jasonvaughan

D-tools is a very valuable tool for us. It hold all our product information, pricing, etc etc. Loosing the data would be a major disaster. We backup the client files by copying them to another machine and other files are dealt with in a similar manner. However, this is a little sporadic as it is a pain to do.

I used to run a who bunch of web servers with clients email, websites and databases on. I devised a simple backup solution. A Cron script (a unix automted task) would run each night, Tar (Unix equivelent of Zip) up each of the client websites, each email account, then export the databases, Tar this up, bundle it all together and then FTP it to a location specified (this could easily be an off-site server). This was refined greatly but other users and became a great backup system for the severs.

Why does D-Tools not do the same? Specifically, the backup script should do the following:

Zip up all the Project files in to an archive
Export all the databases and zip the text files up too
Any other variable information, such as customised reports should also be zipped up

If a control panel within D-Tools could also let you specify an FTP address, username and password and a backup time (midnight every day or 6pm on sundays etc), this would be a great solution. If a major failure was to occur, you could then reinstall D-Tools and use the control panel to select the archive and which elements you want to restore.

We recently had a big failure and had to reinstall D-Tools. Whilst all the data was intact and we just had to re-import it, it did get me thinking.

slemay

If I'm not mistaken - all the images, cad drawings etc... are all stored in the SQL when you check the project in (but I could be wrong here... someone else care to chime in???)

After that - it's simple SQL management. You can't expect a software package to take the place of a SQL ADMIN. If you don't have one on staff (which I would guess you do not) - then you need to bring in a IT company to outsource to.

SQL is a large puppy ... and people takes weeks and weeks worth of classes to understand it and administer it (and I'm not talking PROGRAMMING or WRITING in it). So getting a good SQL admin to setup a maintenance plan for you on your entire SQL server will help with this in the future.

jasonvaughan

I am fairly sure you are mistaken. Most of the project information is stored in flat XML files and not the SQL database. I have never written MS SQL but I have written many MYSQL databases. There is absolutely no reason what so ever that you you need to take on a full time SQL server administrator. It should also be very straight forward to do an automated SQL dump to back up the SQL database.

I may be used to Mac and Unix servers but I am sure that Windows and MS SQL is not so poor that having a bullet proof yet simple to administer solution, is not that hard to achieve.

slemay

Jason - you misunderstood my statement - and it was NOT to hire a full-time person... it was to be a smart business and bring in an IT person to setup your SQL server... once it's setup it'll automate dumps / backups, re-index, do proper maintenance, repair errors etc.. etc.. without you paying a dime. For a few hours of time of an IT guy - it's worth it!

No different than you working on your car - sure you can put washer fluid in it or add gas - but do you want to change the oil? Rotate the tires? Some may be able to do that - most will not... this is no different of an example! If you want reliability - than spend the time and money to do that - if you want a do it yourself - then use the build in D-Tools tools that are "OK" at getting the job done.

jasonvaughan

The point is, the database is only part of it.

Dax (from Technical support) recently helped my re-install D-Tools completely. As part of this, we had to back up a number of files. These were project files and all sorts.

My point was D-Tools should build a comprehensive backup utility into its software. This would backup all necessary files and then FTP them to a remote location, so if the worst happened, you would at least have yesterday's system which could easily be restored.

Yes, I could get an IT contractor to do this for me but I am sure D-Tools themselves could do a much better job as they know what needs to be done and which bits need backing up.

bengt

Another nifty way to use, is to install the d-tools server on VMWARE, and just take a snapshot of the whole server...

slemay

Jason - I'm curious as to what files they had you backup???

As again - I've been told more than once - that everything that is important is stored in the SQL and on the server itself.

Even default settings for the workstation can be copied up to the database for easy restore functionality. So unless I've been incorrectly informed, I may be backing up incorrectly as well.

Currently we backup the SQL database and the shared folder paths - that's it. We have had to restore workstations - and never had a problem - but I will admit, we've never had to restore a server install yet. Maybe I need to roll out VM and do a recovery test.