Backing up an organization’s critical data may seem like common sense or a topic that doesn’t require much attention. After all, who doesn’t recognize the benefits of running and maintaining good backups? Still there are many computer systems, especially databases, which are not properly backed up on a regular basis. FileMaker Server 10 makes it easier than ever to backup your FileMaker databases, but there is more to a backup plan than configuring your FileMaker Server. This article explores the elements of a full backup strategy including ways to avoid corrupting your backups and hosted databases, the capabilities of FileMaker Server 10, and the importance of system level backups in conjunction with FileMaker Server backups. All FileMaker Server features discussed in this article apply to both FileMaker Server 10 and FileMaker Server Advanced 10.

Keeping your backups safe

In a typical computer environment, system level backup software is scheduled to automatically copy files from one computer to another. Files are typically copied to a server located somewhere else on the network, to an external hard drive, or to tape and eventually moved physically offsite. The computer files are replicated bit for bit so if a file is open when a backup runs, unsaved changes may be lost. While many backup programs have ways of dealing with backing up open files, such as waiting for the file to be closed or using a last saved snapshot of the file, backing up databases has some extra layers of complexity.

FileMaker databases, particularly databases that are hosted using FileMaker Server, are constantly changing and can have several users attempting to commit changes to the database during the time of the backup. Running a system level backup on a hosted FileMaker database can result in a backup copy that is inconsistent or even corrupt. The original hosted file can also become corrupt as a result of the backup process attempting to copy it while it is being hosted. The database structure or data itself can end up damaged, which could cause the file to become unstable or data to be permanently lost.

The most important rule to follow when creating a backup plan is to never allow system level backup software to copy a FileMaker database file while it is being hosted.

Backups with FileMaker Server

FileMaker Server comes with a built- in feature to safely backup hosted FileMaker databases to the local hard drive. Using the Server Admin Console you can schedule as many backups as you would like. When you install FileMaker Server there are three backup schedules automatically set up: Hourly, Daily and Weekly. The Daily schedule is selected and set to run each night at 11:00 pm. Without doing anything extra, FileMaker Server will begin to back up all hosted databases keeping seven copies before overwriting any of them. The option to have FileMaker Server keep a certain number of backups without creating new schedules for each copy is a new feature in version 10. If you’re creating a daily backup, simply enter a 7 in the “number of backups to keep” option when configuring the schedule in the Admin Console. FileMaker Server will continue to create time- stamped copies until there are 7, one for each day. The next time the backup schedule runs it will overwrite the oldest copy. A similar retention schedule could be set up to keep 12 copies of monthly backups so you would always have a full year of backups.

FileMaker Server can perform backups while users are logged in and using the databases. The database files are simply paused until the backup routine is finished. Users will rarely notice when database files are being backed up. Even databases that are several hundred megabytes get backed up so quickly that the process is barely noticeable by users. In some cases though, particularly when storing images or other files in container fields, FileMaker databases can grow to several gigabytes in size. It may take several minutes or even a half hour to backup a large database, but that shouldn’t prevent you from including it in your backup plan.

If your system contains only one large database file that cannot be set to backup during the business day, you should at least schedule it to be backed up once each night. If possible, store records that contain a large amount of images, PDFs, or other binary data in a separate FileMaker database. Keep the large database in a different folder in your server’s data directory. Since backup schedules can be written to run separately on the different folders, the large database can be backed up at night while the smaller database can be backed up multiple times throughout the day.

Working with system level backups

Even though system level backup software should never touch your hosted databases, it is an important part of your overall backup strategy. After setting up a robust backup plan where FileMaker Server is creating backups of your databases on the local hard drive, you need to make sure that your system level backups are configured to copy those local backups to a remote location, such as an external hard drive, a separate file server on the network, or tape. Be sure to include the entire local backup folder in the system level backups. Since the local backups are not being hosted, they can be safely copied. Keep in mind that your system level backups should follow the local FileMaker Server backups, but you need to allow enough time for the local backups to complete.

A good backup plan is imperative to making sure that your critical databases are safe. You should take advantage of the features that FileMaker Server 10 has to offer, but remember that you also need a strategy for system level backups to copy the files to a remote location and eventually be moved offsite. The more robust your backup plan, the faster you will be able to get your databases back up and running in case of a system failure or disaster.