Backup devices

The backup & restore process for Industrial Edge Devices is managed by a central service called Industrial Edge State Service, which runs within the IEM.
To add backups of IE Devices, follow the instructions provided on this page.

Requirements

• The IE State Service is available.

• Permission to perform the backup of an Edge Device state.

  NOTICE

  Permissions
  Only the owner and users assigned to the edgedevices.co-admin admin group role of the specific Edge Device have permission to perform a backup of that device's state.

Backup overview

As part of the devices, the Backup overview shows all available backups within the IEM.

NOTICE

Permissions
While the IEM admin has access to all backups, individual users can only view their own backups.

①	Backups are filtered by the search input based on matches found in the device name and/or description field.
②	Each backup entry contains information about: Device name Creation date and time Content included in the backup Description Storage size By default, the table is sorted by creation date and time.
③	Functionalities: Restore More Edit the backup description Delete the backup
④	Add a new backup

Backup details

By clicking on a backup, further information about the backup is displayed.

The detailed view contains the following information:

• Creation date & time
• Description of the backup
• Device type and CPU architecture of the source device
• Device runtime version of the source device
• Device firmware version of the source device
• Memory limit check option from the source device application settings
• Included apps and their versions
• Included device settings
• Information about included volumes
• Included Management App configurations
• Storage location of the backup
• Storage size of the backup

If the information is not stored in the backup or not supported by the current version of the source device, "n/a" is displayed.

Backup creation

New backups can be created via the Add backup button. This opens a wizard to create and configure a new backup.

When you select a backup, the system provides details about the source device, including its type, architecture, runtime, firmware version, installed applications, and the timestamp of the most recent backup.

You can provide a brief description of the backup to help identify its purpose. Below, you'll find checkboxes that allow you to customize the backup content: Choose to include Device Applications in your backup. If you select this option, you can also choose to back up application data and Management Application configurations. Additionally, you have the option to include device settings in your backup.

For more information about backup content, refer to the Backup content section.

NOTICE

To ensure a complete backup, all apps are stopped temporarily and restarted after backup creation, provided that application data is included.

The footer provides the option to cancel the operation by clicking the Cancel button, or to initiate the process by selecting the Add button.

Adding a backup creates a new backup for the selected Edge Device. Previous backups of that Edge Device are not overwritten.

Notice: Resiliency

Resiliency is the ability of the IE State Service to ignore errors that occur during the backup execution. For example, non-existent content can be skipped.

Backup content

The following table displays the content that can be stored and restored, as well as the content that is not stored in a backup:

Content	Included in backup	Not included in backup
Device settings	Configuration Edge Management timers Upload log timer (together with log levels) System File-based log settings (log levels) Application settings (Memory limit check) Logging & Monitoring Stream-based log settings	Configuration Edge Management timers Check Edge Management notifications Publish Edge Device analytics Timeout settings Edge Device alerts NTP health status timers Connectivity Network and Layer 2 network acccess Proxy settings Docker network settings Registered ports System App developer mode settings Remote access settings NTP server Resource Manager
Device Apps	App ID and version	*.app file
Device App data	App volumes of the following volume types: Host Internal* Logs Configs Auth Service	App volumes of the following volume types: TMPFS Openpipe Socket Data Storage Events Service Volume files with the following file mode: ModeNamedPipe: Named pipe (FIFO) ModeDevice: Device file ModeCharDevice: Unix character device, when ModeDevice is set. ModeSocket: Unix socket domain ModeIrregular: Non-regular file
Device App configurations	Versioned: Configuration ID Unversioned: Configuration file Templated and Schema-based: Configuration ID and modifications.	Versioned: Configuration file Templated and Schema-based: Configuration file
Device App state	App state (running/stopped)
Management App configurations	The configurations of the following Management Apps are supported: Databus, External Databus, Cloud Connector and S7 Connector. Management App configurations which are available during the moment of the store operation. The configuration will be stored and used during the restore process without any Edge Device specific settings such as Edge Device name.	The configurations of all Management Apps that are not mentioned above. Management Apps will not be deployed upon restore, app resources are required to be used for that.

*Internal volumes are supported with IE Runtime version v1.13.0-1 and Helm Chart version 1.2.19., the UI differentiates between Basic and Extended App Volumes.

