can schedule it at the frequency you desire. How frequently? That depends on how much data you generate in a day. If a failure occurs that requires you to restore a backup, any work done after the backup will be lost.
Automated Database Backup Options:
SQL Standard / Enterprise:
- Maintenance Plans
- SQL Agent Jobs
SQL Express:
- Windows Task Scheduler
- ExpressMaint
- Third-party SQL backup tools
Conclusion and final notes
Need help with your SOLIDWORKS PDM Database Backups?
Rely on Javelin to maintain and protect your data with Javelin’s SOLIDWORKS PDM Administration Services »
Take the worry and hassle out of SOLIDWORKS Data Management maintenance and administration by adding a PDM Expert to your team. Ensure that your system is properly maintained by a qualified administrator who can be responsible for daily maintenance tasks and configuration changes. Reduce your IT overhead and free up your time to focus on projects.
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