Proper method for creating nightly backups of the back-end file

[rdemyan via AccessMonster.com]

Here's my plan for creating nightly backups of the production back-end file
(the IT staff in their infinite wisdom have prevented use of Windows
Scheduler and users do not have administrative rights to Windows).

Candace Tripp has an automatic backing up program that I modified for our
use. You can schedule a time for the backup to occur. Since Windows task
scheduler is not available to us, this means that the auto backup program
will have to remain open.

Now this auto backup program will reside on the local PC. A back-end file on
the server will be specified to be backed up to a folder called 'Backups'
also on the server. I think I read somewhere that it is not a good idea to
backup back-end files from one location to another (i.e. server to PC or one
server to another).

My plan seems simple and reasonable to me but am I missing anything that I
should be aware of.

Thanks.

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[Larry Linson]

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwewro te

I think I read somewhere that it is not a
good idea to backup back-end files from
one location to another (i.e. server to PC or one
server to another).

Do you remember reading "why" it would not be a good idea?

It's only my opinion, but influenced by
multiple-average-programmer-lifetimes in the business, that should that
"backup folder" happen to be on the same physical drive, and that physical
drive were to go belly-up, it would have been A Very Good Idea Indeed to
have backed up to a different locale.

A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting everyone logged
off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to do, and doing a file copy
(or a Compact and Repair).

My plan seems simple and reasonable to me but
am I missing anything that I should be aware of.

See the above.

I can't comment on Candace Tripp's "automatic backing up program," as I am
not familiar with it.

Are you really serious that the IT department will not work with a user
department to assure that vital business information is backed up? I've had
to deal with some pretty hard-@@@ IT departments in my time, but none who
wanted an escalation up through the user's chain of command to the top
level, and then have that descend through their chain of command that they
were "putting vital business data at risk." And, the usual, "we take a disk
image every morning at X AM" doesn't work all the time for Access/Jet
databases, unless you assure that no one is logged in to your database when
the disk image is made.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

[rdemyan via AccessMonster.com]

Candace's program is very nice and convenient. Code was relatively easy to
understand even for this novice, so I was able to customize to our needs.

Yeah, I was wondering about backing up to the same server. But I'm sure I
saw discussions on the pitfalls of using FileCopy across a network connection
[admittedly this was at least 6 months ago and I've recently added yet
another year on to my calendar :) ].

Larry Linson wrote:

I think I read somewhere that it is not a
good idea to backup back-end files from
one location to another (i.e. server to PC or one
server to another).

Do you remember reading "why" it would not be a good idea?

It's only my opinion, but influenced by
multiple-average-programmer-lifetimes in the business, that should that
"backup folder" happen to be on the same physical drive, and that physical
drive were to go belly-up, it would have been A Very Good Idea Indeed to
have backed up to a different locale.

A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting everyone logged
off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to do, and doing a file copy
(or a Compact and Repair).

My plan seems simple and reasonable to me but
am I missing anything that I should be aware of.

See the above.

I can't comment on Candace Tripp's "automatic backing up program," as I am
not familiar with it.

Are you really serious that the IT department will not work with a user
department to assure that vital business information is backed up? I've had
to deal with some pretty hard-@@@ IT departments in my time, but none who
wanted an escalation up through the user's chain of command to the top
level, and then have that descend through their chain of command that they
were "putting vital business data at risk." And, the usual, "we take a disk
image every morning at X AM" doesn't work all the time for Access/Jet
databases, unless you assure that no one is logged in to your database when
the disk image is made.

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP

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[Ron]

"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localh ost.notwrote in message
news:intCg.8797 $7m5.5740@trndd c05...

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwewro te

I think I read somewhere that it is not a
good idea to backup back-end files from
one location to another (i.e. server to PC or one
server to another).

Do you remember reading "why" it would not be a good idea?

It's only my opinion, but influenced by
multiple-average-programmer-lifetimes in the business, that should that
"backup folder" happen to be on the same physical drive, and that physical
drive were to go belly-up, it would have been A Very Good Idea Indeed to
have backed up to a different locale.

A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting everyone
logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to do, and doing a
file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

<snip>

Hi Larry.

Can the database be backed up even though everyone's not "logged off". I've
got a fairly simple database (about 12 tables on the back end) and I'm
having the user do an xcopy from main computer to another, then that 2nd
computer is backed up to tape every so often. I've never had the user run
into an error message when copying the database to the 2nd computer, and
they do that twice a day regardless if some other computer may have that
back end open or not. Although the other users may leave their computer in
the database, the backup from computer to computer is done at a time when no
one would normally be inputting data.

I've taken that file a couple times (the backup) and put it on my system and
just checked around, and they've never been missing anything (that I can
see). Am I asking for trouble here?

