Powershell: Backup & Copy

Automating deployments can save you a great deal of headaches and even trauma in some cases. However I found it disappointing when I actually tried to put the best practice of automating deployments into practice.

I needed to make a backup copy of the production folder and then overwrite the live copy with the tested copy from the QA environment. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find any publicly available and publicly licensed PowerShell scripts to do this job.

I created the below module to do just that.

	#
	# BackupAndCopy.psm1
	#
	function BackupAndCopy
	{
	[cmdletbinding(SupportsShouldProcess=$True)]
	param([string]$source, [string]$destination, [string]$backup)
	$backupPath = $("$backup\") + $(Split-Path $destination -Leaf) + "_"+ $(get-date -Format MM-dd-yyy_HH-mm-ss) + "\"
	New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $destination$Suffix -Force
	New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backupPath -Force
	New-PSDrive -Name src -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $source -Credential $credentials
	New-PSDrive -Name dest -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $destination$Suffix
	New-PSDrive -Name backup -PSProvider FileSystem -Root $backupPath
	echo "Backing up $destination to excluding the Web.config"
	Copy-Item -Path dest:\* -Destination backup:\ -Recurse -Force -PassThru -Container
	echo "Copying files from $source to $destination excluding the Web.config"
	Copy-Item -Path src:\* -Destination dest:\ -Exclude @('Web.config') -Recurse -Force -PassThru -Container
	echo "Delete folders/files older "
	$limit = (Get-Date).AddDays(-7)
	Get-ChildItem -Path $backup -Force -Directory | Where-Object { $_.CreationTime -lt $limit } | Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Verbose
	}

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BackupAndCopy.psm1

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Noteworthy Items

1. Backup folder is datetime stamped in a consistent manner
   1. Makes troubleshooting  simpler
   2. More straight forward rollbacks
2. Different domains necessitated the use of New-PSDrive. It does still work on the same domain though.
3. Excluding the web.config to preserve environmental configuration/differences.
4. Delete backups older than 7 days so your infrastructure team doesn’t have to ask you why the drive is full.