Can you afford to put your Sage CRM (SageCRM) backup off another day?
Without a valid backup file, in the event of an emergency, you may have to restore to a backup that’s weeks, even months old. Too many organizations trust in their high priced backup programs and equipment that include an SQL agent. However, without ever testing the integrity of the system, you may be at risk. Take an additional measure and create a SQL Daily Backup Plan that creates a flat file to be stored on a local drive and eventually backed-up by your “regular” backup solution in place. It’s a best practice to have to have an internal SQL backup in addition to your file backup solution after all.
Fire up you printer, print these instructions and get “over” to the server. This is simple and takes very little time to initiate:
1. Login to SQL Management Studio.
2. Navigate to Management | Maintenance Plan.
3. Right click on Maintenance Plan and choose New Maintenance Plan.
4. Name your backup “Daily Sage CRM Backup”.
5. Select the calendar icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen (after the subplan, description and schedule).
6. Schedule Type: Recurring.
7. Enabled: (Checked)
8. Frequency – Occurs: Daily
9. Recurs every: 1 day
10. Daily Frequency – Occurs once at 11pm. *Be sure to choose a time when most users will be out of the system and no other system backups/functions are taking place.
11. Start date: <Today>
12. No end date: (Selected)
13. Click OK
14. From the Maintenance Plan Tasks on the lower left hand pane: drag and drop the Back-Up Database Task onto the right pane. You will create a new box like the one shown below.
15. Double-click the Back-Up Database Task that was created by dragging and dropping.
16. Connection: Local server connection
17. Backup type: Full
18. Specific Databases(s): Sage CRM
19. Backup Component: Database
20. Backup To: Disk
21. Create a backup file for every database (verify the path is the one you want and note the location).
22. Backup file extension: bak
23. Verify backup integrity: (Checked)
24. Click OK
25. Save the maintenance plan and check the next day to ensure it’s working!
Bravo! You’re on the path to a safe digital environment for Sage CRM. Be sure to check your backups are being created and the size is very close to your live database file. You may want to create a SQL Cleanup Task to “auto-delete” your backup files in descending order from creation date (you may choose to keep the last 5 back-ups for safety). Now that you have a SQL daily backup in place, you can breathe a sigh of relief. You should never put all of your eggs in one basket, a lesson better passed down than learned.