Thanks
ron

[rdemyan via AccessMonster.com]

Ron:

In some of the research I've been doing, it appears that most agree that when
you make a copy while a backend is in use, there is the potential for
corruption. Like you, I personally have not experienced this. The general
consensus seems to be that it is the copy that will be corrupted and not the
main backend (but I don't know if this is guaranteed).

Hopefully, some others will respond.

Ron wrote:

I think I read somewhere that it is not a
good idea to backup back-end files from

[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]

>logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to do, and doing a
file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

<snip>

Hi Larry.

Can the database be backed up even though everyone's not "logged off". I've
got a fairly simple database (about 12 tables on the back end) and I'm
having the user do an xcopy from main computer to another, then that 2nd
computer is backed up to tape every so often. I've never had the user run
into an error message when copying the database to the 2nd computer, and
they do that twice a day regardless if some other computer may have that
back end open or not. Although the other users may leave their computer in
the database, the backup from computer to computer is done at a time when no
one would normally be inputting data.

I've taken that file a couple times (the backup) and put it on my system and
just checked around, and they've never been missing anything (that I can
see). Am I asking for trouble here?

Thanks
ron

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[David W. Fenton]

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwewro te in
news:6487a1e1ca 930@uwe:

I think I read somewhere that it is not a good idea to
backup back-end files from one location to another (i.e. server to
PC or one server to another).

Perhaps replication was involved? That's the only situation where I
can think that this would be a problem.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/

[David W. Fenton]

"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localh ost.notwrote in
news:intCg.8797 $7m5.5740@trndd c05:

A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting
everyone logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to
do, and doing a file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

You could get a live backup except for the latest unsaved updates to
records currently being edited, by copying the data in code.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/

[Br]

Ron wrote:

"Larry Linson" <bo*****@localh ost.notwrote in message
news:intCg.8797 $7m5.5740@trndd c05...

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwewro te

I think I read somewhere that it is not a
good idea to backup back-end files from
one location to another (i.e. server to PC or one
server to another).

Do you remember reading "why" it would not be a good idea?

It's only my opinion, but influenced by
multiple-average-programmer-lifetimes in the business, that should that
"backup folder" happen to be on the same physical drive, and that physical
drive were to go belly-up, it would have been A Very Good Idea Indeed to
have backed up to a different locale.

A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting everyone
logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to do, and doing a
file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

<snip>

Hi Larry.

Can the database be backed up even though everyone's not "logged off". I've
got a fairly simple database (about 12 tables on the back end) and I'm
having the user do an xcopy from main computer to another, then that 2nd
computer is backed up to tape every so often. I've never had the user run
into an error message when copying the database to the 2nd computer, and
they do that twice a day regardless if some other computer may have that
back end open or not. Although the other users may leave their computer in
the database, the backup from computer to computer is done at a time when no
one would normally be inputting data.

I've taken that file a couple times (the backup) and put it on my system and
just checked around, and they've never been missing anything (that I can
see). Am I asking for trouble here?

Thanks
ron

If no-one is using data then they may not have an open connection to
the database.

There are a few ways to make sure everyone is logged off.

You can write code to list all the open connections to the backend, if
connections are found report it (email, log table, or whatever saying
backup failed).

You can also put a flag in the backend that will get checked by every
front-end every X minutes. If the flag is set each front end will then
trigger a log out/shut down automatically.

regards,
Br@dley

[rdemyan via AccessMonster.com]

Yes, I was wondering about this possibility.

Can you point me to some code?

Thanks.

David W. Fenton wrote:

>A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting
everyone logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to
do, and doing a file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

You could get a live backup except for the latest unsaved updates to
records currently being edited, by copying the data in code.

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[David W. Fenton]

"rdemyan via AccessMonster.c om" <u6836@uwewro te in
news:648b8648d5 987@uwe:

David W. Fenton wrote:

>>A backup of an Access database is a simple matter of getting
everyone logged off, which is not a terribly difficult thing to
do, and doing a file copy (or a Compact and Repair).

You could get a live backup except for the latest unsaved updates
to records currently being edited, by copying the data in code.

Yes, I was wondering about this possibility.

Can you point me to some code?

I don't have any, but it oughtn't be too hard to put together. Once
you've written it for one table, you could easily repurpose the code
to process a batch of tables. You could copy the table structures,
then append the data, or use a template MDB with the empty table
structures and then append the data to a copy of the template MDB.
I'd certainly do the latter myself, as the code needed to fully
replicate all the properties in an Access table is actually quite
complex.

There's also Lyle's old SaveAsText method:

objAccess.Appli cation.SaveAsTe xt 6, vbNullString, "MyDatabase.mdb "

but I've never figured out a way to run it from the front end to
back up a back end. If you were satisfied with running it in the
back end, it would be pretty easy to set up a startup form to
capture a startup command and run this code if you open the database
with the appropriate commandline switch. Look at the Command
function in Access help for a starting point.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/