To clarify further as a direct recalls from my dummy brain no longer perfect.
Our test system has been running for 4 days now. I made many quick backups during the days, only about 2 minutes for a quick backup instead of a 1/2 hour or more for full backup. It seems not matter how powerful your computer is, ours only utilizes about 10-20 percent of its CPU power, a full backup with imported items included takes too long, only to be done after or before clinic time.
For many of you not familiar with a database structure, a quick review here. We have quite few experts in our forum and I did learn many tips from them so please feel free to modify or comment, Wiki styles.
Before AC changed to its current SQL express database, it used Access database. Access database is only for small storage and only accessible to one user at a time and only has limited security. A database is just storage tables with specific dimensions do we can store data.
Current versions of AC using SQL Express database. SQL Express database from Microsoft is free, otherwise AC could not be sold at such a reasonable price. A full SQL database alone costs thousands of dollars. SQL Express database is a much scaled down version of full SQL database.
A quick backup only copy doc/staff/schedules..data in some of database tables. Our own full database backups enc file around 8 gigs,8000 megs, while imported/image excluded backups only 80 megs. That the reason I did a full backup first time only and one more before ready for our real upgrade.
When you run a quick backup and copy the file over to the Test server then run a restore, you have to run database tuner version 6.09 application because the backup is still under version 5's. As I mentioned above a database merely tables with different dimensions, a table in version 5 has different dimension compared to its comparable table in version 6, so the database tuner as a transformer would either transform old table dimensions or modify version 5 data, make them smaller or larger so they can fit.
remember that on the test system we currently have two computers, one is server and one is front. So test front talks only to test server but not to our production server. You can play with them whatever you like without any harm done. As we only made a full copy with Imported the first time, during our testing, if you click to open an image or a scanned doc that has been updated after our first backup then AC would return errors as no files there.
Sitting at home or outside loging in remotely and I even could copy during the days any imported files been updated in the production over to the imported folder in our test pc. Compared those time stamps of imported files so you know what files new and need to be copied over. So our test server even it is not real time mirror of our production server, it data only couple hours behind.
Btw we just registered with Medicare and want to have reward money asa so we can spend it, might be this coming Xmas holidays. My beloved doc badly deserved a Hawaii vacation and 18 grands is more than enough if not all the way first classes.
I'll do one more full backup with imported items this weekend, even burn to a double sided dvd or blue ray and put in my gun safe, full HIPPA compliant. Then run one last restore AC6 on the test server and on many of our Pcs, change their database path to the test server to see if they read and write.
If no problem then take a deep breath and click on the AC6 app on the production server and like watching a good action movie...
Then change those pcs already installed AC6 paths aiming for production server and do more tests.
Install AC6 on the rest of them and test one by one. Seems this should be an 8 hour job.
ANOTHER SAFE AND SOUND OPTION
Make our Test server to become a Production server, remember we going to do one last backup and restore using latest data on the Test server?
Then our Production Server would become a backup with its version 5 installation and latest data intact. Any problem whatsoever, we just have to reinstall AC5 and repath to it. That is why in my previous note I prefer a better and newer PC to install AC6 for testing.
I don't know why 18 grands not that a large sum, I had my hands on much larger sums before without skipping a heartbeat, causes more anxiety, any suggestions?
