You can back up a certification authority (CA) without having to back up the entire server on which the CA is installed. However, in most situations you should use the Backup snap-in to back up and restore both the CA and the server at the same time.
You must be a CA administrator or a member of the Backup Operators group, or equivalent, to complete this procedure. For more information, see Implement Role-Based Administration.
 | To back up a CA by using the Certification Authority snap-in |
Open the Certification Authority snap-in.
In the console tree, click the name of the CA.
On the Action menu, point to All Tasks, and click Back Up CA.
Follow the instructions in the CA Backup Wizard.
You can also back up a CA by using the Certutil command-line tool.
You must be a CA administrator or a member of the Backup Operators group, or equivalent, to complete this procedure. For more information, see Implement Role-Based Administration.
| To back up a CA by using Certutil |
At a command prompt, type:
certutil -backup <BackupDirectory>
BackupDirectory is the path used to store the backup data.
Additional considerations
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To open a command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, and then click Command Prompt.