Hello, I have a solution that incorporates a practice database that users go into to learn and do what if kinds of things. The way it works is I backup the real database and copy it over to the practice database. In filemaker 9 that would not have been a problem but the new server admin function dumps my backup in a timedated folder making it hard to access through windows command lines. Is there anyway of getting a backup from the server without the timestamped folder?

Rich

While I did not find a way to get filemaker not to use the datestamp on the folder I did find a work around. I want to do all this from a batch file and was able to do it with the commands below. The key was that if I setup my backup as a schedule on the server that is set to only keep one copy so that it only puts on folder at a time in the backup folder I can gain access to it with * a wildcard in dos. also you see the sleep command used and thats not built in to dos I had to download it from mircosoft as part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools i got here.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9D467A69-57FF-4AE7-96EE-B18C4790CFFD&displaylang=en

Here is the batch file

d:

fmsadmin.exe Run schedule 4 -u administrator -p Password

sleep 10

fmsadmin.exe CLOSE -y pplay.fp7 -m "Pplay will close in 2 minutes for the nightly update" -t 120 -u administrator -p Password

Sleep 160

cd

cd FmpBackUp

cd Quick*

cd Databases

copy RealDB.fp7 "D:Program Files (x86)FileMakerFileMaker ServerDataDatabasespplay.fp7"

sleep 10

fmsadmin OPEN Pplay.fp7 -u administrator -p Password

Schedule 4 is named QuickBackup on the FPS10 server and creates a folder called QuickBackup_2009-04-29_1642 where the time and date changes each time. In the batch file the cd Quick* will open the subfolder as long as its the only one that starts with the word Quick so I don't think this would work if you had filemaker do incremental backups

Rich

What does this sleep command do to FileMaker Server? [color:red]I hope it does not put the services into some sort of sleep mode at the OS level. That would not be good for the health of the files. The Console has pause and resume commands built into it.

Steven

The sleep command only pauses the dos window, in this case to give the filemaker server time to complete its backup before it copies the files. In dos there is no built in command to pause a set amount of time before executing the next command.

You might want to look at the built-in Script Sequence routine in the Scehdules section of the Console to accomplish these type tasks.

Steven

use a batch file or script to copy the DB to your chosen location. I cannot find any way to change the naming convention.