Field management

Performing back-ups

CallWeb data reside in MySQL data bases which are not readily available to back-up software. The cwArchive modules perform timed back-ups of data files and place the zipped archives in the project directory.

The cwArchive back-up planning tool is available from the cw integrated module. It lists each CallWeb project based on the existence of MySQL data tables. For each project, hourly and daily back-ups can be planned. The number of hourly and daily back-up files to conserve on disk must also be set. It is also possible to provide an e-mail address where the back-ups will be sent.

By combining these tools, it is therefore possible, for example, to back-up the data file at 11AM, 2PM and 6PM while keeping 6 of these back-up files on disk (thereby providing two days of fail-safe back-ups) and to send a back-up set every night to an off-site e-mail address.

The first line of the back-up planning table defines the default behaviour that is applied to all project that don't possess their own planning strategy — this way, once the default strategy is defined, it is not necessary to worry about defining a back-up strategy for each new project.

cwArchive implements the following efficiency procedures:

  • if the data have not changed between two back-up procedures of the same kind (either hourly or daily), the most recent back-up file is not kept — so that automatic mirroring utilities do not uselessly make copies of the same data over and over. This means that new back-up sets are not created as long as the data remain the same.
  • following the logic of the previous point, only new back-up sets are sent by e-mail.
  • if a daily back-up is planned at the same time as an hourly back-up, only the daily back-up is performed.

The cwArchive.pl module must be referenced in the /etc/cron.hourly directory to that it is started up every hour. The text on the installation of CallWeb offers more information in this regard.

Field management

Performing back-ups

CallWeb data reside in MySQL data bases which are not readily available to back-up software. The cwArchive modules perform timed back-ups of data files and place the zipped archives in the project directory.

The cwArchive back-up planning tool is available from the cw integrated module. It lists each CallWeb project based on the existence of MySQL data tables. For each project, hourly and daily back-ups can be planned. The number of hourly and daily back-up files to conserve on disk must also be set. It is also possible to provide an e-mail address where the back-ups will be sent.

By combining these tools, it is therefore possible, for example, to back-up the data file at 11AM, 2PM and 6PM while keeping 6 of these back-up files on disk (thereby providing two days of fail-safe back-ups) and to send a back-up set every night to an off-site e-mail address.

The first line of the back-up planning table defines the default behaviour that is applied to all project that don't possess their own planning strategy — this way, once the default strategy is defined, it is not necessary to worry about defining a back-up strategy for each new project.

cwArchive implements the following efficiency procedures:

  • if the data have not changed between two back-up procedures of the same kind (either hourly or daily), the most recent back-up file is not kept — so that automatic mirroring utilities do not uselessly make copies of the same data over and over. This means that new back-up sets are not created as long as the data remain the same.
  • following the logic of the previous point, only new back-up sets are sent by e-mail.
  • if a daily back-up is planned at the same time as an hourly back-up, only the daily back-up is performed.

The cwArchive.pl module must be referenced in the /etc/cron.hourly directory to that it is started up every hour. The text on the installation of CallWeb offers more information in this regard.