Navigation:  General tips > Checking Your Backups

FP2 Backups are critically important

 

There are several different ways that FirePro can be backed up, depending on the management of your FP2 Server.

 

In all cases, we recommend that you check approximately monthly to ensure that backups are being created/stored correctly.

 

 

Backups created via Scheduled Task

 

This is the most common way that FP2 is backed up, and it is our standard practice to set this up with all installations of the FP2 Server.

 

To check on the status of these backups, go to the FP2 Server click on the Start menu, and open the Control Panel.

 

Then, go to the Administrative Tools and open the Task Scheduler.

 

Click on the Task Scheduler Library, and in the list of items, there should be an FP2 Backup task.

 

If you click on that task, you’ll see a History Tab in the lower-centre.

 

Clicking on the History Tab will display the history of results of the task.  You should make sure that there are no recent warnings.

 

If there are warnings, you should contact Ingenious Software for support.

 

 

Backup Files

 

FP2 Backups create .backup files, which are compressed files that contain all your FP2 information and settings.  Doing a windows search for .backup files on your server computer should give you the location for any backup files.

 

Backup files will generally get larger over time, so it’s a good idea to make sure that the more recent .backup files are larger than earlier ones.  It’s usually a good idea to keep a larger number of recent backup files, with fewer older ones.  It’s still useful to have the occasional older backup, if only for reference purposes.

 

 

Server Image Backups

 

Many IT departments backup server computers using image-style backups.  Image backups are a quick and useful way to backup an entire server, but that have some limitations where FP2 is concerned.

 

First, they aren’t easy to restore or get access to.  You need IT support to check your image backups and to restore image backups.  Further, image backups don’t normally backup the Postgres Service.  This means that even if you restore an image file, you can’t pick up right where you left off.

 

That’s why it’s best if the backed up image files contain the .backup files that you can use to get your FP2 software up and running in the event of a crash.

 

It’s a good idea to periodically ask your IT/support to confirm your server backups and to check that they are available and running correctly.