eprotect Backup Utility

Transcription

1 eprotect Backup Utility The eprotect utility is provided to simplify the process of taking a backup of an Export-It and/or Export-It Plus installation. Syscob recommends that users do a backup at regular intervals and prior to any version updates. This utility is intended to make that task straightforward. What is a Backup? In simple terms, a backup is nothing but a copy of the application folder(s) and their contents. A backup can be done using Windows Explorer to make the copy or it can be done by using an archiver utility, like WinZip. The drawback of either of these approaches is that they depend upon user knowledge of Syscob software (to know what to copy), user diligence to assure that the backup is valid and user enforcement of a naming convention to identify the backup details. Now there is a simple utility named eprotect which eliminates these dependencies and streamlines the process. The automation provided can also halve the time required to perform a backup and reduce disk space requirements by a factor of three. The fundamental concept behind the eprotect utility is that each Export-It and/or Export-It Plus drive letter used by a workstation is copied into a special file which is compressed to minimize size on disk. Each such backup archive contains all of the files and folders of the original drive letter. These can serve as the source for restoring files and folders when repairs are required. And they are named to make identification of the archive contents transparent. Why backup? And how often? A backup prevents loss of database contents or setup and configuration time. Should a harddrive fail, Windows require re-installation or a power failure strike in the middle of a critical operation then having a backup can save hours of work recovering a system if recovery is even possible without a backup. In other words, having a backup is a form of insurance. How often should a backup be taken? The answer is the same as to the question How many days work can we afford lose? At an absolute minimum a backup should be done prior to any system update. Syscob also recommends that, depending on the volume of documents, a backup be done monthly or weekly, or even daily, to assure minimal loss of data in the event of a catastrophe. Using eprotect a networked workstation which has both Export-It and Export-It Plus installed (worst case) can be backed up in 10 to 30 minutes. This makes it practical to include in a regular maintenance process. Running eprotect Like other maintenance processes, eprotect should not be run when any Export-It or Export-It Plus window is open on any machine. In this case such a restriction is necessary to ensure that database tables are not being updated when they are being archived. Since database updates can affect tables, indices and may propagate into other tables, it is critical that the various elements are not changing during saves (otherwise they could be invalid on restoration). The eprotect utility ensures that this condition is met, but the user should be aware of the reason that it must be executed with no other Export-It or Export-It Plus activity. The eprotect utility is designed to not require PC expertise on the part of the user. Merely double-click on the icon [right], or the small icon if the system is configured to display small icons. This will start the eprotect utility. Export-It systems prior to version S-18b did not include this utility, but it can be downloaded by clicking here: After the download it would be convenient to create a shortcut to this application in the Desktop Export-It folder where the other Export-It icons reside. When doing a download it is recommended that this program be saved in the same location as the other e maintenance programs, the Local \ExportIt\VDF7\ folder. Since this utility requires sophisticated knowledge of the Export-It and/or Export-It Plus installation, information from the Registry and the configuration of both local and mapped network disk drives, it can take a few seconds to get its bearings. During this time the flash logo [left] will be displayed. When it disappears the program is ready for use. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 1

2 Welcome to eprotect The first page of the wizard provides a basic description of what the utility can, and cannot, do. It also provides a convenient button that will open an message to the support staff at Syscob; together with the telephone and facsimile telephone numbers for direct contact during the indicated office hours. Note especially the inset titled eprotect Conditions of Use. It must be emphasized that this utility is provided purely as a convenience and is not an inherent part of either Export-It or Export-It Plus. Before it can be used the user must accept the conditions of use which recognize these facts. To accept the conditions either click on the radio button [see above] or type its keyboard shortcut [above right]. Until the conditions are accepted the Next button will not be enabled. If it is not acceptable to use under these conditions then click Finish to exit. Keyboard versus Mouse The eprotect utility conforms to Windows Graphical User Interface guidelines and may be operated by mouse or keyboard entry. The following keyboard shortcuts are recognized when the corresponding controls are visible: t = Go to next control. s+t = Go to previous control. r = Click active [highlighted] control. a+a = Click I accept button. a + D = Click I decline button. a + S = Click Send to button. a + B = Click Back button. a + N = Click Next button (except in dialog). a + C = Click Cancel button. a + F = Click Finish button. a + O = Click Browse button. a + 1 = Click Change 1 button (or 2, 3, et cetera). a + Y = Click Yes button (in dialog only). a + N = Click No button (in dialog only). Inactive controls will be greyed out and read-only areas will have the standard area color (default is grey), but editable fields will have the standard window background color (default is white). Title, Subtitle and Prompt Every page of the wizard has a title in the upper left, Welcome to eprotect Wizard on this page, and a subtitle ( Please read carefully ) in the upper right. In the lower left, on the same level as the navigation buttons, there will be a hint or prompt which indicates the next action which should be done. On this page it will say Accept conditions or Finish to exit until conditions are accepted and then it will change to Press Next to begin backup process as a guide to the user. The intent is to provide a maximally intuitive interface which imposes the minimum demands on user knowledge or training. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 2