Backup jobs

When storing backups, the following job messages can occur in the Job Status page:

Job message	Description
In progress	Store is in progress
Success	Store was successful All content resources have been stored
Partially succeeded	Store was partially successful At least one content resource was either unavailable or unsuccessfully stored. The content of a backup can be checked in the backup overview. The content stored is included in the job status description Example: User selected Device Applications and Management Application configuration to be included in the backup. One of the supported Management Apps is not installed on the IED (unavailable). This will lead to a partially succeeded job, showing "partially succeeded, content stored: apps, app data" in the backups job details.
In cancellation	Store is being canceled
Canceled	Store has been canceled Incomplete backups are cleaned up
Error	Store has failed A detailed error message including error reason is displayed

NOTICE

The jobs on the device (Job Status - System page) are subtasks that are triggered by the IE State Service and have direct influence on the status of the backup or restore job (Job Status - Backups page). Therefore, a failure of the subtasks usually leads to a failure of the superior job.
However, notice that a backup job (Job Status - Backups page) can be completed and partially successful despite of a fail of the Edge Device Backup job (Job Status - System page), for example due to a time out. In this case, the failed subtasks represents an unsuccessfully stored resource within the backup job.

NOTICE

The backup task operates independently of the job queue. Initiating a backup will start the process immediately, regardless of the completion status of other jobs (e.g. installing an application on a device).

Backup deletion

Backups can be deleted via the Backup overview page. As of today, deleting applications or devices does not automatically delete device backups.

Previous design

Follow the instructions below to add a backup with the previous UI.

Backup overview

The Backups screen lists all stored backups that can be used to restore an Edge Device state. For example, the tiled view of the Backups screen looks like this:

①	The stored state contains the following information: Backup date & time Source Edge Device
②	Search bar: Enter a keyword to search for a state and press 'Enter'
③	Switch in between list view and tile view
④	Select respective state
⑤	More functionalities

When you move the cursor over a tile, the backup description and content will be displayed as tooltip.

Clicking on the icon switches to the list view, as shown below.

An entry in the list view contains the backup description and information on the stored data in its row.

Backup functionalities

By clicking the icon, the Edge Device state commands are displayed.

Following commands are available:

• Restore: Restore Edge Device(s) from this state
• Edit description: Add, update or delete a description
• Delete: Delete the state

Limitations

Following are the limitations of the IE State Service.

• Backup migration

Backups cannot be migrated to other IEM instances.

• Secure Storage

The secure storage feature is not supported by the IE State Service. All data that is stored in the secure storage will not be part of IE State Service backups.

• Catalog Apps - Availability

Apps which are not available respectively which are removed from the Catalog of the IEM cannot be stored, the operation will result in an error.

• Catalog Apps - Versions

To store backups containing apps with an older version than the latest available version in the Catalog of the IEM, the initiating user must at least possess the ie-management.admin role.

• Project Apps

If the Edge Device contains apps from one or more app projects, the user that initiates a store operation must possess the access right to this resource and therefore either be the owner or co-owner of the respective app project.

• Memory limit check Setting contained in backup

If the Memory limit check setting is changed in the Application settings of the Edge Device, it takes at least the time of the configured Edge Management timer "Publish Edge Device Analytics" to update on the IEM side and thus be included in a new backup of that device.
If a backup is taken before the updated setting is pushed to the IEM, the backup will include the previous value.

• App state

During the backup and restore process of app data, apps running on the Edge Device will be stopped automatically. If you manually start apps through the Edge Device UI during the backup process, errors might occur resulting in no properly backed up app data.

To avoid this, do not manually start apps during the backup process.

• Available information

In addition to the requirements to have the permissions to either store or restore an Edge Device state, the following table shows the available information that are displayed by the IE State Service depending on the user permissions:

User	Edge Device states	Status	Storable resources
Authenticated user	No Edge Device states	No status	All storable resources
User with the `edgedevices.state.store` / `edgedevices.state.restore` permission	All Edge Device states from Edge Devices for which the user is authorized	Every status associated with Edge Devices for which the user is authorized	All storable resources
Edge Device owner	All Edge Device states from Edge Devices which the user owns	Every status associated with Edge Devices which the user owns	All storable resources
Admin user of the IEM	All Edge Device states within the system	No status	All storable resources