Auto-Backup Manual. This routine will ONLY work with the Point of Sale version Lake 8.0 Q or better.

Transcription

1 Auto-Backup Manual The Auto-Backup routine supplied with the Point of Sale is for use on a network system using the Point of Sale. The idea behind this routine is if you have your data situated on a server and your network or the server should quit functioning, this routine will have automatically copied the Point of Sale data to another computer for immediate use. Each record used by the Point of Sale has a flag set to tell the Auto-Backup routine it needs copied tot the data backup storage area. This routine will ONLY work with the Point of Sale version Lake 8.0 Q or better. Use extreme caution when using this routine. If you accidentally misdirect the paths, you can overwrite your good current data with old history data. On your network, set up one node or work station. Install the Point of Sale on this work station. Make sure it is functioning and working as a work station using the data off of a server or other work station. It makes NO SENSE to use this routine on a stand-alone system. Use the built in backup routine in the Point of Sale instead. Once you have the work station up and running and everything is processing as normal, make a folder on the c: drive call AUTOBACKUP. Copy all files from the Auto-Backup folder on the CD into this new folder. Now make a folder called DATABACK or BACKUP_POS (no spaces allowed) Go to the folder AUTOBACKUP and double click on the file called AUTOBACK.EXE. This will start the Auto-Backup routine. The above screen will open. Click the first button to find the data the Point of Sale is using. This should be a mapped drive to the server or another work station.

2 Click the second button to find the folder for storing the backed up data. This should be one of the folder names mentioned above. Click the Close and Run button. On initial startup, ignore the Use the Back Up Stored Data button since we have not made an initial copy of the data yet. The below screen will now open.

3 Make sure ALL stations are out of the Point of Sale. We need to do an initial copy of the entire data and associated files to the data storage folder. Click the Force Data Copy button. If everyone is out of the server data, an exact duplicate copy of the data and associated files will be copied over to the work station. Once this initial copy of data is done, set your timer on how often you want the Auto- Backup routine to fire off. You can also decide if you want the Auto-Backup routine to run in BACK-GROUND mode. After these settings are as you want, click the button with the SAFE. This will start the Auto-Backup routine in its normal processing mode. After an initial run through all of the files, each time a record is added or modified with the Point of Sale, the Auto-Backup routine will copy this edited or new record into the data storage area. This happens each time the timer fires.

4 You can stop the timer at anytime it is not busy processing. If you lose your network connection at any time after the timer fires, it will bring up a message saying the data connection has been lost. You must now decide if you stop and try and fix your network or use the Point of Sale on the backup work station to keep on doing sales. If you decide the network is down for a while and to use the local work station for sales. Exit the Point of Sale on this work station. Click the button Use the Back Up Stored Data.

5 This will bring up the screen below; find the folder the file TRACKER.EXE is contained in. This is typically the C:\NICKEL folder.

6 Once you have selected this folder, the auto-backup will erase a file in that folder called REMOTE.DBF this folder tells the Point of Sale where to find its data. Now start the Point of Sale and the below window will open.

7 Select the data storage area where the auto-backup routine has been storing the backup data. The Point of Sale should start up and continue working as before but will be accessing the data locally and not over the network. If you change out the server or work station that is holding the data, click the button Re- Set Paths. This will allow you to re-direct your settings. DO NOT DO THIS TO GET TO THE STORED DATA. This is only if you set up a different configuration on your network.

8 If you have a current copy of the backup data stored locally and are not running the Auto- Backup routine, start the auto-backup routine and it will erase the paths to the network data if the network is down. You can now point the Point of Sale to the correct data by clicking the Use the Back Up Stored Data button shown below.

9 CAUTION If you are using the data locally off of the local machine, this data will have to be copied back to the server once the server network connection is re-established. Exit the Point of Sale on the local machine. Bring up Windows explorer, copy ALL files in the backup data storage folder back to the server folder containing the data. Now erase the file called REMOTE.DBF in the C:\NICKEL folder on the local work station. This will allow you to re-direct the Point of Sale to start using the network data again as before you lost your data connection. Reestablish the settings on the Auto-Backup routine by clicking the Re-Set Paths button if necessary. Things to Consider Always do a normal backup through the Point of Sale, if you use ONLY the auto-backup routine and your data is corrupted, the auto-backup routine will be coping corrupted data. Most times all data will come across to the data storage area without a problem, but if you lose you network connection at the same instant a record is being updated, the entire backup or maybe just a few records could get corrupted. This NORMALLY will NOT happen but it is possible even though slight.

10 Be careful manually copying data back and forth over the network, you can accidentally over write the good current data with old history data. Depending on how important your data is, you may want to have an expert help you the first time. Remember, if you start using the local data from the backup, it is NOW your good live data and the data on the network server is now OLD history data. All other Point of Sale systems on the network should be down (not running) while you are using the data locally. If they continue to operate, (maybe they did not lose their data connection), wait until the network is back up and then you can start using this local machine again without tying into the backup data. This routine will ONLY work with the Point of Sale version Lake 8.0 Q or better. If you create a shortcut pointing to the AUTOBACK.EXE file and in the target area add the word AUTO as shown below; The Auto-Backup routines will auto-start when double clicked. You can also add the shortcut to the START folder in Windows for full automatic starting each time the computer is started.