Backing Up Horizon Connection Server Data

After you complete the initial configuration of Connection Server, you should schedule regular backups of your Horizon 8 configuration data. You can preserve your Horizon 8 data by using Horizon Console.

Horizon 8 stores LDAP Connection Server configuration data in the Horizon LDAP repository.

When you use Horizon Console to perform backups, Horizon 8 backs up the Horizon LDAP configuration data. The Horizon LDAP data is exported in encrypted LDAP data interchange format (LDIF). For a description of Horizon LDAP, see "Horizon LDAP" in the Horizon Overview and Deployment Planning document.

You can perform backups in several ways.

• Schedule automatic backups or initiate a backup immediately using the Backup Now feature in Horizon Console. See Schedule Horizon 8 Configuration Backups.

• Manually export Horizon LDAP data by using the vdmexport utility. This utility is provided with each instance of Connection Server.

  The vdmexport utility can export Horizon LDAP data as encrypted LDIF data, plain text, or plain text with passwords and other sensitive data removed.

  Note: The vdmexport tool backs up the Horizon LDAP data only. This tool does not back up Horizon Event database information.

  For more information about vdmexport, see Export Configuration Data from Horizon Connection Server.

The following guidelines apply to backing up Horizon 8 configuration data:

• Horizon 8 can export configuration data from any Connection Server instance.
• If you have multiple Connection Server instances in a replicated group, you only need to export the data from one instance. All replicated instances contain the same configuration data.
• Do not rely on using replicated instances of Connection Server to act as your backup mechanism. When Horizon 8 synchronizes data in replicated instances of Connection Server, any data lost in one instance might be lost in all members of the group.