Home Forums question re: imported items

I use Jungle Disk now. It isn't compatible with SQL as best I can see. Although, otherwise I think it and CrashPlan are pretty good.

Do me a favor and let me know what you come up with on iBackup as I am looking at that one also.

CrashPlan has worked very nicely for me. I changed to that from Mozy Pro.

iBackup has a pretty good promo right now. 10 times the storage for the same price. Ends today. I'm probably going to use Crashplan once my carbonite expires.

Yeah, I saw that promotion but I misread it and thought it expired days ago. The weird thing is without the promotion, it is cost prohibitive. With the promotion, it makes sense.

I really like what I have read so far. One thing that seems really cool (again if I read correctly at 2 am) is you can assign an IP address to it, and it will appear on your LAN. A cloud on your LAN is really cool. Unless it is raining.

One program which is extremely good with instant failover to another server is www.doubletake.com. My guess is it is VERY pricey, and it would require your extra server. But, you can have failover servers anywhere including another office or home.

The problem I had was I was trying to get the price and four times I used the live chat feature. I waited over thirty minutes each time, and I never got an operator. It just kept updating and said I was next in line. This doesn't say much for support.

Crashplan also has that option with their Crashplan Enterprise option. You have to fill out a form to get pricing. That backup has AD Backup among other advanced features. They even have the option of having a backup server as well. But I suspect it's cost prohibitive as well given their clients include top names like Google, Cisco, Adobe, etc.

Looked all night and still couldn't find support for SQL, Exchange, Oracle or SharePoint. Only iBackup seems to have it. Could be missing it.

Good article here: http://crashplan.probackup.nl/remote-backup/support/q/windows-mssql-sql-server-support.en.html

Great article. Don't know where you found it. It is weird, because it talks about VSS, but then it goes on to talk about how using other Microsoft software makes it better. It also states that restores have to be done manually. I also don't see any articles on Exchange, Oracle or SharePoint.

Maybe they have separate articles. From my research, iBackup seems to have better database backup as they are separate download files and are designated agents to back up the open files. Interesting.

Going forward, an external hard drive with USB 3.0 seems very appealing.


I have been using external HD with USB 3.0 for the last 4 months for my local backup. Works very well and fast. It takes only few minutes to backup 5GB of data.

Okay, so I just signed up with Carbonite today, and I am being asked which files I would like to back up. is it safe to say that the only two critical files that need to be backed up would be the imported items folder, and the amazing charts.XML database files?

OK, so again, this is important to understand. First, not to be rude, but do you not have billing or any other import documents on your server.

When you back up a database, it is best, if possible, to back up the entire instance and not just the user databases. This then would look like this:

SERVER\AMAZINGCHARTS
Amazing Charts
Codes
Meds
Master
Model
MSDB

If you were going to back up just the user databases, then you could back up the six databases, but you would only need the AmazingCharts.mdf and if you want the .ldf file.

The problem is this: My guess is you did not purchase the Business Premier. As stated many times, you must have a backup solution that is able to back up databases. Even Business Premier ($599 a year) cannot do this by itself. It isn't compatible with VSS or it wouldn't be an issue. You will need a snapshot of SQL first and then back up the snapshow. There are back up programs which are capable of doing this such as BackupAssist or iBackup.

This is a direct quote from their website:


?Carbonite does not back up databases, however we can back up a snapshot of your database.
?Make a backup of your database with a separate tool and then use Carbonite to back up the separate backup file that was created.

How to Back Up Your SQL or Other Databases

With Carbonite, your backup should not include the files that make up your database program; this is because the various files that make up your databases are interconnected and as a result Carbonite cannot back them up and restore them in a readable format. To back up your database with Carbonite, you should first back up your database using a separate tool specifically designed for the program that you are using, and then use Carbonite for the backup file. Database programs usually come with an embedded tool for creating backups of your database that you can save on your local machine. If you are not sure how to make a backup file for your database, please contact the vendor for the program you are using.

Once your backup tool creates a backup file of the database on the hard drive, you can then use Carbonite to "back up the backup" to our servers for protection against computer disaster.

Note: When making the backup file for SQL, please remember to use the alternate .TRN file extension, as the .BAK file extension is excluded from our backup.

I found this site. I don't know if it is a good product. http://sqlbackupandftp.com

I admit this pertains to the entire instance. Not quite sure about backing up user databases only. You wouldn't want a user to be connected to the database during the automatic backup.

Sorry Bert, I should have been more specific from the get-go.

I am a single user practice, and I do not have a server; I just use a "main computer" where my database resides, and then I am hard-networked to 4 other computers.

After reading up a bit more, my intention is to just send a backup online to AC without the imported items, then send the imported items folder to Carbonite (along with a few important miscellaneous items that reside on that computer). IN addition, I was going to buy an Iosafe fire and water-proof external hard drive and save an image of the "main computer"s hard drive about once a week. It would seem to my untrained eye that this should keep me ok as far as restoring AC no matter what disaster may lie ahead.

