zencontrol installations begin as a site managed via the zencontrol cloud. This platform manages everything from commissioning, monitoring, control and most importantly, acts as a backup of the site configuration.

This backup can be accessed at anytime, anywhere via the cloud so long as the controller or device in question is connected to the internet.

The purpose of the zencontrol onsite server is to provide an option where the site requirements do not allow for internet access for security reasons (millitary, education etc).

This means that the backup capabilities of the cloud are not available in these kinds of situations, and instead need to managed by the zencontrol onsite server.

There are three ways that backups can be taken, and this article will cover off these options below

In the situation where the settings of a single controller need to be backed up, this can be performed under the commissioning tab. Right click on the controller in question, select Advanced and select "Snapshot control system"

This will open a Windows Explorer dialogue box asking you where you wish to save this snapshot. Select a location, provide a file name, and press save.

Note: The controller must be online for this process to be possible.

In the situation where you wish to back up every controller manually, we can request a snapshot of every controller on site via the following menu in the top right have corner of the user interface under commissioning:

This will create a snapshot of all controllers currently online and reachable, and store them in the output directory of where the onsite server software is running from. This folder will contain a snapshots folder, where inside this folder will be a date stamped folder. All snapshots created during this site backup will be stored in here.

The snapshot file names are based off the controller's GTIN and serial number.

The GTIN and serial number of a controller can be found under commissioning -> Network

Note: The controllers must be online for this process to be possible.

As of version 4.0.6 of the zencontrol onsite server software, it is now possible to automate the backup/snapshot process. By default though, this feature comes disabled.

To enable this feature, navigate to Settings and locate the Periodic snapshots dropdown menu. Set this to enabled:

Then below, adjust the following settings to your desired requirements:

Press Save to confirm your settings.

Backups will be saved under the Output/snapshots/ folder within the directory where the zencontrol onsite software is running from.

Note: The controllers must be online for this process to be possible.