Backing up the database

Concepts

VSys Administrators are responsible for ensuring the system database is intact in the event of an emergency, hardware failure, or just to move it to another location. Backing up the database is critical in any of these situations and it should be performed on a regular basis.

A VSys backup is one or more zip files containing encrypted and compressed copies of your data. When it comes time to restore from a backup, you must use VSys One's restore mechanisms. You can't just unzip the backup to overwrite your existing tables.
Backups can be run while other users are in VSys. There is no need to have other users exit VSys while you are making your backup.
You can run this function at any time during the day. We recommend that you make a backup of everything daily.
Backups can be run from the command line. This lets you run them using Windows scheduling tools.

If you use GMS as well as VSys, be sure you always use VSys for your backups, as VSys backups fully back up both VSys and GMS data. GMS backups have only limited information and will not restore your VSys data.

Steps in This Task

From the VSys One main screen, on the Administrator tools panel, click on Back up your data.

By default, all of the tables except for "zips" are selected to be backed up. With the exception of that one table, you'll generally want to back up all of your tables.

Set your options below.

Field Names	Definitions and Comments
For portrait photos, only back up images added recently	Check to include a person's photos that you added recently. If you check this, VSys will let you enter the date range that you consider "current". Note: the backup file created then may be missing important data, such as the older, existing images that weren't in the date range.
Omit scanned form images and comment photos	Check to leave out scanned images associated with certifications and any images attached to comments. Note: the backup file created then may be missing important data. All comments and scanned certification images would be excluded.
Break up backup into multiple files if one file would exceed a specific size	Check to break the backup into multiple files if the backup file is very large and exceeds the size you specify in the Maximum size field. You must archive all of the files that VSys makes here in order to restore the backup later.
Encrypt this backup	Check to encrypt the data. Enter a password, which must be identical in both fields. If you lose or forget the password, your file cannot be restored.

Enter the name of your backup file in the Backup file to create field. You can use the icon to browse to the appropriate folder.
To begin the backup process, click the Execute button. VSys will indicate its progress as it backs up individual tables.
When done, a message will be displayed showing that the data was successfully backed up along with the name and size of your backup file.

Magic: When VSys One makes a backup, it stores the data as Embedded NexusDB tables. VSys can restore these tables to any of its compatible databases. This means you can use the backup/restore process to make a backup on one system in Oracle, then restore it under SQL Server. Or go from SQL Server to NexusDB. Or any platform to another - VSys treats them all alike.