How do I back up and restore Web Security software?

Topic 50213 | Backup and Restore | Web Security Solutions | 11-Mar-2014


Applies to:	Web Filter, Web Security, Web Security Gateway, and Web Security Gateway Anywhere, v7.6.x, 7.7.x, and 7.8.x

The Websense Backup Utility makes it easy to back up your Websense software settings and policy data, and to revert to a previous configuration.

As a best practice, run the backup process on all machines with Websense components (including V-Series appliances and the TRITON console machine) within a 30 minute time window. When restoring a previous configuration, restore all machines using backup files created in the same 30 minute window.

When restoring software backups, remembering that cross-platform backup and restore (from Windows to Linux, for example) is not supported.

See How do I back up and restore the TRITON infrastructure? for information about backing up the TRITON console.

Running the Web Security Backup Utility

Make sure that all administrators are logged out of the Web Security manager.

Do one of the following:

(Windows) Navigate to the Websense bin directory (C:\Program Files or Program Files (x86)\Websense\Web Security\bin\).

(Linux) Navigate to the Websense bin directory (/opt/Websense/bin/) and enter the following command:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

To run an immediate backup, enter the following command:

wsbackup -b -d <directory>

Here, <directory> indicates a local or remote destination directory for the backup archive.


	Warning Do not store backup files in the Websense bin directory. This directory is deleted if you uninstall your Websense software.

To schedule the backup process to run on a regular basis, use the following command. Note that the Linux command syntax changed slightly after v7.6, so be sure to use the correct format.

Linux with v7.6.x, and Windows (all versions)

wsbackup -s -t "<m> <h> <day_of_month> <month> <day_of_week>" -d <directory>

Linux with v7.7 and later

wsbackup -b -s -t \"<m> <h> <day_of_month> <month> <day_of_week>\" -d <directory>

In addition to the \" characters at the beginning and end of the entire time and date string, if the string includes any asterisk characters (*), those must also be set off by a \" pair. For example:

wsbackup -b -s -t \"45 1 \"*\" \"*\" 5\"

Here, the backup is scheduled to run at 1:45 a.m. on Fridays (regardless of the month or date).

Scheduled backup commands use crontab format, and the quotation marks and spaces are required.

In place of the variables shown in the example, provide the following information:


Variable	Information
<m>	0 - 59 Specify the precise minute to start the backup.
<h>	0 - 23 Specify the general hour of the day to start the backup.
<day_of_month>	1 - 31 Specify the date to perform the backup. If you schedule a backup for days 29 - 31, the utility uses the standard substitution procedure for the operating system in months that do not include that date.
<month>	1 - 12 Specify the month to perform the backup.
<day_of_week>	0 - 6 Specify a day of the week. 0 represents Sunday.

Each field can take a number, an asterisk, or a list of parameters. Refer to any crontab reference for details.

After the first backup process has run, optionally use a text editor to edit the WebsenseBackup.cfg file, created with the backup archive, as follows:

Specify a numeric value for the KeepDays parameter, which sets the number of days archive files remain in the backup directory (365, by default).

When a file is older than the specified time period, it is deleted automatically.

Specify a numeric value for the KeepSize parameter, which sets the maximum number of bytes allotted for backup files (10857600, by default).

When the backup directory reaches the specified size limit, the oldest backup file is deleted automatically.


	Important After the first time the scheduled backup runs, verify that the backup file was created as expected. If you used a Windows server to schedule the backup, and the backup file was not created, see the KB article "Scheduling Web Security Backups for Windows 2008 R2 and Later" for additional steps.

Restoring your Web Security configuration

When you restore a Web Security configuration, make sure that you are restoring data for the components that exist on the current machine.

If the machine was rebuilt after, for example, a serious hardware failure, make sure that you have installed only the components that previously resided on the machine. The backup process can only restore configuration information for components that were present on the machine when the backup file was created.

When you restore your Web Security configuration, also restore a TRITON console configuration from the same time period.

Review Important tips for backing up or restoring both Web Security and the TRITON console before you begin.

See How do I back up and restore the TRITON infrastructure?.

After restoring the configuration on the Policy Broker machine, restart all Web Security services in your deployment.

Make sure that all services are running after the restore process. Manually start any services that remain stopped.

To restore a previous configuration:

Make sure that all administrators are logged off of the Web Security manager.

Do one of the following:

(Windows) Navigate to the Websense bin directory (C:\Program Files or Program Files (x86)\Websense\Web Security\bin\).

(Linux) Navigate to the Websense bin directory (/opt/Websense/bin/) and enter the following command:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

Enter the following command to initiate the restore process:

wsbackup -r -f archive_file.tar.gz


	Important The restore process may take several minutes. Do not stop the process while restoration is underway.

The Backup Utility saves some files used for communication with third-party integration products. Because these files reside outside the Websense directory structure, you must restore them manually, by copying each file to the correct directory.

Files that must be restored manually include:


File name	Restore to
isa_ignore.txt	Windows\system32
ignore.txt	Windows\system32\bin
wsSquid.ini	/etc/wsLib

What does the Web Security Backup Utility back up?

The Web Security Backup Utility identifies and saves any of the following files that it finds on the machine on which it is run. Files that existed in earlier versions but were not backed up until later versions are noted in the table below.


Path	File name
\Program Files or Program Files (x86)\Websense\Web Security\bin or /opt/Websense/bin	authserver.ini BrokerService.cfg config.xml das.ini diagnostics.cfg (starting in v7.7) domains.txt (starting in v7.8) eimserver.ini icap.conf (starting in v7.8) ignore.txt (starting in v7.8) linkingservice.ini LogServer.ini LSPProvider.cfg LSPConsumer.cfg mux.cfg muxplugins.cfg netcache.conf securewispproxy.ini SIEMConsumer.cfg StateServer.cfg syncservice.ini TestRestService.ini transid.ini ufp.conf ufp_sic.conf UsageMonitor.ini (starting in v7.7) websense.ini
bin directory (continued)	WebUI.ini wsauthserver.ini wscitrix.ini WSE.ini wsedir.ini wsradius.ini WSSEK.DAT wsufpserver.ini
bin/i18n	i18n.ini
bin/postgres/data	pg_hba.conf postgresql.conf
BlockPages/*/Custom	All custom block page settings
Windows: rtm\db\bin\	db.properties
Windows: rtm\conf\	config.properties system.properties
Windows: rtm\tomcat\conf\	catalina.properties
Windows: rtm\tomcat\conf\Catalina\localhost\	rtm.xml
ssdata/pac	websense.pac
Windows: tomcat\bin\	policyServers.ser
Windows: tomcat\conf\	catalina.properties wbsn-pairing-map.txt
Windows: tomcat\conf\Catalina\Localhost	mng.xml
Windows: webroot\	websense.ini
Windows: webroot\Exlorer\	favorites.xml websense.ini
Windows\system32\	ignore.txt isa_ignore.txt wsMsp.ini
Linux: /etc/wsLib	wsSquid.ini
Linux: conf/	WebsenseDaemon
Linux: conf/restore/	local.policybroker.policies remote.policybroker.policies