12D Synergy Server Best Practices Guide Version 2.0 February 16

12d Synergy Server Best Practices Guide Version 2.0 February 16

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12d Synergy Server Best Practices Guide

V2.0 February 16

Disclaimer 12d Synergy is supplied without any express or implied warranties whatsoever. No warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is offered. No liabilities in respect of engineering details and quantities produced by 12d Synergy are accepted. While every effort has been taken to ensure that the advice given in this manual and the program 12d Synergy is correct, no warranty is expressed or implied by 12d Solutions Pty Ltd.

Copyright This manual is copyrighted and all rights reserved. This manual may not, in whole or part, be copied or reproduced without the prior consent in writing from 12d Solutions Pty Ltd. Copies of 12d Synergy software must not be released to any party, or used for bureau applications without the written permission of 12d Solutions Pty Ltd.

12d Synergy Server Best Practices Guide

Table of Contents

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Information Needed 1

2.0 PERFORMING AN UPGRADE 2 2.1 Inform your users 2 2.2 Check in all data 2 2.3 Go into Maintenance Mode 2 2.4 Backup your data 2

3.0 PERFORMING A SQL SERVER BACKUP 3 3.1 Introduction 3 3.2 General Notes 3 3.3 Recovery Model 4 3.4 Backup Strategy 4 3.5 Backup Scheduler Options 5 Option A: SQL Backup and FTP ...... 6 Option B: SQL Server Agent ...... 6 Option C: Scheduled Tasks ...... 6 3.6 How to Create a Manual Once-Off Backup 6

4.0 BACKING UP THE FILE SYSTEM 7 4.1 Backup Strategy 7 4.2 Backup Options 7 Option A: Third Party Tool...... 7 Option B: Scheduled Task ...... 7

5.0 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER 8 5.1 General Notes 8 5.2 Maintenance Mode 8

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12d Synergy Server Best Practices Guide

1.0 INTRODUCTION

This guide offers best practices for upgrade and backup processes 12d Synergy installations. The recommendations have been provided to match the greatest possible range of Synergy configurations. This guide is provided as a set of helpful recommendations to 12d Synergy administrators who are new to SQL Server administration and to 12d Synergy in general. Each 12d Synergy administrator is responsible for ensuring that their own backup strategy matches their specific requirements. 12d Solutions is not responsible for configuring or storing backups, restoring databases or verifying an installation's backup strategy.

1.1 Information Needed

Before you begin, you should determine the values of the following information:

1. File Stores You may have one or more file stores that may need to be migrated. The locations and types of these are available in the 12d Synergy Administrator, under File Storage

2. Index Location The location of your index may also need to be migrated. This is available in the 12d Synergy Administrator, under System Settings/Indexing Directory

3. Database Server The details for your database server

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2.0 PERFORMING AN UPGRADE

2.1 Inform your users Inform your users of an upcoming upgrade before it takes place – this will give them ample opportunity to prepare any information they need.

2.2 Check in all data Ensuring all users have checked in their data is a good idea before performing an upgrade. This will ensure no data is lost if there are any problems.

2.3 Go into Maintenance Mode Put the system into Maintenance Mode via the Settings Panel – this will ensure no non- administrative users can log in until the upgrade is complete.

2.4 Backup your data Make sure you back up the following:  SQL Server database  Index files  Data files For more information, see the section on performing backups

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3.0 PERFORMING A SQL SERVER BACKUP

3.1 Introduction Backing up your data is incredibly important; while 12d Synergy provides you with version control capabilities, it is still your responsibility to make sure there is a reliable backup available, in the case of disaster (hardware failure, events outside your control, etc) This section of the guide will aim to discuss how to best backup your data. There are two components to any successful backup

1. SQL Server Backup 2. File and Index backup

3.2 General Notes 1. Backup to a network share Backup to a network share and not to your server's local drive. If your server encounters system problems at an OS or hardware level then you will be able to quickly build a new server from the last network share backup. 2. Keep Multiple Copies 3. Keep backups in more than one physical location to increase safety. For example, keep a second copy on a separate network server, in the cloud, or on tape. 4. Test Your Backups Test your backup once a quarter. Grab a recent backup and restore it to a server. Don't assume the backup process is working, test it. 5. Monitor Disk Space in Backup Folders Regularly monitor that you have not run out of disk space in the folders where backups are stored. Only keep as many old backups as you have disk space for