Would you concur?

Thanks.

OK, so you are saying that you will do a backup of AC to an AmazingCharts.enc file and then back that up online. Along with II.

Luis,
I like your plan (probably because it is very similar to my own). Others may think you need to do more.

Yes, Bert I believe that's correct...

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to chime in here and support Bert's warnings about using a service like Carbonite to backup the entire AC directory and to give a little more guidance on what files to use with such a service.

You should still use the Amazing Backup Utility to create a backup of your data with the Item and Image exclusions checked off. This will create a smaller .enc you can send offsite.

These are the folders you will want to back up :

Data_001
BACKUP
Illustrations (only if you create custom illustrations)
ImportItems
Any Lab,PM or other interface folders

Thank you for your continued support,
Craig@AC

Craig,
So to be clear: if you create an enc file and back up that along with your imported items to an online service, that is acceptable, correct? (Realizing that you may want to add illustrations and interface items, if you have them).

Hi Jon,

Yes, that is correct.
However since you are already backing up your Imported Items with 3rd party software, you will not have to include them.
The idea is to utilize the incremental backup capabilities of the program. So keep your .ENCs small and let that 3rd party take care of the "heavy lifting".

I should point out, the Dev team is working on improving the AC Offsite Backup Service, including integrating an incremental backup. However, I do not have anymore information, including a release date, at this time.

Thank you for your continued support,
Craig@AC

Wow, this would be a huge paradigm shift. I am confused.

Craig, are you saying that the .enc files are not full backups but incremental? By definition, they wouldn't be. With incremental backups, you would have a full backup. Then, each day, the backup would be only the changed files which would be added to the full backup. So, you would only have one backup file in the Backup folder.

But, what happens, though, is AC seems to make a whole new backup each day which includes all of the files both the original ones and the changed ones.

Bert,

I (and likely you too) have restored to a new machine from an .enc file. So they are full backups.

I think Craig was referring to using "incremental backup capabilities" of the 3rd Party Software (Carbonite, Crashplan, etc.) AC's Backup utility is not incremental.

Also, I was checking out that iBackup SQL Backup. Looks like you need the SQL Password which AC won't release:
http://www.ibackup.com/online-backup-sql-server/ibwin_new_mssql_backup.htm

I would definitely bet they are full backups, but if they were set to be incremental, then you could restore also. You could have:

FullBackup.A
Inc.b
Inc.c

but, you can clearly see the new files.

Yes, you do.

What is in the Data_001 file? Why the recommendation to back it up?

I think, as Jon noted above, that we were under the impression that one only needed the enc file and the II.

It's basically signatures. If there is a file in in, change the extension to .jpg and you can usually see what it is.

This is true. Did anyone say anything else?

That's a suggestive smiley

Am I suggesting anything? Nah, I would never suggest anything.

Clever

Craig at AC:

I was glad to hear that you are working on a better backup system that will enable incremental II backups. This would be a very helpful improvement to AC.

I saw that. I think it is $599 annually.

Yes, I was. Thank you for the clarification.


The _Data001 folder contains patient photos, user signatures and any Practice Documents you may have loaded into the program.

Thank you for your continued support,
Craig@AC

Going back to Craig @ AC.....

My Backup folder on my "main computer" is 93 GB; I backup nightly to the AC offsite backup; is there any good reason to back this up to Carbonite as well?? Could take weeks to complete and expensive to maintain. I also have my "main" computer backed up on external hard drive.... Please advise...

Alright let's take this one step at a time:

If your backup folder is 93GBs, then it sounds as if you have as many as 30 or more AmazingCharts.enc. files inside. If that is the case, then delete all but four or so. You can get 3rd party programs which will delete the last file of whatever amount.

You can set a path to back up the Amazing Charts backup to another destination like your external hard drive, but you will still need to empty your backup folder. I doubt you have a 93GB file or even one that is close.

Yes, there is a good reason to back up online. Personally, I would use a different one. There are a few you can "seed" by sending the the initial full backup on a hard drive. They will even send the data back that way over night if you need to restore quickly. I would also look for one that can use VSS to back up SQL. These backup programs sometimes charge by the space, bandwidth or amount backed up daily. So, you may not need to pay a lot for space. Some are limitless.

So, a good backup strategy is to back up onsite, online and offsite. I would also highly recommend you back up to more than one external hard drive. HDDs are the weakest link in a computer system. You really don't want all of your backups on one place.

So, for offsite, you can back up daily, three times per week, or weekly. Depends on how much data you can afford to lose. If you take it home on Tuesday and Friday, then you can only lose up to three days of work.

But, #1, check your AC folder and open the backup folder. See how many files are there. You can also use the Amazing Utilities and Advances and delete them, but I find that is a waste of time.