FM8 Backup strategy

[Jeff Bills]

What do you consider to be better backup strategy of the two listed below and why?

1. Save a copy as

2. Exporting individual tables

[Ender]

Of the two, probably the 'Save a Copy as'. But a better strategy is multi-tiered:

1. Use FM Server to automatically backup several times a day to another hard drive than the one where the hosted databases reside.

2. Backup the backup hard drive to another location each night, keeping at least several day's worth.

3. Burn an archive (to CD or DVD) of the files periodically, weekly, monthly, or whatever.

[xochi]

The answer probably depends on what your are protecting against!

I've thought about adding plain text exports as a backup step, in addition to backing up the FM files themselves. My thinking:

• This protects (a bit) against hidden file corruption, e.g. if the FM backups are all corrupted, you'd still have the raw data
  
• Protects the client in case the consultant comes to harm and they can't replace you with another FileMaker consultant.
  
• Serves as a 'last-resort' form of warehousing. When, 20 years later someone wants to read the data, and FileMaker no longer exists
  

[Jeff Bills]

That's kind of been my thought