It happened again…we received a phone call from a company who experienced a hardware failure which meant their server was out of commission. They needed to restore their server and ACT! database as soon as possible to prevent further impact to business operations.
Prior to calling us, their IT guy said “no problem”, “we backup the server nightly so we’ll just conduct a restore and you’ll be back in business”. Well, there was a problem, their backup system wasn’t properly backing up the ACT! database files. Neither the company nor the IT guy ever thought of testing a restore prior to this emergency.
This is a call that is dreaded by all in our line of work – we feel the customer’s pain. Losing data can have a disastrous impact on any business. It is imperative to have a database recovery process in place and to test this process.
Every database recovery process should include using the ACT! scheduler. All ACT! 2009 products come with a scheduler where the utility can perform unattended database backups and maintenance. Any ACT! administrator or manager user can create a regular schedule for creating database backups.
What files are included in an ACT! backup?
Database
Attached Documents
Layouts
Document Templates
Report Templates
Saved Queries
ACT! 2009 now has the option to reduce the size of backup files by excluding attachments from ACT! database backups, allowing backups to complete more quickly, particularly if you have a large number of attached documents.
Now that you have your backup, test your recovery process by restoring the backup to ensure it opens and operates as expected. Having a tested database recovery process is your insurance policy against a business disaster.
So don’t delay and start your ACT! Scheduler service today!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a great reason to out source your ACT! hosting to RTG. We have redundant hardware, we make backups nightly for you, and we are all in the US. Why play the odds with your data. Host it where its safe.
Act! Scheduler only runs while anadministrative account is logged in.
How can I get Act! Scheduler to run at night when no one is logged in just before our backup pr0gram starts a backup.?