With any system you use it is important to maintain backups to ensure you can recover the system and files in the event of a disaster therefore a reliable backup strategy is an essential part of managing a SOLIDWORKS PDM environment. Your PDM vault contains far more than just the CAD files themselves — it also holds revisions, file history, workflow information, user data and other valuable metadata. Losing this information could have a significant impact on your business and your ability to recover from a hardware failure, database problem or other unexpected event.
Fortunately, backing up a SOLIDWORKS PDM system doesn’t have to be complicated. With the correct approach, you can create regular backups of both the PDM database and the vault archive, giving you the ability to restore your system if something goes wrong.
In this guide, we’ll explain what needs to be backed up and how to create a practical backup strategy.
Before starting, confirm that you have access to the server that PDM is installed on, SQL Server Management Studio, the Archive Server Configuration programme, the PDM Archive folder location, a suitable backup destination, and the credentials required to access the SQL databases. These items are needed to complete the database, archive and settings backups described below.
Is a Backup Required?
In most cases, the server hosting SOLIDWORKS PDM will already be included as part of an organisation’s wider disaster recovery strategy. If a problem occurs, this allows the entire server to be restored from a backup. However, restoring an entire server can be a time-consuming process and may also affect other applications or services running on the same machine.
An alternative, and often complementary, approach is to implement a PDM-specific backup procedure. This allows you to restore only the components required by PDM in the event of a PDM-related issue, without having to restore the entire server. In many situations, this can provide a much faster route to getting PDM back up and running, while minimising disruption to other services.
What Should be Backed up?
- Databases
SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard uses a SQL Express database in the background to record transactional information and metadata for the files that are stored. You’ll need to use SQL Server Management Studio to perform the backups. If SOLIDX installed your PDM system, this tool will have been installed already, but if not, you can download and install the latest version from Microsoft.
You will need to login to SSMS using SQL Server Authentication and the sa login. These should have been provided to you after installation.
Once you have logged in using the correct credentials, you can start the backup operation.
There are actually a minimum of two databases that need to be backed up:
- ConisioMasterDb
- The database carrying the name of the vault you use
If you have more than one vault in use, you will need to backup each one individually.
SQLXpress does not include a facility to automate these backups, so they need to be done manually or by creating you own batch file and using windows Task Scheduler. 3rd party software tools like ‘SQLBackupAndFTP’ or ‘ExpressMaint’ are also available.
Note: Neither of these tools are developed by SOLIDX and are provided as references only
To manually backup a database, right-click on the database you want to backup and select Tasks->Backup. You can then set your location for the backup file to be saved
It’s always a good idea to date stamp the backups and name them as to which database they are as it make identification easier later on:
- Archive Folder
The PDM Archive folder holds all the physical files along with the different versions/revision and as a result can be quite large in terms of physical size.
The default location of the archive is within the installation folder on the C: drive, usually C:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS PDM\Data\<name of vault>
The folder structure within the vault name will look like the below, as the data is stored in folders with Hexadecimal names:
You can also find this in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Solidworks\Applications\PDMWorks Enterprise\ArchiveServer\Vaults\<Vault name>\ArchiveTable
You can just copy this folder manually into your backup location, or alternatively, use tools like Robocopy along with Windows Task Scheduler. Again, it’s a good idea to date stamp the folder so you know when it was taken.
Note: both the database backups and archive backups should be performed when no-one is accessing or saving data into the vault.
- The Archive Server Settings
Finally, it’s important to backup the PDM archive Server Settings. While the SQL database contains the information that PDM uses to manage files and their associated data, and the vault archive contains the physical file data, the Archive Server configuration contains the settings required for the Archive Server to manage and access those archives.
Losing this configuration doesn’t necessarily mean that your vault files or database have been lost, but it can make recovering the PDM environment more complicated and time-consuming. Recreating the Archive Server configuration manually can also introduce the risk of incorrect settings or configuration differences following a disaster.
For this reason, the Archive Server configuration should be backed up alongside the SQL database and vault archive. This allows the PDM environment to be restored much more quickly and helps ensure that the recovered system retains its original configuration.
You can use the Archive Server Configuration programme to do this, which is installed as part of SOLIDWORKS PDM.
Start the program and then go to Tools-> Backup Settings
Within the tool you can choose to backup the settings for all vaults or individual vaults. It’s always a good idea to choose all vaults. You can specify the backup location, schedule the backup and password protect it. If you do password protect this file, it’s important not to forget it as it can’t be recovered and you won’t be able to restore the settings without it.
Once you have set the options you want, just click ‘Launch Backup’ and you’ll receive a confirmation the backup has been saved in the location you specified.
Note: Store the completed backups in a secure location that is separate from the PDM server. This helps protect the backup files if the original server is affected by hardware failure, corruption or another incident.
With the databases, file archive and archive settings backed up you have all three required components you’ll need to fully recover your vault in the event of a disaster.
Important: Testing the Backup
Regularly testing PDM Standard backups is essential to ensure that the data can be recovered when it is needed. A backup may appear to complete successfully but still be incomplete, corrupted, or missing important configuration or database information. With the files captured above, the restore procedure can be undertaken on the same machine. If you want to test the restore procedure on a different server or VM, some additional configuration will need to be done. Please get in contact with us for advice on what needs to be done.
Testing the restore process provides confidence that the PDM vault archive, SQL database and associated configuration can be recovered successfully, minimising downtime and reducing the risk of permanent data loss following a server failure or other disaster.
Summary
By maintaining regular backups of the SQL databases, vault archive and Archive Server settings — and by testing those backups periodically — you can ensure your SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard environment is protected and recoverable. A consistent, well-documented backup process helps reduce downtime, safeguard valuable design data and provide confidence that your vault can be restored if an unexpected issue occurs.
If you are a SOLIDX customer and need any assistance in setting this up or have any questions, please get in contact.