FMS12 Backup for Offsite Disaster recovery

[Ron Cates]

We are currently setting up with an offsite disaster reocovery backup service and I am having some trouble figuring out the best way to include our Filemaker database.

First off I am well aware that the offsite backup should not touch the live database. It will obviously be setup to pull a backup copy.

The offsite does incrimental backup so it only pulls data that has changed from day to day. Our database is 17 gigs and growing. So due to the cost I would like to be able to take advantage of the incrimental capabilities of the offsite backup and I only want to backup the latest database backup. I setup a seperate filemaker backup schedule to only keep 1 day, but it creates a new dated folder for each new day and writes a new file then removes the previous file. So if the offsite backup is set up to backup from the backup folder for this schedule it will find a new 17 gig file each night and have to transfer an entire copy of the database every night.

So the questions are:

Is there a way to setup a backup in filemaker server that will simply overwrite the same file in the same folder each night? And would that even help me since the file would be overwritten each night would the offsite backup still see it as having changed entirely?

Or is it it possible to have the offsite system backup from the progressive backup? ( I highly doubt this but just thought I would ask anyway )

Otherwise does anyone have any other suggestions or insight to offer.

Thanks

Ron

[dansmith65]

have you looked into using a backup script? You might be able to run the backup, then move the database out of it's sub-folder.

Not sure if the backup service will see it as a changed file instead of a new file - I think that depends on how the backup service works.

[No_access]

Is there a way to setup a backup in filemaker server that will simply overwrite the same file in the same folder each night? And would that even help me since the file would be overwritten each night would the offsite backup still see it as having changed entirely?

Yes, filemaker server can do this... just set your copy is to a subfolder in a folder. then only keep 1 copy. then just make backups of the folder.

Or is it it possible to have the offsite system backup from the progressive backup? ( I highly doubt this but just thought I would ask anyway )

Not usually recommended

Otherwise does anyone have any other suggestions or insight to offer.

I keep copies on a raid 5 NAS this allows me to keep from opening a data port on the server and i can pull from the NAS when needed.. in my case I have 7TB so i keep the last 30 days worth of copies.. ie.. every 2 hrs and 1 monthly copy for the past 6 months. as well as an off property NAS the backups 3 times a week.

[IdealData]

Zip the backup folder?

Hi no_access

7 terabytes?

[Wim Decorte]

I setup a seperate filemaker backup schedule to only keep 1 day, but it creates a new dated folder for each new day and writes a new file then removes the previous file. So if the offsite backup is set up to backup from the backup folder for this schedule it will find a new 17 gig file each night and have to transfer an entire copy of the database every night.

New in FMS12 is that you can set the # of backup sets to keep to 0, which in effect dumps the backups into the root of the backups folder instead of creating a new date/teime stamped folder.

Or is it it possible to have the offsite system backup from the progressive backup? ( I highly doubt this but just thought I would ask anyway )

I think you misunderstand the progressive backup feature of FMS12. The resulting backup that the progressive backup feature keeps is a FULL set of your files, not just the changes.

[No_access]

I did not mean zip the backup, I have long been an advocate for not zipping backups. and yes 7 Terabytes of space to store backups...

[IdealData]

Hi no_access

Sorry, ZIP instruction was for Ron.

I mis-read your post regarding NAS drive.

[Ron Cates]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions.

New in FMS12 is that you can set the # of backup sets to keep to 0, which in effect dumps the backups into the root of the backups folder instead of creating a new date/teime stamped folder.

@Wim - Seems like that's the answer I was looking for..

Thanks again all :)

[Ron Cates]

New in FMS12 is that you can set the # of backup sets to keep to 0, which in effect dumps the backups into the root of the backups folder instead of creating a new date/teime stamped folder.

This didn't work at first. It failed with the following error report email

"FileMaker Server 12.0.1.178 on CAM SERVER reported the following event:

2012-08-18 12:22:00.456 -0400 Error 642 CAM SERVER Schedule "Daily Overwrite" aborted; unexpected error. (-1)"

But then I reran it without including a clone copy and it worked. I suspect it was because even with the # to keep set to 0 the clone copy folder was still getting a date stamp.

[Wim Decorte]

Could be... I've never tested it that functionality with the "clone" option. Do report it as bug though so that it will get on FMI's radar. You can do that from the FMI web site:

http://www.filemaker.com/company/contact/