Backup..

yuppicide

Few questions on 3.10

We do our Navision backup daily during our lunch break. Takes about 40-45 minutes.

1 - Our lunch break is 30 minutes, so every day we have to wait for backup to finish before we can work again. We also have one sales rep who refuses to remember that everyone takes lunch from 1:30pm to 2:00pm and she calls nearly everyday asking for people and information. I explain to her that backup is going on and nobody is at their desk. She doesn't get it. Can people still work while backup is going on or can that screw something up?

2 - Does the server processor/ram have any impact on how long backup will take? We have it on an old Windows 2000 Server, but also have a Windows 2003 SBS which we might see about migrating it over to.

3 - Does anyone know if I can run it on Windows 2003 SBS? I have the clients running on XP, so I know that works.

Savatage

What type of backup? hotcopy?

yuppicide

When I goto Tools -> Backup.

garak

is this the native version of NAV or a sql database server?

bbrown

The two most critical components in backup performance are the speed of the source media (the disk(s) where the database is) and the speed of the destination media (where you are writing the backups).

DenSter

yuppicide wrote:

We do our Navision backup daily during our lunch break. Takes about 40-45 minutes.

How about kicking off the backup in the evening? RDP into work at night, kick off the backup, nobody gets blocked. Connect again in the morning before you have breakfast to check in and kick off another one in case it failed.

arootman

In response to your questions:
1. Even though it possible to work while a backup is running it is not advisable. If a user for example: when a user posts an invoice while a backup is running, this will cause certain table to lock during posting. This could cause the backup to fail.
2. Server Memory and Ram does have an influence on backup speed but it should be relatively minor. Because you are doing a client side backup (by clicking on Tools, Backup) the backup is done by your local machine (assuming you don’t run the backup directly on the server – even if it is the cause it is still considered a client side backup). All the information is retrieved from the server and passed along the network to your local machine. If your backup location is someplace on the network, NAV will then send the file IO to write the backup file through the network again. In such a case network speeds a bigger influence. It is much better to take server based backup. If you have SQL Server you can use SQL Server backup. It normally takes a fraction of the time to run. If you have a native NAV database you might want to look at something like hot copy.
3. Yes NAV will run on Windows SBS 2003 (depending on the number of users). Certain editions of Windows SBS also include SQL Server Workgroup Edition if you aren’t already on SQL Server and where considering migrating. You can find more info on SQL Work Group at the following link (http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... aSheet.pdf).

bbrown

arootman wrote:

In response to your questions:
1. Even though it possible to work while a backup is running it is not advisable. If a user for example: when a user posts an invoice while a backup is running, this will cause certain table to lock during posting. This could cause the backup to fail.
2. Server Memory and Ram does have an influence on backup speed but it should be relatively minor. Because you are doing a client side backup (by clicking on Tools, Backup) the backup is done by your local machine (assuming you don’t run the backup directly on the server – even if it is the cause it is still considered a client side backup). All the information is retrieved from the server and passed along the network to your local machine. If your backup location is someplace on the network, NAV will then send the file IO to write the backup file through the network again. In such a case network speeds a bigger influence. It is much better to take server based backup. If you have SQL Server you can use SQL Server backup. It normally takes a fraction of the time to run. If you have a native NAV database you might want to look at something like hot copy.
3. Yes NAV will run on Windows SBS 2003 (depending on the number of users). Certain editions of Windows SBS also include SQL Server Workgroup Edition if you aren’t already on SQL Server and where considering migrating. You can find more info on SQL Work Group at the following link (http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... aSheet.pdf).

1. The NAV backup (Native database) backups up the last committed version. It is not impacted by active table locks since it does not need to modify any data. It is much like running a report. A person running a report is not impacted by table locks since they read the last committed version. However, the backup may have an impact on other users. Not due to table locking but rather just on resource demand.

1. Using the NAV backup, with SQL Server, emulates the NAV versionng by placing a lock during the backup. This has an impact on other users. Again other users will not cause the backup to fail, but the backup will impact other users.

yuppicide

Thanks for the answers guys. In response to some of your responses, I'll post them all in one reply:

>> is this the native version of NAV or a sql database server?

Native.

>> 2. Server Memory and Ram does have an influence on backup speed but it should be relatively minor.

The servers in question are probably 8 years apart.. one might be from around 2000 or 2001 and the other was purchased in 2007. So, I'm sure the specs on the new server are a lot better.

>> If you have a native NAV database you might want to look at something like hot copy.

I will take a look into that. I understand everything you are saying. That would be much better.

We're in the market for a new network consultant and it's possible that we may move Navision to our new server. Eitherway, though I'm going to look into hot copy because it'll let us get back to work quicker. Most of our daily work is Navision. Without it I don't have much else to do and now they're cracking down on me surfing the net. They'd rather I sit here and do nothing.

yuppicide

Where do I find Hotcopy for purchase?

garak

yuppicide wrote:

Where do I find Hotcopy for purchase?

Take a look on the Server installation CD and also in the manual there.
Here on the downloadsection are also some GUID Tools / Batch files to make HotCopy more "user-friendly"

Regards