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3.3 Recovery Model Ensure your 12d Synergy database is in full recovery model. This mode ensures that in an emergency situation it is possible to restore from a backup with the minimum amount of lost data. Full recovery model is the default setting but you should make sure it is being used. How to check the recovery model  Open SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the 12d Synergy database server.  Right click the 12d Synergy database and select Properties  Go to the Options tab. Make sure Recovery Model is set to Full

3.4 Backup Strategy Backup strategy refers to the frequency and type of backups that are automatically scheduled. We recommend the following backup strategy for 12d Synergy databases: 1. Scheduled once a day (midnight): Do a full database backup 2. Scheduled once a day (noon): Do a differential database backup 3. Scheduled every 30 minutes: Do a transaction log backup Always use this recommended strategy unless advised otherwise by an experienced SQL Server administrator.

To actually make these scheduled backups happen you must select and configure a scheduler. The next section explains the options available to you.

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3.5 Backup Scheduler Options The choices of backup scheduler you have depends on your version of SQL Server.

Express Edition Other Editions

SQL Backup and FTP

SQL Server Agent

Scheduled Tasks

The non-Express editions available include Standard, Business Intelligence and Enterprise.

How to determine your SQL Server edition  Open SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the 12d Synergy database server.  Go to File menu, New query with current connection  In the database drop down list (1.) select the 12d Synergy database  Enter the query select SERVERPROPERTY ('edition') and click Execute (2.)  The edition is printed below (3.)

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Option A: SQL Backup and FTP The simplest way to setup backups is via a third party software application called SQL Backup and FTP, available from https://sqlbackupandftp.com. This product is free for users with less than 3 databases. We have used this software successfully for setting up backups. We must however caution that this is a third party product, not affiliated with 12d Solutions and we do not provide support for it. 12d is not liable for any consequences of choosing to use this software.

Option B: SQL Server Agent Installations with a paid edition of SQL Server can use the built-in SQL Server Agent tool to schedule database backups. Please see this guide from Microsoft: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlagent/archive/2010/10/12/create- a-database-backup-job-using-sql-server-management-studio.aspx

Option C: Scheduled Tasks Another way to schedule backups is through Windows Scheduled Tasks. Please see this guide from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/kb/2019698

3.6 How to Create a Manual Once-Off Backup This applies to any SQL Server edition.

 Open SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the 12d Synergy database server.  Right click the 12d Synergy database and select Tasks then Backup. Choose these options:  Backup type: Full  Copy-only Backup: Yes  Backup component: Database  Destination: Click Add and choose a folder and filename destination that does not already exist  Click OK

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4.0 BACKING UP THE FILE SYSTEM

There are several components to the file system that should be backed up.

1. Data Files Your core data files – all the files stored in your system. 2. Index Files Files storing information for speedy search. While you don’t typically need to back this up, doing so will make sure you don’t need to rebuild the index, which can take some time, depending on the size of your dataset.

4.1 Backup Strategy Backup strategy refers to the frequency and type of backups that are automatically scheduled. You can schedule a backup depending on your needs, and the capabilities may vary depending on the tools you choose. 12d Solutions recommends at least the following: 1. Scheduled once a day (midnight): Do a full file backup, including the index 2. Scheduled once a day (noon): Do a differential backup, without the index

4.2 Backup Options

Option A: Third Party Tool 12d Solutions does not recommend one backup system over another, and there are several options available to you. Many of these tools provide a schedule for backing up data. These tools may also have the capability to backup from the Volume Shadow Service, to prevent backing up partially written files.

Option B: Scheduled Task If you do not wish to use a third party tool, you can schedule a task via Windows Scheduler to backup the files. You can use a variety of native tools in Windows, including: 1. Robocopy 2. WBAdmin

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5.0 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

5.1 General Notes It is important that you schedule your backups together so that both the files and database are backed up in sync. Having one tool that can manage both your database and file based backups would therefore be beneficial.

5.2 Maintenance Mode It is recommended that for a full system backup, you put the system into maintenance mode manually so that nobody can log in. You can do this simply using an SQL Statement against the 12d Synergy database, as follows

DELETE FROM [Setting] WHERE Name=’IsMaintenanceMode’; INSERT INTO [Setting] (Name, Value) VALUES (‘IsMaintenanceMode’, ‘1’);

When completed, you can then run

DELETE FROM [Setting] WHERE Name=’IsMaintenanceMode’;

To remove maintenance mode

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