3 Specifying the Vault folder The first setting which affects the backup operation is the location to be used to store the backup archives. This folder is known as the Vault folder and it will be remembered between runs of eprotect. But on the first run, or when the folder needs to be changed, a location must be selected for the Vault folder. The page below shows the selected Vault folder (or [no folder] if none is selected) in the center pane to the left of the Browse button. The folder chosen for this example is C:\Temporary Files\Backup\, but it can be changed by pressing the Browse button. Selecting the Vault folder Browsing for a new Vault location uses the dialog seen to the right. Simply expand the drive and folder hierarchy to the desired location, select the target folder so that it is highlighted and press the OK button to set the Vault folder. The best location is on a server, where its archives will be included in server backups, on another PC (for immunity to local harddrive failure) or on an external (Firewire, USB or SCSI) drive which would not be affected by a PC problem. The intent is to have a fallback should the system being backed up fail. When a Vault folder is selected the backup archive files which it already contains will be displayed in the bottom pane. In the sample on the left there are six such previous backups to be seen, but the vertical scrollbar indicates that there are more listed above. The scrollbar could be used to review these files. Note that each backup identifies the PC on which it was performed, the application and version, the kind of drive whose image it contains with the date and time it was taken. Also note that these are.zip files, the most accepted archive format. When no Vault is selected the prompt in the lower left will read Please select a "Vault" folder indicating that the user should click the Browse button (or type a+o) and set the choice of where to keep the archives it produces. When a Vault folder has been designated the prompt will say Press "Next" to use selected folder as on the left. The Next button (or a + N ) will go to the next page and the selected folder will receive any new backup files. Until starting the backup process the Back buttons can be used to return to this page to allow the Vault to be changed. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 3

4 Setting the backup comment When a change button is pressed the dialog seen below will appear. It displays the components which will comprise the archive file name [above], a picture which depends on the application and an editable comment field. The default value in this field is Backup, but it can be set as desired. Because the comment is part of a filename it may not contain the DOS prohibited characters (\/:*?"<>.). Press the OK button to accept the changed value or Cancel to revert. Note that the Drive Type value indicates the configuration style of the system. It can have one of three values: Workstation is a freestanding topology with all roles performed by a single PC. Local is a PC s local drive in networked topology. Server is the shared data drive when networked. Selecting which drive letters to backup The eprotect utility can detect the configurations of Export-It and/or Export-It Plus installed on the PC on which it is run. It will automatically select all registered drive letters for all Syscob applications for backup. Applications or drives which are not registered on the PC will be greyed out [disabled] as the second instance in the sample above. The user may untick any of the checkboxes to exclude that drive letter from the backup operation. Ticked drives will be checked for suitability for archiving (i.e. no files in use), but those without a tick will be ignored for this run. Below each selection checkbox is a pane that shows the name that will be used for the backup file. The filename ends with a comment field which can be set by the user to describe the reason for the run. Press the Change 1 button (or type a + 1 ) to set the comment on backup #1. Or use the other change buttons to change the other comment fields. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 4

