Home Forums Discussions General Discussion The Backup Question Revisited

The question remains we back up either ENC or BAK files but if the original server becomes not usable one can expect hours or days before you can be up and running again because amazing charts support must get involved.
This past weekend in the 'cannot upgrade to 9.3' thread you can see the issues I had over the weekend when I did not get a call back.
I appreciate the work support did on Monday however I find this unacceptable way to support my practice.
Can we demand a more sane way that we can have the freedom to restore our database and become functional again rather than the current system initiated since amazing charts 9.
I am open for suggestions.

The baseline should be what it had been for all of the time that I have worked with practices with AC.

The data is the possession and work-product of the practice.

Encryption is valuable, but the larger the encrypted file, the greater the chance that it doesn't successfully decrypt and restore. There are times that the only way to successfully restore is via a SQL .bak. I have the t-shirts because I've been there.

The practice needs to have both the tools and the means to restore from backup and operate their practice independent of AC.

When clients are overcome by natural disasters and are working from their vehicle in a parking lot with standing water and restoring on their laptop plugged into their vehicle, I talked the client through it with a sketchy cell call. STUFF HAPPENS.

I find no easy answer to this question. If a server dies then the process may be:

1. Get new server. This could take a few days to pull off. Dell is around 1.5 weeks before delivery and that's with next day air. You may get a refurb faster but still we may be talking a few days.

2. Find your Windows license for re-install. If the original server that died had an OEM license, that means a new copy of Windows purchased with the new server as OEM lives and dies with the machine it was sold with. However, if open license is involved, that means re-downloading an ISO assuming the practice as the credentials to the Microsoft licensing portal. I have seen way to many times where the IT person had all the licenses for all the clients on his Microsoft account. So if that IT person gets hit by a bus, thousands upon thousands in purchased licenses are gone or, at the very least, will be hard to recover.

3. Install and set up Windows on new server. This requires a bit of skill in itself.

4. Restore data. To me restoring SQL Server .bak files is easy peasy mac and cheesy. But then again I live and breath SQL Server. To a doctor who has never suffered a total server loss before the idea of pulling up SQL Server Management Studio may be a bit overwhelming. Amazing Chart's backup tool may not be much better.

And those steps don't count other data (documents) and the rest of the network (workstations, etc.).

As Bert has said before and as I have said, the best thing to do is have the number of the reputable IT person on stand-by. Another thing I'll say is test your backups by actually restoring them to another machine. Be aware of the process. Know the steps.

If there is anything I've learned it's that when disaster strikes everyone's IQ drops by 50 points. And if you're about to undergo a technical process you've never seen before. . .

There are lots of good tech guys on this forum. There is also an entire list of AC approved tech-support companies on the AC tech site here: http://amazingcharts.com/services/certified-it-support/

It may be a good idea to put a few numbers in your phone's contact list.

JamesNT