# Backing Up Plakar Control Plane

Plakar Control Plane can back up its own configuration and database using the same backup workflow you use for any other resource. The process follows the standard steps: create an inventory, register the resource, attach a source connector, and schedule a backup task.

## Step 1 — Create a self-managed inventory

If you do not already have a self-managed inventory to hold the Plakar Control Plane resource, create one now. See [Self-Managed Inventory](../../../infrastructure/inventories/self-managed) for instructions.

## Step 2 — Register the Plakar Control Plane resource

Inside your self-managed inventory, add a new resource manually with the following values:

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| **Name** | `Plakar Control Plane` (or any name you prefer) |
| **URN** | `plakar-control-plane` (or any unique identifier) |
| **Hostname** | `localhost` |

![Add the Plakar Control Plane resource](../images/add-resource.png)

## Step 3 — Add a source connector using the PCP integration

Once the resource is created, open it and go to the **Connectors** tab. Add a **Source** connector and select the **PCP** integration (PCP stands for Plakar Control Plane).

![Add a PCP source connector](../images/add-source-connector.png)

## Step 4 — Schedule a backup task

With the source connector in place, create a backup task to run it on a schedule. You can do this from the connector's dashboard or from **Operations > Scheduling**.

Select your PCP source connector as the source and choose a store connector as the destination. Configure a schedule that fits your recovery point objective.

See [Scheduling](../../../operations/scheduling) for full details on creating tasks.

![Schedule a backup task for the PCP connector](../images/schedule-task.png)

## What the backup contains

Once a backup task completes, you can browse the snapshot contents like any other backup. A Plakar Control Plane snapshot includes:

- Important configuration files
- A database dump of the Plakar Control Plane internal database

If you need to recover from this snapshot, see [Restoring Plakar Control Plane](./restore).