5 Checking drives for files in use Before any backups can be performed it is necessary to check that no files are in use on the drive. This occurs automatically when the Next button takes the user to the Check Drives page. The thermometer bar indicates the number of backups selected (3 in this case) with the current operation, 1, under the center. Above the bar is a description of the current operation. Animations indicate activity while checking is in progress. Should a file be in use (preventing a valid backup of the drive) then the dialog below will appear, along with a log entry in the lower pane which names the file that is open. When the OK button is pressed checking of that drive will be discontinued, the drive will be removed from the list of those selected for backup and, if more operations remain, checking will continue with the next drive. Should the user wish to stop checking the Cancel button may be pressed. This will display the dialog [right] in order to confirm. Press Yes to abort or No to resume checking. Should cancelation be confirmed then this dialog [right] will be displayed. Checking can be restarted by going back and re-entering this page. Note that during drive checking the Back and Next buttons are disabled (greyed out) and only the Cancel button is active. Should the close button ( x in upper right) be pressed to attempt to close the application then the dialog to the right will appear and the close request will be ignored. If it is necessary to exit from the program then use the Cancel button to stop checking before attempting to exit. If at least one drive checks as suitable for backup then the Next button will be enabled and the prompt will change to Press "Next" to begin archiving drives, but if no drive checks out (or checking is cancelled) then only the Back button will be enabled because no backup operation is possible. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 5

6 Performing the backup operations The user can monitor progress of the backup operations as they are performed. A vertical progress bar indicates which of the selected and checked backups is underway. This operation is described, and its progress marked, by the top thermometer bar while the percentage of all operations is indicated below it. During most of a backup operation the Cancel button is enabled [below] to permit aborting the backup. But after the files have been collected and while the compression and saving of the archive file is being done it is disabled [right] and Saving backup archive. Please wait appears in the prompt at the bottom left. The operation cannot be cancelled at this time. Should the user attempt to close the application while such a save is underway the dialog at right will appear and the close request will be ignored. After the last backup completes (or the user cancels) then the Next button will be enabled to permit review of results. Once a backup is started it is no longer possible to go back. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 6

7 Reviewing results In the normal case, where all selected drives were suitable for archiving and all backup archives were successfully created, the dialog to the right will appear when the Review Errors page is entered. Pressing the OK button will immediately go to the Operation Completed page (since there are no errors to review). When this dialog does not appear there were one, or more, problems with the selected backup operations. The sample [below right] illustrates the type of error messages which might appear. For example, the first two lines indicate that a file on the G: drive was in use when the drive was checked. This is due to an Export-It program being open (in this case RFP s) during drive checking. The bottom for lines in the error log denote a pair of errors during archiving. In each case the file could not be accessed exclusively (to prevent changes during backup) and this failure invalidates the backup archive. So the second line of each pair reports that the invalid archive which resulted was deleted. The scroll bars can be used to review details of the errors encountered, but these will also be included in the session log. After reviewing the problem report(s), if any, press the Next button to review the session log or the Finish button to exit from the eprotect utility. In either case the results of this run will be saved in a shared, cumulative log file. It is also important to be aware of the fact that eprotect makes every effort to ensure that only valid, usable backup files are created. There is nothing more frustrating, or dangerous, than to be relying on a backup that cannot be used to repair a failed or damaged installation. For this reason, any single problem with the creation of a backup archive will prevent it being retained. In such a case it is recommended that the cause of the problem be corrected [see sidebar at top right] and then eprotect be run again to create the backup which did not occur due to the problem. On the re-run tick only boxes of failed backups to save time. PROBLEM File in use during checking (prevents attempting backup) File In use during backup (aborts archiving, no backup) Unable to save archive (no backup file created) SOLUTION Check that no Export-It or Export-It Plus program open Do not start Export-It or Export-It Plus during backup Ensure user has rights to create files in Vault folder Updated 9 August 2005 Page 7

8 Each line of the session log in the lower pane begins with a timestamp which shows the date (YYYYMMDD) and time (HHMMSS) to the millisecond when an entry was made. Errors will be marked be hyphens ( -- ) after the timestamp [see sample on page 7], but good entries will not have the hyphens and will look like those to the left. In either case the remainder of the line provides a description intended for simple interpretation. This log is shared by all PCs which use Export-It and is cumulative across runs of eprotect. This why each run s entries begin with a record of the user running the utility and the name of the PC upon which it is run [see sample, page 9]. Since the mapped drive letters may be dependent upon the PC s network mapping this is important information for reviewing past backup operations. However, even though cumulative over several runs, the size of the log file is strictly limited. It will never exceed a size of 48 kilobytes (48Kb) because older entries will roll off the top to make new for subsequent sessions. This means that the log will always contain information about the dozen, or so, most recent runs of the eprotect utility. This log can always be located after a run because, when the Finish button is pressed (or the program otherwise closed) the dialog below will appear to indicate where it was saved. Only when the OK button of this dialog is pressed will the eprotect application terminate. Review session log The Operation Completed page displays the session log in the bottom pane. Scroll bars allow viewing of the entire log. Since this is summary information it does not contain detailed file lists, but it does record all of the user selections and the results for this run. In this example [above] it shows the selected Vault folder, the drives which were selected for backup, the results of checking these drives for suitability and the results of the archive operations which were attempted. This sample selected three drives ( G:, C: and S: ) which were, respectively, the freestanding drive for Export-It and the local and server drives for a networked Export-It Plus configuration. Then it shows the archive filenames created for these backups and the fact that 3 of 3 backup operations completed successfully. This completes the guide for using the eprotect utility. However, the next two pages provide additional information which helps to answer the question Now that we ve got a backup, what do we do with it? Updated 9 August 2005 Page 8

