Navision backup via fbk

David_Singleton

Its back.

tedl30

David Singleton wrote:

Its back.

where

stefang

Do you mean the company backup using cmd-lets in a multi-tenant environment?

Marije_Brummel

It's not back yet, but they are working on a solution that will probably some powershell command that will generate a file that you can then take with you and apply to another server.

It will be better and faster than the old fbk file.

David_Singleton

Sorry I meant to say 'coming' back. Its great that they are listening. Especially that the new 'fbk' will be a lot faster.

Rob_Hansen

Great news that this is coming back...now even better would be if it could be enhanced. Company-level backups are great, but how about an option to omit tables? Our most common use for nav's backups are to backup client company data to transfer it for restore onto our server to look into issues (where we can't just play around with their live data). In these scenarios, we usually don't need some parts of the data (change log entries being a primary example) so it would be great if the backup could be set to skip those tables. To minimize the size (and reduce restore time) there would be cases where we may not bother with G/L entries or posted sales/purchase/service documents...it would be great to have the ability to limit the backup at a table level.

David_Singleton

rdhansen wrote:

... Company-level backups are great, but how about an option to omit tables? ...

Personally I don't think that is what backups are at all, and I would not like to see this as an option. A backup is a complete copy of a database (company) that can be used to restore the system to a previous state.

For what you want it is easy enough to just develop a SQL script that will do exactly what you want.

Rob_Hansen

The whole point is getting back to the nav backup/restore option WITHOUT having to get into SQL scripts...nice and simple. My example here is a client that has a huge Change Log Entry table that they don't want to purge. When we transfer a backup from their environment to our server, a good portion of the restore time is just restoring change log entry...so it would be great to omit that.

I agree this isn't what a backup is meant for...but I wouldn't promote NAV's backups as a backup/disaster recovery solution. A proper SQL backup/maintenance plan handles that. We only use NAV's fbk for this sort of activity...transferring data from a single company between databases in different environments (such as from a client environment to our environment), so i'd love to see some enhancements that make it even more suited to that type of usage. It's not an enterprise backup solution.

mdPartnerNL

+1

thegunzo

There is a much faster way to copy live data to another server/database for testing.

On my blog http://www.dynamics.is/?p=1568 I offer one and point to both Mark's and Kamil's solutions.

Rob_Hansen

That's not the scenario i'm talking about here. I'm looking at cases where we need to move company data from a SQL Server at the client site onto a SQL Server on a completely different network/environment (such as our working/development environment as a partner). If one SQL Server has no way to connect to or see the other, we need a file that can be easily generated, transferred and restored.

ScottH

Nice to know they are doing something about it. Fbk backups were an imperfect solution, but they offered flexibility that simply does not exist with a SQL backup, which is essentially what the new powershell commands are. I prefer a SQL backup file, but in some situations they simply don't work and the .fbk version would.

mdPartnerNL

thegunzo wrote:

There is a much faster way to copy live data to another server/database for testing.

On my blog http://www.dynamics.is/?p=1568 I offer one and point to both Mark's and Kamil's solutions.

Does this work in earlier versions too?

thegunzo

The NAV report is written in 2013 R2 but you should be able to use the text file to downgrade to 2013 and 2009 (RTC Only).

Mark's and Kamil's version should work in earlier versions too.

tinoruijs

A couple of months have passed. Could it be I missed it's back already?

Marije_Brummel

Nope, it is still under construction.

Vickster69

Has anyone heard anything more on the possible fbk return?

I have found more related discussions in this thread;

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=59261&start=60

...although the subject isn't very helpful when searching for info.

As I've said in that thread, anyone who supports Nav - and quite a lot of Nav consultants too - can give many examples of why fbks are necessary and are sorely missed in R2.

I will try the latest script offering but it requires someone with more SQL knowledge than I, or most Nav support people, have - whereas fbks were quick and easy for any Nav person.

Is there anyway of reporting back to Microsoft about how much of a problem this is for so many of us??

kriki

Vickster69 wrote:

Is there anyway of reporting back to Microsoft about how much of a problem this is for so many of us??

They know!
And they are working on it. But it seems more difficult than expected otherwise in 1 of the roll-ups, it would have been back.

Vickster69

Do we have any guestimate on a date?

Marije_Brummel

No.

mdPartnerNL

ok, 6 months later and I understand why you guys didn't notify us

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/nav/archive/201 ... -cu-8.aspx

it looks promising but you just feel like developing/consulting for your customer with one hand behind your back.

The simplest of things "restoring a demo company" will not always work.

http://www.dynamics.is/?p=1908

ppavuk

tinoruijs wrote:

A couple of months have passed. Could it be I missed it's back already?

Check 2013r2 Rollup8. It is here now!