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Writer's pictureJoe Mempin

Backups: Be Aware of Your Agency's Practice Even if You Are Not in IT


Earlier this week some colleagues and I were sharing stories about backups and recovery. We all have a hundred of them. For instance, the one where department "A" accidentally deleted a file instead of processing it and blamed department "B" for mishandling. Or the time when the records manager accidentally deleted all of another department’s files. Files that the department outsourced for digitalization. Luckily, we were able to restore Laserfiche for the records manager and use the audit trail to find out what happened to the files. To this end, I thought a blog post about backups would be useful.


Laserfiche


Minimally you should backup the Laserfiche repository location, Laserfiche volume location, and of course the Laserfiche databases. It is also sometimes helpful to backup license files. Some IT departments back up the search catalog but more often than not they don’t.


Another thing to keep in mind is that backing up your files on an optical disk and the databases are two different activities. It’s possible that metadata and the filesystem “could” be out of sync. The closer you keep the sync, the better.


For those of you who are looking to automate backups so you can leave the repository open and accessible (you don’t have to run it overnight or on the weekend). Here’s a useful script created by a Laserfiche user and posted to Laserfiche Answers.


SQL


Backing up your SQL Server databases, running store tests, and storing copies of backups in a safe offsite location protects your organization from catastrophic data loss. Backing up is the only way to protect your data. With valid backups, you can recover your data from failures such as users errors (deleting things). media failure, natural disasters, hacking and hardware failures.


In addition, database backups should be part of routine administrative SOPs such as copying databases from one server to another, database mirroring, and archiving.


Trusted Systems, The Ultimate Backup


The purpose behind the development of "Trusted Systems" is to ensure that at least one copy of the electronic document or record into electronic media that does not permit unauthorized additions, deletions, or changes to the original document and that is to be stored and maintained in a safe and separate location. AIIM considers Trusted Systems a critical component of records management compliance.


CPS has partnered with restorVault to build a Trusted System using Laserfiche. The reasoning behind this offering is WORM drive is now further integrated into the Trusted System to work as secured or triggered dispositions, allowing three functions:

  • Guaranteed Retention- Use a guaranteed data class or subclass to ensure data cannot be deleted. before the end of the retention period, you create and select.

  • Flexible Retention- Use flexible data classifications to set a policy that can be later shortened to delete files ahead of the end of the original retention policy.

  • Hybrid Guaranteed and Flexible Retention- Use minimum retention period with the flexible class. subclass to ensure. all data is kept during the minimum retention period yet retains access for a longer, flexible period following the minimum.


If you are interested in learning more about Trusted Systems here’s a webinar we conducted for MISAC with restorVault and the City of Brea. Also, here’s another article about World Backup Day.

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