What to Back Up

So ,what to back up in the first place. Use the SQL Server Maintenance Plan set up wizard, and finish by setting up a job schedule to run the back ups. All your individual company databases must be included for a start. But don’t forget the Dynamics Database. Important constantly changing data is stored here, including multicurrency exchange rates, user security etc.  Your live databases should be backed up once every 24 hours using full recovery mode. Transaction log back ups can be very useful and you should look at performing these every so many hours during your working day. Without these, you are faced with losing a days data if you need to revert to last nigt’s backup. Your choice, depending on how critical GP is in your business, and whether you can identify what to re-input, and afford to re-input it! Keep your backups seperate – ie don’t apend the media…the files get very large, very quickly.

You will also want to back up your forms and reports dictionaries. Depending on your set file approach, this can be as easy as backing up a single shared folder on your server. If you are unsure what dictionaries you should be concerned about, open your Dynamics.set file and make sure every dictionary mentioned is being backed up. And don’t forget to include at least one application folder. If GP is installed on your server, then this is the one to take. At some stage you might have to re-install Dynamics…and having a back up of your application folder means you have a record to work from to retrieve add ins, VBA files and anything stored in the Data folder.

Ideally, each user should be backing up their application folder and any locally stored dictionaries.

On the MSSQL side, back up your user data. Worst case scenario, you will have to re-install SQL.

Back up to disk, (Disks or Tape?…no brainer…disks are now cheap, and you can get at your data faster and easier, and you don’t need tape backup software to add into the mix) and archive your backups off your server on a 5 day cycle. This keeps the most relevant backups easily available, and by transferring older ones off the server, keeps space requirement down. Don’t underestimate the joys of having a back up from before last years end – suddenly 12 months later, you discover that you need to run a report on data that was archived /removed by a year end process. In fact buy a few disks and rotate them in and out of your building so you have secure data off site should a ‘real’ disaster occur.