The main purpose of the import and export server configuration features is to initially move your server running Microsoft® Forefront Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 from a test system to a production system. In addition, you can use these features to update the metaverse schema, the metaverse rules, and the management agents on your production server periodically, with minimal disruption. You can also use export server configuration as a backup procedure; however, you must back up any extension dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) and the FIM SQL Server 2008 database separately.

When exporting the server configuration, you can use the command on the File menu in Synchronization Service Manager, or you can use the command-line tool Svrexport.exe. For more information about Svrexport.exe, see Svrexport: Svrexport: Server Configuration Export Tool. The Export server configuration command creates a file named Mv.xml to save the server configuration, and it also creates a file for each management agent. The management agent files are XML files that are named using the globally unique identifier (GUID) of the management agent. The files are written to a user-specified folder.

Important

The server configuration files that are created during the export server configuration process can only be used for an import server configuration process. Do not use them with import metaverse schema or import management agent processes.
Note

Do not copy any other files to the folder where the server configuration files are saved. When you run import server configuration, the process attempts to import all files that exist in the target folder. If it attempts to process nonserver configuration files, the process fails.

After the server configuration has been exported, you can import it to another server, where you can test and configure modifications to the server settings and the metaverse schema (including object deletion rules) and where you can create or modify management agents.

To import the server configuration, you must use the command on the File menu in Synchronization Service Manager. The import process is a full replace operation; that is, all configuration data on the target server running FIM is replaced by the data in the import configuration file. It is recommended that you save the existing server configuration before running the import procedure.

If the import process is interrupted, the server may be unusable until a retry of the server configuration import process. When you begin an import process, FIM issues a warning to not run any management agents or modify server settings during the operation.

The import process can also fail if a management agent exists on the target server but there is not a management agent in the configuration files with a matching GUID. It is acceptable to have management agents in the configuration files without matching management agents on the target server. The import process also fails if any attribute in the configuration files has any schema differences with the matching attribute in the metaverse. This includes attributes of the same type but where one is indexable and the other is not.

In addition to importing the metaverse schema and updated or new management agents, the import process also imports the import attribute flow rules and the object deletion rules. It is recommended after a server configuration import that you run the management agents in Full Import and Full Synchronization mode.

Important

You should always use the import server configuration feature to create management agents on your production system. After you create a server configuration, you can modify them on your test system and use the update management agent or import server configuration features to update the management agents on your production system. You cannot use the import management agent feature to modify management agents that have been created using the import server configuration.

For more information about configuring FIM, see Configure the Server.