How to Backup/Restore Internet Information Services using GUI or Command line for IIS 6 and IIS 7

Here is a step-by-step method to take IIS back, remember taking IIS backup is very important before modifying or doing any changes on the IIS based website and virtual directory 

 

IIS 6.0

The First method is by using GUI Mode

1) Open Internet Information services (IIS) Manager

2) Right Click the server name and click on All Tasks and select Backup/Restore Configuration

3) Click on Create Backup option to take backup

4) Type the backup name in the Configuration Backup Name

5) If you want to Encrypt/ Password Protect the backup file, Select the option: Encrypt backup using Password and provide password of your choice

Note: Remember the password to be used during restore.

6) Click on OK and you are done

7) While restoring the backup just select the Backup Name you want to restore and click on Restore option

8) The same way if you want to delete any existing backup, use Delete option

The second method to take IIS 6 backup is by using the command Line

1) Open a command prompt

2) Run the command as you see in the below example

Example command : Cscript.exe iisback.vbs /s <YourServerName> /u Administrator /p  <YourAdminPassword> /backup /b NewBackupName

IIS 7

Method Using command 

To backup IIS configuration:
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe add backup "Backup-Name"

To restore that backup:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe restore backup "Backup-Name"

To delete a backup:

%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd.exe delete backup “Backup-Name"

Once the backup command is successful, the files can be verified in the default location C:\windows\system32\intersrv\backup\Backup-Name