Tip of the Month for: May 2019
Backup Logs and "Extra" Files
If you have Answers configured to perform a backup as part of it's nightly processing, you may have noticed that at certain times your backup takes longer, your backup logs may be larger, and the logs may include many lines of "extra" files.
Answers makes use a Windows utility called RoboCopy. This utility synchronizes the datafiles folder on your server with the backup folder on your USB, external hard drive, or cloud drive. It checks each file to be sure that the files on the server are on the backup location and the files on the backup location are on the server. The RoboCopy utility does several things during it's synchronization to insure you have a backup folder that matches your datafiles source folder.
First, it overwrites any existing files on the backup location with newer files from the server. By comparing the date and time and file size, it can determine if the files have changed or if the files on the backup and the server are already the same. It also copies any new files from the server to the backup folder. When you use a USB drive or external hard drive for the first time, the backup generally takes longer because it must treat every file as a new file. Instead of comparing date and time stamps and file sizes to see if they match, it just has to copy every single file. This will take a while, especially for scanned/attached images and archived reports. Generally, those files do not change so they do not have to be copied every single night. But, on a new backup source, they will have to be copied the first time and this makes the backup to a new device take longer.
Thirdly, if any files are found on your backup that no longer exist on the server, they are logged and they are removed from the backup folder since they are no longer part of your datafiles source folder. This last step results in those "extra" files on the backup logs.
One of the primary reasons for these "extra" files is purging. When you run purges on the Attached/Scanned Images as suggested in last month's tip Purging of Non-Essential Files, you are removing files from the datafiles folder that were previously backed up. These files must now be removed from the backup device and they will result in "extra" file logging and make your backup log longer. The RoboCopy utility simply wants to make you aware these files were there and now they are not part of the source so they are being removed. The same thing happens if you run a purge or move archived reports to a CD or other location.
Another purge that can result in these "extra" files is the P/O Purge. The P/O Purge changed after the Answers 4.9 update to create a history folder for scanned images and attachments for purchase orders moved to the history file. Prior to this change, all scanned images for purchase orders were in a single "po" folder, even if the P/O was moved to history. Now, as purchase orders are moved to history, their scanned documents and attachments are moved to a "pohist" folder. This way, if purchase order numbers loop around, newer purchase orders do not pull up older attached documents. While these documents are not actually being purged, because they are no longer part of the same folder, they will result in "extra" file logging and the backup can take slightly longer as it creates the backup of the "pohist" folder too.
Generally, once the day-end processing gets through the first week after major file or folder changes, the log sizes and the time required for the backups return to normal. Just be aware of the synchronization and how it can affect the backup when you have made changes that affect the number of files and/or folders, or started using a new backup device.