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Journaling

A busy system where many users are constantly saving large numbers of records can cause problems for a back-up strategy that relies on a text back-up file being created once a day and/or on copying the database twice a day. The volume of new records means that the text back-up file or database copy quickly becomes out-of-date. If you need to revert to a back-up, it will be difficult and time-consuming if not impossible to recreate the records entered since the text back-up or database copy was made. The journaling feature is designed to address this problem. If you are using this feature, every new record and every modification will be saved in the database and in a separate journal file. If you need to revert to an older copy of the database, you will be able to "apply" the journal. "Applying" the journal means importing the recent new records and modifications to the older copy of the database from the journal file. This will be much faster and more complete than recreating the recent records manually, or extracting them from the damaged database.

You must use the journal feature together with the database duplication feature. If your database becomes damaged, you should revert to the most recent (undamaged) duplicate and apply the journal. It is not possible to revert to a text back-up and apply the journal. Therefore, if you are using journaling, you must make sure you are duplicating the database regularly. The text back-up will play a much less important role in your back-up strategy.

The journal file will grow in size very quickly, especially if you import large amounts of data while journaling is running. Therefore, you must take special care to monitor the level of free hard disk on the server if you are using this feature.

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