Snapshot mess up!!

[TraceyHand]

not a happy bunny!
Imported a snapshot as content only from design machine to order machine like I do several times a week
Definitely had 'content only' ticked, as always
Let actinic make an overwrittensite.zip backup, as always.

Snapshot failed with one fatal error (which I now wish I'd c&ped!)
It HAD overwritten orders. Very bad
Overwrittensite.zip had NOT been created!! Very very bad.

I'm having to use yesterday's overwrittensite.zip/backup to import orders from.
Will have to recreate this mornings orders again then.

Is there a record anywhere of snapshot fatal errors? Has this happened to anyone else before?

[TraceyHand]

This brings me to a question.

Why doesn't Actinic create a backup BEFORE it imports anything from the snapshot???

Clearly it didn't because it must have failed during the import (as data has been imported) yet I have no backup, presumably because of the failure?

[chris ashdown]

Tracey

Have you tried Jans little free MDB backup program, you can set it up for say every hour or whatever(teenage kids) and its so fast as it just does the MDB not the whole site, so you only really need the snapshot say once a day

Probably teaching granny to suck eggs but good intentions ment

[Jan]

You can download our free Easy Order Backup program from this page :

http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/downloads.html

Regards,

[TraceyHand]

oi, who you calling a granny??!

I haven't tried it, actually.
The order computer, despite being a brand new Vista machine (spit) with 4gb ram is hideously slow and the thought of it backing up every hour...*shudders*

How does Actinic handle the backup?
Does it object to the mdb being backed up while Actinic is open?

I might look into it, tbh
Luckily, it was late last night that I previously backed up so I only had to recreate a orders from this morning which I have now renumbered, in Access, to match the original order numbers.

Still can't understand why the snapshot process didn't produce a backup this time around though.

[TraceyHand]

Thanks, Jan.

I'll certainly have a look at it.

[chris ashdown]

oi, who you calling a granny??!

.

Touchy Touchy

I just leave it running and it goes through each site at the time interval and does not seem to worry if actinic is in use or not

Jan should sell it not give it away it's worth it's weight in dosh

[Jan]

You set the time interval between backups, it's not fixed to an hour and you can also select the sites you want to backup (for any Actinic version). It performs a file copy and as far as I know, this has no effect on Actinic or our products at all, it's a harmless little thing.

Your order files etc are copied into a temporary storage database before the snapshot runs (and the backup usually happens, I don't know why it didn't in your case today), so if that file is still around you might be able to get them back - I expect that you have received more orders by now though so this might not be of use - I'm not sure what the temp database is called but look at your ODBC settings for a ActinicTemp something or other and that will lead you to it.

Regards,

[Jan]

Thank you Chris :-)

[chris ashdown]

Backup 8 actinic sites

Sterted at 16:34:48
Ended at 16:36.18

Obviously depends on size of sites 6 are quite small but a couple are fair size

[TraceyHand]

Thanks Chris and Jan

Sounds perfect!
Will investigate

I've sorted the missing orders now..and yes, we've had several since but luckily I hadn't downloaded those yet anyway (the joys of no stock control!!)

[Donna Kempster]

Just downloaded Jan's file. Brilliant! Wish I'd known about it 2 weeks ago

[mash]

Tracey,

Did you work out what caused it, we suffered form a similar experience last week, only importing the snapshot for a content change and it had a fatal error, at the time I did not worry about it. Week later sifting through the wreckage of the database, lost of orders, I should have taken more notice of it.

We are down to the last 11 orders which are missing, once we know about anyway. We have Actinic Cover, they have not be very useful really, have not shed any light on the fatal error or recovering the orders.

Concerned that a fatal error will happen again, usually we would take a snapshot before doing it but not that day.

Thanks

[TraceyHand]

tbh, no
I still can't export a snapshot from the Vista machine. It just hangs and falls over.
I've resorted to doing database backups on that one (which only handles orders anyway) and snapshots from the design machine (which still works..using XP)

Am actually about to try a snapshot again on this Vista machine so will let you know!

[Darren B]

Not wanting to shout down Jans tools as i use them. But for backups i use cobian. It's free and you can select files or directories and you can ftp it your webserver if you like. I always backup to a nas drive it does it every day. I tend to backup differentials and a full once a week

worth taking a look IMHO