Hard Lessons, part 2

[LaRetta]

I think it important to share things that, unfortunately, we learn the hard way. A year ago, I confessed to importing and forgetting to re-set auto-enter serials. That was a hard lesson that scrambled my data. Today, another lesson was learned the hard way ...

I've been dragging my feet in installing Server 7 Advanced (for several reasons). Those reasons seem feeble at the moment. Why? Well, for four months, I've backed up our peer-to-peer or LAN or whatever you call it ... 5 networked systems. I backup by Saving A Copy As and have NEVER needed to grab a backup copy. I back up every 10-20 minutes faithfully! Well, that is, until today.

This morning, our roof caved in because of a rain storm - right next to my desk. I have L-shape station with two systems (FM Pro 7 and FM Dev7 Host). I (and half our staff) spent 3 1/2 hours moving files, desks, grabbing buckets, yada yada to save our office. I didn't back up. The remainer of the staff continued to take orders and ... well, I think you know where I'm going.

At noon, I threw my hands in the air and announced to the rain-drenched office crew, "We're safe!! We made it!" I headed to my computer to Save A Copy As ... and there was a huge pop! The entire street blew power and my baby (the host) crashed. And now it will not even recover.

I sit here with the afternoon off for the first time in 14 months and I'm unhappy about it. We lost approximately 250 orders taken this morning. If we would have had Server Advanced protecting us with auto backups (I'm going to do it every 5 minutes!!!), our data would have been safe.

I have always endorsed and adhered to fanatical backup routines. And here I sit with egg on my face any way. And a heep of responsibility (and guilt) for losing so much data that our staff worked so hard to accomplish. Everything now is handled by FileMaker, through invoicing & GL. Our staff describes using FileMaker as, "As fun as a video game" and I was feeling a bit smug. I don't feel smug today.

My point? There is absolutely no excuse or justification not to do it right. Anyone who is networked without Server, pay attention please. Server is simply worth it for auto backups alone.

LaRetta

[BrentHedden]

Hmm, sounds very familiar. I've also learned NOT to have Server backing up to the the same drive as the hosted files are on. My thoughts were "What's the matter? I'm backing it up, ain't I?" . That was good reasoning until the drive failed completely. I should have seen a doctor because I probably got some brain damage from pounding my head against the wall repeatedly. I have come to appreciate my handy-dandy tape backup system now in place.

[-Queue-]

Oh, that's so horrible! I'm very sorry that happened to you.

I would highly suggest you purchase a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) for your computer. Not only could it have saved you today, if there were even a power surge that could immobilize or fry your system, it would affect the UPS instead and your comp would be safe. It is well worth the cost.

[Ender]

Ahh, good lessons for us all!

I know first hand how much a pain it can be setting up a complete backup scheme, but these experiences remind me how important it is. Thanks for sharing.

[LaRetta]

Well, bringing the file home, it still wouldn't recover, even placing it in the root of Drive C (which I've heard helps). What is strange (and very lucky for us) is that everything appears fine except our LineItems (480,000 records are gone). It shows 106 records but when creating a new layout and viewing them, they are all blank. Here is the lucky part ...

I can display today's invoices and all LineItem portals display those lineitems!! I can print those invoices and we can re-enter them without having to call our Customers back. Oh yes, we are lucky indeed. In fact, I can retrieve those lineitems (they first write to temp globals in Invoices. When I re-set the LineItem (which creates a new LineItem record with that global invoice data, they again display, but the LineItem table itself still remains blank. But, oh, I feel blessed indeed any way.

I have backup of latest design work from midnight last night. Any suggestions on proper restoration would be appreciated. I suppose I find all modified data from today and then import those records into my version from midnight; using update/add to?

This line of work makes a person want to drink.

LaRetta

[Wim Decorte]

I've also learned NOT to have Server backing up to the the same drive as the hosted files are on. My thoughts were "What's the matter? I'm backing it up, ain't I?" . That was good reasoning until the drive failed completely.

Good point, but not a reason to have FMS backup directly to a networked volume:

- if the network volume is not available, no backup will occur

- FMS pauses the files for the duration of the backup, which takes considerably longer over the network than locally

The best of both worlds is to have FMS backup locally (fast, will always happen), then zip & date/time stamp the zip file and copy them to the networked volume. All automated of course. That leaves a copy in two places and the users don't see the dreaded coffee cup symbol for very long.

[LaRetta]

I spent all night re-migrating the data back into a good design backup from midnight the night before (thank God for create and modify date/time stamps) and re-entering all the lineitems back on all those orders.

The files just finished uploading to the office (we got power back there last night) and it finished uploading 10 minutes before staff arrives; again, I am very lucky.

UPS will be purchased today (thank you JT). And I will install Server Advanced this weekend (I had planned to do it over Christmas holiday). The questions and problems which were holding me up are unimportant. Owner will need to hire a Network Consultant if necessary to assist us in providing nightly access. I will not carry this burden alone. And then maybe I'll take Christmas holiday off for myself.

Thank you everyone for your feedback and help on this. I now head to the office to clean up the mess - our (main) Lanier printer was soaked. I sure hope it's dry by now!!

LaRetta

[Steven Cappiello]

Sorry for your loss!

Must you have Server Advanced to do such frequent backups or is this possible with Server ?

I have server and it seems I can only set a scheduled backup to occur once per day.

Am I missing something ?