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Customer Forum

Backups of Data

Workbooks Support Posted: 2011-01-18 17:43

My boss has asked me to take regular backups.  How do I do this?

Workbooks Support Posted: Tue, 18.01.2011 - 17:51

Update:

The Spring 2011 release introduced the Export Database feature that allows you to download a copy of your database - click here for details.

Because Workbooks is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS), your data is stored on our servers. We back up the data every day and these backups are kept for 7 days.

If you want, your System Administrator can periodically create a copy of your database within Workbooks, which we'll backup along with your main database (subject to the storage limits defined in our Terms of Service).

Occasionally our customers ask us for a backup copy of all their data.  This is distinct from simply exporting portions of data (eg, People / Organisations / Activities, etc) from Workbooks, which users with the relevant Capabilities can do themselves using the service. 

Workbooks stores customer data in completely separate MySQL databases. Customers often have more than one database since a Training database or a Demonstration database may be useful alongside a main "Live" database.

When asked for a backup of all data in the Live database we will provide this in a format which is easily importable into a MySQL server.  MySQL is the world's most popular open-source database - downloadable from www.mysql.com.  Once you have installed the software all you need to know is that the file we provide is in "mysqldump format". Using the mysql command-line

  • mysql> create database workbooks
  • mysql> use workbooks
  • mysql> source filename

where filename is the backup file supplied by Workbooks.