Perform Periodic Backups of a Entire Revit Server Host

For server-based worksharing, use this method to back up a Revit Server Host once every 24 hours.

The backup should be performed at night or when the Host is not being used. Use a server-level lock to lock down the entire Host during backup. Team members are not able to access any models on the Host until the entire backup operation is complete.

Since backup systems can be time-consuming and the Host should be locked for the entire process, it can be helpful to first copy the model data to a temporary location on the same physical disk as the Host's project directory, and then perform the backup from that location. Using this process, the lock only needs to be maintained for as long as it takes to make a copy of the project data, which will generally be much less than the time needed to back up the data.

Note: Team members cannot save a new central to the Host when it is locked.

To back up the entire Host

1. Use the Revit Server Lock Command-Line Utility to automate the backup with or without a scheduler.
2. Copy the contents of the projects directory used by the Revit Server Host to another location on the same disk.
3. Use the command-line lock utility to unlock the server.
4. Follow your organization's standard processes and use standard backup tools to back up the copy of the projects directory.