---
title: Prepare for Backup
slug: manufacturing-connect-edge/prepare-for-backup
docTags: 
createdAt: 2022-05-27T16:36:24.000Z
---

Review the following information to prepare for restoring a backup. 

:::hint{type="warning"}
**Important**: If you create a backup on an instance of Manufacturing Connect Edge running on a virtual machine, you can't use the same backup to restore an instance of Manufacturing Connect Edge running on a physical device. 
:::

Make sure you do the following before restoring a backup. 

- Obtain a license for backup and restore. A new license is needed each time the Manufacturing Connect Edge device changes its MAC address. 
- Activate the device with Manufacturing Connect. See [Activate an Edge Device](docId:5pzX61W-1kwn6sHOBESfG) for more information.

Your organization's standards and requirements dictate the frequency of device backups.

# Manufacturing Connect Edge Configuration Backup and Virtual Machine Snapshots

Some virtual machines (such as VMware ESXI or MS HyperV) offer snapshots as a disaster recovery feature. Therefore, for these virtually deployed Manufacturing Connect Edge instances, configuration backups should not be used as the primary means of disaster recovery.

A snapshot is the state of a virtual machine at a specific point in time. In addition to being able to save a Manufacturing Connect Edge’s state like a configuration backup can, snapshots also preserve the virtual device’s memory and disc allocation.

For these virtual machines, configuration backups can be used instead to reset the configuration of a virtual device or to duplicate the setup of one device to many other virtual devices.