Backup and Restore

Note: Super Admin access is required to back up or restore a site.

Backup and Restore can be used to back up a site configuration, restore a site to a previous state, configure a new site, or to manage the migration of changes between sandbox and production environments. To fully duplicate a site, you must complete the following steps:

Step 1: Back up and restore the site configuration See details

Step 2: Export and import blocks configuration See details

Step 3: Manually recreate configuration data not included in the previous steps See details

Step 1: Back up and Restore the Site Configuration

Backup and restore can be run in Nitro Studio or programmatically. Each site can have up to 9 non-system backups and 1 system backup.

Backup only saves site configuration data and does NOT include leaderboard or recognition IDs, OAuth Clients, quizzes, blocks, themes, or any user data.

The backup process downloads the following site data in XML format:

 

Restoring a site's configuration replaces the current configuration with the backup data. This means that:

Create a Backup

  1. Log in to the site that you want to back up.
  2. Open Nitro Studio > Tools > Backup & Restore.
  3. Click Backup.
  4. In the Name of Backup field, enter a name for the backup, and then click Generate Backup on Server.
  5. If you are planning to restore the backup immediately, click Copy site configuration to Clipboard?. Otherwise, click Cancel.

Note: Large backups will not copy to the clipboard. You will need to generate the backup on the server or run the backup programmatically.

Restore a Backup

When restoring a backup, you can manually edit the XML file to remove unneeded data. Show me moreClosed

For example, if you have one sandbox and multiple production environments, you may want to restore only certain items from the backup. You can do this by manually editing the XML. Leave the items you want to restore in the XML and remove everything that you don't want to restore. So, to remove a mission, you would remove everything inside the <Challenge> tag (located between the <challenges></challenges> tags).

Note: Databases are indexed multiple times a day. After a restore, some information may not be available in searches until the next time the database is re-indexed.

  1. Log in to the Nitro Studio site where you want to restore the backup.
  2. For programs with an award account:
    1. Verify the award account exists in the site where you want to restore the backup. If it does not exist, create it.
    2. Verify the point category linked to the award account has the same name as the award account point category in the backup site.
  3. Click Tools > Backup & Restore.
  4. Click Restore.
  5. Do one of the following:
    • If you copied a site configuration to the clipboard, click XML Text, paste the configuration data, and then click Restore.
    • If you do not have site configuration in the clipboard, click Backups on Server, select a backup in the list, and then click Restore.
  6. Click Yes to confirm.

Note: When restoring larger backup files, the progress can appear to time out although the process is running properly. If you're concerned the restore has timed out, log in with a private/incognito browser to check if the expected changes are visible.

Step 2: Export and Import Blocks

Export and import uses a copy/paste process to move block information from one site to another. This means that:

Create an Export

Safari browsers may not copy the export to the clipboard. Use Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge for the best results.

  1. Log in to the site where you want to run the export.
  2. Open Nitro Studio > Tools > Backup & Restore.
  3. Click Export.

Run an Import

  1. Log in to the site where you want to run the import.
  2. Open Nitro Studio > Tools > Backup & Restore.
  3. Click Import.
  4. Paste the data from the export into the text field.
  5. Click Import.
  6. Click Yes to confirm.

Step 3: Manually Recreate Configuration Data

Some configuration elements must be manually recreated in the destination site after completing your backup/restore and export/import.

See also

Site settings

Sandbox and production environments