When we backup web server, we normally just backup the data in folders, but it is very important to also backup the IIS Metabase, such that when disaster happens, you can quickly restore the full configuration of the Web Server. I recently had a web server crashed without backing up metabase regularly. I ended up using a backup configuration more then 6 months old. If you consider the cost to bring it back up to date, that is very expensive.

There are several ways to backup IIS Web Servers. The simplest way is to right click on the server in the Internet Service Manager, and choose Backup/Restore Configuration. That works for all versions of IIS: 5.0 (Windows 2000), 5.1 (XP Pro) and 6.0 (2003 Server).

When it comes to restoration, that is a totally different story, because you may not even be able to launch Internet Service Manager at all. If you can, you are lucky, just go to the same place mentioned above, and pick up a version you want to restore, usually the latest backup.

What if you can’t even launch Internet Service Manager ? It depends on whether you have used Metabase Editor to Export the IIS Metabase information before. If you have, then you can launch Metabase Editor, by going Administrative Tools -> MetaEdit 2.2, and then import the IIS Metabase tree you have exported before.

If you can’t even launch Metabase editor, because the Metabase is corrupted, then the last resort is to:

• Go to WinDir\System32\InetSrv
  
• Rename the file Metabase.bin (possibly hidden) to something else.
  
• Copy a version (usually the latest, with the highest sequence number after MD extension,) of backup from WinDir\System32\IISServ\Metaback to WInDir\System32\InetSrv, and rename it to Metabase.Bin.

This works for Windows 2000/IIS 5.0. For Server 2003/IIS 6.0, since it is using XML files to store Metabase info: the Metabase.xml and MSSchema.xml in WinDir/System32/InetSrv, we should be able to recover the IIS by just copying back these two files, or go to Mataback sub-folder to find the backups and copy them back ( extension MD for Metabase and SC for Schema, the highest sequence number represent the latest.).

For step by step instructions, please refer to:

http://web-developer.boeldt.net/IIS_Metabase_Backup.asp