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Backing Up Using Specialist Back-up Software

As described here, we strongly recommend that Hansa's built-in back-up facilities are used as the main part of your back-up strategy. They are more economical in terms of disk space and are more reliable in that the success of a restoration is guaranteed even if the version of your Hansa application has changed.

However, some users may prefer to rely on specialist back-up software such as Retrospect to produce back-up tapes that can be stored off-site. Such software can sometimes fail to create a back-up file if the files being backed up are still in use. For example, a user may have gone home having forgotten to log off (or having left their machine producing a report) and this may cause the back-up to fail.

To cater for this eventuality, Hansa can be instructed to alter the state of the database so that, as far as the back-up software is concerned, it appears not to be in use. To do this, follow these steps:

  1. Select 'Technics' from the Modules menu and then choose 'Settings' from the File menu.

  2. Double-click 'Timed Operations'. The following window appears:

  3. Set the Database Closing Time to a few minutes before the moment the back-up software is scheduled to start work. The 24-hour clock should be used, and a colon (:) used as the separator between the hour and the minute.

  4. Set the Database Opening Time to a few minutes after the moment the back-up software is scheduled to finish work.

  5. If you have specified an Operation Time as well, this should not be between the Database Opening and Closing Times. The database is dormant during this period, so the Operation Time will have no effect.

  6. Click the [Save] button in the Button Bar to save the changes.
Once these steps have been followed, in the case of the user who has gone home having not logged off, they will return the next morning to find their machine still logged in to Hansa. Despite this, the back-up should have been carried out successfully.