Database Backups

It is very important for you to make a backup plan for your system. Today's hardware costs are so inexpensive, it would be foolish not to invest some time and money into a backup plan, not to mention the cost of loosing your entire customer base to a failed hard drive.

The database backup settings are set in the Database table of the Settings section. There are 2 sections for backup options, explained below.

Database backups should be set on one machine, if your running multiple workstations on your network. If this is your only computer, you will enable this option on this machine.

The first section, in yellow above, is used for setting up database backups on this machine. By default, this will be enabled for a directory in the default installation. This is the directory where the backup files will be placed. You can also set how many days you would like to keep the backup files. This is required in order to keep the backup sets from filling up your computer's hard drive. The default setting is 7.

The second section, in blue above, is used to make a second backup copy on another computer on your network. This option is very useful for providing a failsafe copy of the data, in the event your primary computer's hard drive fails.

Once you have your backup options set, you can make backups in 2 ways.

During the End of Day operation, from the File menu, End of Day option, you can perform a backup. The date of your last backup will appear above the backup option. Click the "Backup Database Now" button, and the system will perform a backup, and notify you with the backup file name, If the backup is not successful, you will be notified.

The backup process is explain in more detail under the Database Admin section. See Backups for more information.