The Integration Server utilizes a webMethods physical storage technology to persist critical operational data. This storage technology employs database-like technology of logging and transactional management. Under normal operations these facilities maintain the integrity, consistency, and recoverability of data persisted to these files. However, even with these safeguards, abnormal server shutdown and catastrophic failures can occur, which could result in these files being left in an unrecoverable state.

Shutting down Integration Server by any means other than the Integration Server Administrator may result in critical data files being left in an unrecoverable state. This will result in the inability to restart the Integration Server without manual intervention to remove or recover the damaged data files.

The mission-critical nature of the data stored in the Integration Server's data files requires that it be backed up periodically for disaster recovery. As in all critical data resources, the potential exists for a physical failure to leave the Integration Server data files in a corrupted state. In these situations the method of recovery is to replace these data files with the most current backup. The frequency and nature of these backups depends on the critical nature of the data being stored. Backups of these data files should be an offline process with the Integration Server in an idle or shutdown state, i.e. no disk activity.