Download Backup Policies and Your Laserfiche Data

IT Best Practices
Backup Policies and Your Laserfiche Data
Your CIT supported Laserfiche ECM business application contains critical data and best practices
strongly recommend that your information be professionally backed up daily. While CIT does not offer
backup services as part of our Laserfiche business solutions – we do care about the integrity and
security of your Laserfiche data.
Performing consistent, regular backups of critical business data is a vitally
important part of any business strategy. It is important to establish a disciplined
regimen of data protection defined by a set of clear backup policies that can be
closely followed and monitored.
Your Laserfiche system consists of two primary components - a SQL database and
its corresponding content (i.e. images, PDF’s, Word files…). It’s imperative that
both of these elements be backed up on a regular basis to protect your valuable
content repository.
The first thing to note is that procedures in backing up your SQL database files
differs significantly from that of the content or “Volumes” of information. Volumes,
in essence, are in a “static” state and can therefore be easily backed up by any
number of standard file copy or backup up software solutions. Your database
however is different it’s in “Open” or “Active” state which requires special attention
to ensure a valid copy is made. Many backup solutions can handle active SQL
Databases. However this ability generally doesn’t come with the base package and
needs to be an Add- option. If your backup software doesn’t have the needed SQL
options, there are other ways to get a valid backup. If you have full Microsoft SQL,
the SQL Server Management Studio can be used to create a maintenance plan
which can backup an “Active” SQL database on a scheduled basis.
Also remember that timing is everything - your Database & Content need to be insync. If new entries get added to the database after the SQL backup, while your
content backup is still running, your DB and file contents would be out-of-sync with
each other. Most organizations have enough downtime at night that this is not an
issue. If you have chosen a “Cloud-Based” backup solution, it’s important to realize
that if a full restore of your repository is required, it will likely take a significant
amount of time to move all your files to a new or repaired server across the
internet.
For further information on backing up your Laserfiche database please download
the following: (Laserfiche Backup Primer.pdf)