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Backing Up Your Microsoft Dynamics System

When you are considering the purchase of a new ERP/accounting system you also need to take into account how easy it will be to maintain. One important part of required maintenance is backing up the system. Learn why this is so important.

How often do you think about the nightly backup of your MS Dynamics system?  The answer should be: frequently.

The backup of your SQL database is a vital component of maintaining your system and an integral part of your disaster recovery – I know you have one – scheme.

The backup serves two purposes.

  1. The first is to backup your data: capture a snapshot of your data and organization at a particular point in time.  This provides a means of recreating your data as of that point in time should a problem arise, a problem such as a hard disk crash, server malfunction, or virus infection.
  2. A second purpose is to assist in the management of the size of your database.  The nightly backup, in effect, compresses your database.  This function is very important.  Minimizing the size of the database reduces the chances of exceeding your available disk space, an event which can result in any one of a number of serious problems.

The backup should be reviewed daily to confirm that it ran without errors.  Additionally, you should confirm that your backup is working properly whenever you experience an event that disrupts your IT operation (e.g., power loss, server reconfiguration, server maintenance.)

The backup should be restored periodically to confirm that there is fact something there.  You really don’t know that your backup worked until you restore the backup and verify that there was indeed something there to restore, and that the something contained valid data.  There have been countless occasions on which I went to restore a client’s data only to find out the backup is corrupt, or that the backup has not run in weeks and that the most recent good backup is a month old.

In summary, the backup of your financial databases should be managed with the same level of rigor as the data in your financial system.  Please contact SSi Consulting if you have any questions regarding how to confirm that your backup is working, the performance of a test restore of your database, the creation of a disaster recovery plan for you MS Dynamics system, or any other question that might come to mind.

by SSi consulting, your Maryland Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner

Backing Up Your Microsoft Dynamics System is a post from: ERP Software Blog

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