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There are many ways of restoring databases for Vault. When you perform the restore, it is very important to understand what needs to be restored and how it is needs to be restored. Let’s make sure you have an understanding of the different types of databases involved with Vault. This will only be for non-replicated environments.
First there is the Master Vault, also known as the KnowledgeVaultMaster. This database contains the common global administrative and configuration information for all of the vaults and libraries in the environment. It also contains the Users and Groups along with their vault access permissions. Next are the vault databases. The vault database contains all vault specific configurations. It contains the records and information about the file versions that are checked in and out of the vault. It also contains the records for Custom Objects, Items and change orders. Basically anything that you can access only in that specific Vault. Last but not least are the Content Center Libraries. There are the standard Content Center Libraries that come with Inventor and there is also the custom content library that might be specific to your company.
Now that you have an understanding of each database, let’s talk about the restore process. When you use the Vault server console to perform the restore, all of the database mentioned above are stored for you and you shouldn’t have to worry about it too much. When you are using a third party software to perform the restore or using some other method, this is where knowing what you are restoring is key. Since the Master vault stores the user information and the vault holds the file and other information, you must restore them both to make sure your environment is restored properly. As an example, if you have to perform a restore from 2 months ago, the Master Vault and Vaults should both be from 2 months ago. You cannot restore a Master Vault from 2 months ago and keep the current Vault databases and hope they work together. There is a link between the users in the Master Vault to the records in the Vault database. If you were to perform this restore, you could end up with records missing in your vault because it doesn’t have the linked user in the Master vault. Now, what is possible is restoring a 2 month old vault database to use with a current Master vault. Why, because the users and groups cannot be deleted in the system and therefore the links will still exist to the user who made the change to the record.
Hope this helps with you understand your system a little bit better.
Irvin Hayes Jr.
Product Manager
