The gateway backup you'll wish you had

A gateway backup isn't everything

A .gwbk captures your projects, tags, device connections and gateway config — but not:

• The external SQL database your history and application tables live in.
• Module files and their licenses or activation.
• OS-level config, certificates and identity-provider settings.

Restore only the .gwbk and you'll have a gateway that boots but can't talk to its own history.

The full capture list

• Scheduled gateway backups — and copied off the box, not left on the same dying drive.
• Regular database dumps of the historian and any app tables.
• A record of installed modules, versions and licenses.
• Certificates, IdP config and any reverse-proxy settings.
• A short written runbook: what to install, in what order, with which keys.

Test the restore

A backup you've never restored is a guess. Stand it up on a spare gateway once a quarter and time it. The first dry run always surfaces the one thing nobody captured.