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Sage 50 - Backup Guide

Backing Up

• How to backup up

  • Pitfalls

  • Lesson

• What to backup

• Strategies

  • Strategy example 1 - DropBox
  • Strategy example 2 - Gmail

   

   

The number of times we have seen backups fail is astounding, there is no substitute for backing up and testing.  Our Data Fix service should never be needed, it should be regarded as the last possible option, not a fall back.

Please take time to make sure you have a backup system that works.

We think that DropBox is a good simple method to backup and keep data safe, simply backup you data into the dropbox folder and it will be backed up offsite

This link will give you a free account with DropBox

Here are some pitfalls we have come across all lead to DATA LOSS.

The lesson to learn from this is that however good you may think your backups are, you need to be sure.

There are lots of strategies that work well and are reliable.  The important things are

1. The data needs to be off site

2. You need to be able to "see" the backup has been done.

3. You need to test the backup

What to backup

The simple answer to this would be "everything" and indeed this is often the strategy of high capacity tape backups

However, most backups costs money, money in time to do things, money in time to check things and money to pay for storage, media, software, services so that simple answer is not the only one.

There are 3 main things to backup.

• Application / OS Software

• Personal Data

• Shared Data

• Sage Data

Application / OS Software

Some applications such as Sage are registered, should you loose your installation keys or CD's you can get replacements, download software and so on.

Some you can not, some are tied to the hardware they were installed on eg MS office and can not be reused on different hardware following a failure.  This sort of Draconian licensing is one of the reasons products like Open Office have made so much progress into the "office" market place.

Personal Data

Your email, your bookmarks in your browser and all such data should be stored in your user profile folder (C:\Documents and Settings\<USERNAME> or C:\Users) 

Shared Data

Programs such as Sage store their data the program data folder (C:\ProgramData or C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\)

Just to make things really messy and ruin the plan, these folder can also contain a load of old rubbish, and I mean that quite literally.  Temporary files have no value when they are left behind and they get left behind with gay abandon (see the guide to PC Performance on cleaning your PC)

Added to this in server environments, things can be set up differently, we might have common file shares for departments, the entire enterprise and personal areas just for our documents, in addition to all the rest.

And to cap it all off, not all programs play by the rules!

Sage did not always put it's data in the "officially designated area" it used to put it in the Program Files directory, this causes problems when installing old versions on modern operating systems that restrict access according to the official rules by default.

The bottom line is that you need to know your applications and you need to know which bit need backing up.

I DO NOT advocate single system backups, one failure and everything is gone, we should not put all our eggs in one basket, we need to spread them around.

Sage Data

Because I know Sage I can give a more detailed run down on what and how to backup Sage.

You could just do a Full backup every time and not worry about space or anything else.

However, Archives only change once a financial year, when new archives are made, reports and layout do not change that frequently, and data changes everyday.

From a logistical point of view, being able to restore layouts or reports over an existing set of data can be very handy.

I suggest that you can do an annual backup of Archives and skip them the rest of the time.

You can do periodic backups of reports and layouts on their own

You do daily backups of data only 

Strategy - General Principles

Times change and so do strategies.  

If you want us to help you plan to survive disasters and/or verify your current system, then please let us know, we can do comprehensive strategies to cover more than just the core Sage data, however they all follow the three principles above.

1/ Create a sage backup file, don't rely on restoring files in directories, always check data (even if it takes a long time it is important, running this on the PC acting as the server is a lot quicker) IF YOU HAVE ERRORS YOU BACKUP IS NO GOOD - Seek advice or restore the last backup and re-key the data.

2/ Backup to a "Backups Folder" on the Server, you have lots of spare space, having archives of what happened in the past and being able to pick form several backups is essential, although you will have copies off site, local copies are handy and quicker to access.

3/ Name the file using an iso date format eg SageBack-yyyy-mm-dd.001 this will list the directory in date order and make it easy to delete really old data for housekeeping.  It also means your latest file is at the end of the directory listing, which makes it easy to find. (Sage Version 17 now does this by default also put the company name in it!) (Add a description if you are doing archive, data only, reports or layouts)

3b/ Navigate to the directory and "See" for yourself that your backup is there.

4/ Backup a) have your server backup this directory online backup, tape or whatever is the general IT backup system - do not rely on this do not accept your IT supplier/Chief or anyone else's assurance, YOU are responsible. 

5/ Backup b) Have your own copy, you could copy it to a USB drive or burn a cd, email it off site, ftp it, whatever, the thing is you need to be able to get this back yourself.

6/ Test your backup, set up a test system, a PC that is does not get used for Sage is ideal to test the backup, some owner-managers use their home PC's or laptops for this. Install a stand alone copy of Sage on this PC, Download the backup from webmail and restore it, check the number of transactions is correct and run the check data routines.

If you can not confidently restore your data yourself, then your backup system is not good enough for your needs.

This is not OVERKILL it is a basic sensible strategy that could save your business from going bust.  You have several layers of backup the weakest link is that you are dependant on one email supplier, if gmail blew up and lost all mail the same time as your server and your server backups failed and the online backup failed, you would be in trouble.  Pretty improbable, you could use several different free webmail suppliers and alternate between them and reduce this risk further.

Most businesses that suffer severe data loss cease trading most of them within 6 months*.  Loosing all your documents is serious but loosing financial records is much, much worse.  

You CAN NOT ever have too many backups.

*See what Google has to say about data loss

Strategy Example 1 - Using DropBox to backup

Download and install dropbox, this will create a dropbox folder on your PC.

You need to run check data to ensure there are no errors in your data and then create a backup file from sage in the drop box folder.  DropBox will detect the file and upload it to the internet and any other devices you have connected to the same account.  

Verify: Check the circle in the corner of the file icon goes green to indicate it has uploaded, look out for warnings form DropBox about running out of space, you get 2.5Gig free with the link we provide but you can buy additional space fairly cheaply

Test: If you have a PC at home you could have it on the same drop box and test the backup at home by restoring the data.

Dropbox is one of the most popular services, however copy is very similar, only it offers a much larger free service. There are many other similar services.

Strategy Example 2 - Using Gmail to backup

Check and Backup your sage data, creating a Sage backup file on your PC.
Attach the Sage Backup file to an email and email it to a gmail account.

Verify: by logging into gmail and checking the inbox.

Test: Log into your email account from a laptop or other separate system, download the backup and restore to sage to check you know how to restore and that everything is working.