Backups are configured during the installation process and are set to run automatically. For guidance on how to customize these settings to meet your specific requirements, read on.
How to check where backups are enabled
- Navigate to Settings on the left side-menu, then to Database and Backup
- If Enable automatic backups is switched On, then backups are enabled on this computer. When a backup occurs, the backup is stored on the StrongER server computer.
- If Enable Secondary Backups is switched On, then when backups run, a secondary copy of the backup will be saved to the Secondary Backup Location.
When do the Backups Run
Backups run at the time that the Automatic Backup Time is set on the terminal where Enable automatic backups are switched On, Backups run only when StrongER is open, StrongER does not need to be logged in for the backups to occur, however StrongER needs to be open/running for them to occur.
To check what time the automatic backups are set to run:
- Navigate to Settings on the left side-menu, then to Database and Backup
- The time that the backups are set to run is the Automatic Backup Time
How to do a manual database backup
- Navigate to Settings on the left side-menu, then to Database and Backup
- Select New Backup
- You will get a pop-up message when the backup is complete
Note: If the manual backup is done on the computer that the secondary backup is configured, it will also save a copy of the database to the secondary backup location. Not all users have the authority to run a new backup.
How to check when the last backup was run
- Navigate to Settings on the left side-menu, then to Database and Backup
- Under the heading Previous Backups you can see a list of the backups with the date of the backup. The latest backup will be listed at the top of this list.
How to save a copy of the database as a one-off to take offsite
- Navigate to Settings on the left side-menu, then to Database and Backup
- Select New Backup
- You will get a pop-up message when the backup is complete
- Under the heading Previous Backups you will see a list of the backups with the date of the backup.
- Select Save next to the backup with today's date and time
- Choose a location to save the file (such as a flash drive, external hard drive or cloud location), name the file and select Save
Things to note:
- Backups may be enabled on a computer other than the StrongER server computer, but it will still be saved to the StrongER server computer
- The secondary backup should be configured to save to a cloud location or to a computer or location other than StrongER server computer, in case of failure of the StrongER server computer
- Backups should ideally be enabled on the terminal that StrongER is most likely to be running at the time that the automatic backup is configured for, to ensure regular backups are run
- Each database backup is self-contained, i.e. it contains all of the required information to restore your StrongER data to the date and time that the backup was run
- Backups do not delete themselves, so if you notice your free storage is getting low on the database computer, please let us know and we can delete old copies of the database backup