Save records to another computer instantly

[LaRetta]

Hi everyone, not sure where to put this topic, sorry ...

I currently Save A Copy As on our peer-to-peer every 10 minutes. When Server Advanced is in place, I may back up as frequently as every 5 minutes (depending upon how much time it takes). However Owner is concerned about losing orders between backups (we can receive up to 15 orders generating 150 LineItems in a 5-minute period).

Owner feels staff wouldn't remember all people to call back and he also doesn't want to have to call them to ask what they ordered. We have UPS in place and I also think it's unlikely the hard drive would fail while running (?) but, rare or not, the possibility exists. He has been making Staff write down the Customer ID on sheets of paper so we'd at least know who to call back.

It has been requested that I save every new LineItem record to another hard drive as soon as it is created. This file can be overwritten once a day (actually sooner if I could figure out how to know when a backup has just occurred and then clear it). I have SecureFM and figure I could use event trigger if necessary. Also, my LineItem creation is scripted. I've even been thinking about using Scheduled Tasks and VB.

I could use an Add Creation of Related but can a File Reference file be on another computer and if so, would this be the fasted way?

How would you all approach this problem?

LaRetta

[dkemme]

I have a similar situation with a served solution that each machine has its own database "PaperTrail" on its own hard drive that served solution will create a record with pertinent data in PaperTrail when necessary. If the server crashes between backups, we could use PaperTrail to find what happened between backup. I have never used it for this purpose (insert loud rapping of knuckles on wooden object), but have found it useful to find out just what in the heck some users where doing when problems were arising.

[LaRetta]

Thanks Doug. I was hoping for something FM driven, more along the lines of taking a User global (like a mini audit log) - one field and exporting that; maybe even to their own hard drive. I want something lightening fast so it won't be noticed by Users since it will need to fire frequently when generating LineItems.

My LineItems are all point-click-select mouse-driven and I want the write to be very quick and compact. Owner mentioned a RAD and I felt my eyes cross; not sure that would help with this situation and I have no idea what it even does. He said it could 'mirror' our host file (he has a tech friend who mentioned it). I'm nervous about another copy existing anywhere on network and would need to understand a lot more first.

Well, if anyone has other ideas I would sure appreciate it.

LaRetta

[Ender]

The RAID might be appropriate here. Using a RAID for mirroring means having two or more local hard drives syncronized with exact copies of the data. Changes are made to both simultaneously. If one drive fails, you still have the other. Some RAIDS are even hot swappable--you can pull out a drive without taking the system down.

I don't use a RAID myself, and I'm no expert. But a lot of server systems use RAIDs for the same protection you're trying to achieve. I should think it would perform better than copying data to remote machines. It seems it would be a lot easier to deal with both the setup and the disaster recovery.

[comment]

There are two separate issues here.

One is the question of hard-drive failure. if you 'think it's unlikely the hard drive would fail while running' - think again. In this universe, little shiny disks don't go spinning forever. Putting your mission-critical data on RAID is an excellent idea (and make sure to tell the owner I said so ).

A RAID provides protection against single hard-drive failure, by mirroring or otherwise duplicating the data. A RAID is (usually) an OS-level device, and thus transparent to applications. IOW, the array of 2 or more disks appears as a single hard drive, and Filemaker sees only one copy of each file.

The other issue is file corruption. A file can become corrupted on a RAID just as easily as on a single hard-disk. This is more or less a cost/benefit question: given that you back up every 5 - 10 minutes, and given that many (most?) times data can be retrieved from a corrupted file, the question is how many resources is it reasonable to commit for the sake of those orders created in-between.

[LaRetta]

Wonderful! Thank you both for the input!

If it's important enough to the Owner then he can just make it so. I was concerned about slowing my baby down by firing script constantly (even for only one global field) and it just wasn't setting well with me. I'm happy to move this off my plate!

LaRetta