It is critical that you have a backup system in place for Fusion. We strongly recommend having a system that includes local and offsite backups. This ensures that you will have both consistent backups to protect against data integrity problems as well as offsite copies in case something bad (such as fire) happens to the building the server is in.
Once set up, Fusion can take care of then entire backup system without the need for other software.
This documentation applies mostly to Fusion Server. Fusion Truck also automatically backs itself up, but is fully automatic and does not require secondary backups because you can always start with a new sync if something goes wrong. |
There are many ways to set up a good backup system. We strongly recommend the following as a minimum for Fusion.
If possible, it is good to have two secondary backups to different computers on the network. If you are not familiar with how to set up a network share folder, please consult the person who takes care of your computers and networks.
Do not use a third party system to backup the data file directly while Fusion Server is running. This will result in a corrupt file. It is possible, however, to rely on third party systems to make copies of the primary backups, although you lose the ability for Fusion to report on errors. |
One reason we recommend allowing Fusion to handle the entire backup system instead of using other software is that Fusion can then handle any errors that occur. If the primary backup or and secondary backup fails for any reason, Fusion will send you a message notifying you of the error. It will also send our support team a message so that we are aware of the failure and can help resolve the problem quickly.
This window can be opened from Fusion Server's task bar. Settings in the Primary Backup and Data File Verification tabs should only be adjusted under consultation with our support team. We can also help with the Secondary Backup tab settings or you can work with them yourself.
To add a secondary backup, click the + button and then navigate to the folder you want to place the folders in (this must be a folder, not the root level of a drive). After selecting it, click the OK button. You can change the location of an existing secondary backup by Double-Clicking the Path cell in the list. You can delete a secondary backup by selecting it and clicking the - button. Note that this doesn't delete the backup files. It just stops Fusion from making any more secondary backups to that location.
If one of the secondary backup locations is small, you can tell Fusion to keep a different number of backups in that one location by Double-Clicking the number in the Backups To Keep column and entering a new number.
You may be in a situation where some of the drives listed are not expected to be available every night. For example, you might have two external drives that you rotate, taking one of them home each night, which means Fusion will only be able to copy to one of them each night. To keep from getting unnecessary warnings about backup failures, you can change the Minimum expected successful backups each night field. For example, let's say you have three secondary backup paths listed. One is to a network folder that should always be connected. The other two are to external drives that get rotated so only one is ever plugged in. In this case you only expect two of the three paths to every work each night, so you would enter 2 in the field. If only one of the paths works, you'll still get a failure message, but as long as at least two of the paths work, Fusion will assume all is okay.
Each time Fusion backs up, it updates the information in this window so you can see when the last successful copy was and how long it took. If a backup path is no longer available, it will show in red in this list. This can happen, for example, if an external drive is unplugged or if a network share drive is not mounted.
You must realize that Fusion expects full control over a secondary backup folder. If there are other files in the secondary backup folder, they will eventually be deleted! |
Do not leave this window open for extended periods of time on the server! Only open it long enough to inspect it or make necessary changes and the immediately close it. |