9 Using backup archive files The backup archive files created by eprotect contain an image of the folders and files which existed on an Export-It or Export-It Plus system at the time the backup was done. These contents can be used to restore a damaged, lost or destroyed configuration. But, because the systems are both version and time dependent (e.g. the database state, including what documents exist, are those which existed when the backup operation was performed), it is critical that the correct file be used for the repair. It is this identification which dictates the file naming convention used for the files. In descending order of preference the archive to use for repairs should have been taken on the same PC (see PC Name field), be for the same application and version, be for the same drive type and be the most recent date (note that date is in sort order YYYYMMDD). Provided that the best fit under these criteria is a good fit then the backup archive should be risk in doing a backup, but restoring the wrong thing could be dangerous. Example of a session log (eprotect.log) open in Notepad usable for a repair. But, for example, using an Export-It Plus backup to repair an Export-It system would not be a good fit and would not be suitable to that use. It is also important to be aware of the different drive types which exist. A Local drive contains only folders holding programs run by that PC it does not contain database files. The database will exist in either a Server drive backup for networked systems or the Workstation drive backup for standalone systems. And any archive which does contain the database will reflect its state at the time when the backup was performed. Anything entered after that date and time would be lost if that backup were to be restored and overwrite the database files. Of course, the best advice when disaster strikes is to contact Syscob support for assistance. Running esupport on the faulty system will create an which can be used to request assistance. Types of Repairs The backup archives can be used in two distinctly different ways: full restoration or file-by-file repairs. File-by-file is useful when a small number of files (or folders) are accidentally deleted (or moved), when a virus infects some program files or when a hardware fault (or power failure) corrupts a limited set of files. Do a full restore (all files) when an entire PC s configuration is lost or corrupt. The next page illustrates how individual files may be accessed or how the entire backup archive can be restored. But, of course, the trick is knowing what needs to be restored and to what location the restoration of files (and/or folders) is to be made. It is in this decision that expertise on the system and the damage involved must be applied. And it is in relation to this question that Syscob recommends asking for aid. The need for specific expertise in repairing damage is the reason that the eprotect utility does not provide for doing restores. There is never a Updated 9 August 2005 Page 9

10 Accessing Backup Archive contents the archive files containing backup images which are produced by eprotect are in.zip format for the greatest flexibility in access. Virtually any archive utility may be used to extract single files or an entire backup. On the right are displays of the contents of a typical backup archive file as seen in two common archive utilities. At the top is how it would look if open in WinZip. Below it is the same file open in FBzip (which resides in the local \ExportIt\PROG\ folder of an Export-It system and is, thus, available to all users with Export-It). The archive contents can also be accessed with command-line archivers, like PKUNZIP, or (Windows XP and 2003 only) natively within Windows Explorer. So any site should be capable of using the archive files produced. Recovering from a disaster The presence, or absence, of backup archives has no impact on what a user with a problem should do. But their presence can significantly improve the chances of a quick fix whenever an emergency occurs. In such a case Syscob suggests that the best course is to run the esupport ( ) utility on the PC with a problem. This will gather the information required to establish the issue and open an message on the desktop. The user should then give a brief description of what is observed which indicates a repair may be necessary. Syscob support will then respond with the guidance on what should be required to repair the damage. If this includes restoring files, folders or an entire drive then the instructions to do the repairs will be included. Alternately, if there is a backup recent enough that loss of data since the backup is not significant then the user may just elect to extract the entire backup archive content to the place where it was at the time of the backup (e.g. C:\Exportic\ on the PC named PIONEER5800 in the sample to the right). But the rule is if in doubt don t! For an incorrect restoration could make repair more difficult or even impossible. Updated 9 August 2005 Page 10