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SIMS Discover Backup Console

SIMS Discover has it's own reporting database which is populated from SIMS and refreshed on a regular basis.  As such there is no personal data that would be lost if it is not backed up, however all of the custom groups and discover diagrams would be lost in the case of database loss.

The database contents are effectively 90%+ denormalised copies of SIMS data and less than 10% of 'Discover' data.

Backup providers have 2 choices for backing up SIMS Discover:

  1. Backup the whole discover database (Simple but much larger than is necessary)
  2. Use the discover backup utility to extract the additional data (More work but less data)

Please note that users in SQL are stored in 'Master', hence a restore to a new machine of the Discover Database without a restore of master may need some assistance from the customers SIMS Support Team to re-instate services.  At least if the school's data is fully preserved then recovery is possible even if guidance is needed,

Backup providers will typically use VSS or SQL backup agents and these are industry standards which are best left to others to explain and document.

The discover backup console can be found in the SQL Binn folder for the instance of SQL in use.  For example:

    C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SIMS\MSSQL\Binn>

Assistance is available from the application by running: 

     discover.backup.console /help /operation=backup

     discover.backup.console /help /operation=restore

Backup

From the command prompt.  Backup takes the following parameters:  ([m]=mandatory,[o]=optional):

    [o] Database       The database to backup the user created content from. Defaults to Discover.

    [o] Server            The SQL server instance name to backup the user created content from. Defaults to (local)

    [o] Username      SQL username to use to connect to the Discover database.

                                Optional, integrated security is used if unspecified.

    [o] Password       SQL password to use to connect to the Discover database.

                                Optional unless a username is specified.

    [m] BackupFilename

                                The path and filename of the file to store the backup in.

    [o] Overwrite       The path and filename of the file to store the backup in.

                               Defaults to false.

Eg.

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SIMS\MSSQL\Binn>md c:\backups

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SIMS\MSSQL\Binn>discover.backup.console /Operation=Backup /database=engwedisco /Server=".\sims" /Username=sa /Password=Passw0rd /Backupfilename=c:\backups\Discover.dbk /Overwrite=True
Starting console (Backup/Restore) operation .......

 Backup, operation started.....

 Backup, operation finished.....

Finished console (Backup/Restore) operation......


C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SIMS\MSSQL\Binn>dir \backups
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 625B-EDF5

 Directory of C:\backups

15/08/2019  08:49    <DIR>          .
15/08/2019  08:49    <DIR>          ..
15/08/2019  08:49            48,661 Discover.dbk
               1 File(s)         48,661 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  83,708,346,368 bytes free

Please note that failure is often silent.  If the backup folder doesn't exist then no error is returned.  We recommend backing up to a unique file name and checking that the backup file requested exists after the call,

Restore

From the command prompt.  Backup takes the following parameters:  ([m]=mandatory,[o]=optional):

    [o] Database       The database to restore the content into. Defaults to Discover.

    [o] Server         The SQL server instance name restore the content into. Defaults to (local)

    [o] Username       SQL username to use to connect to the Discover database. Optional, integrated security is used

                       if unspecified.

    [o] Password       SQL password to use to connect to the Discover database. Optional unless a username is

                       specified.

    [m] BackupFilename The path and filename of the file to restore the backup from.


C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.SIMS\MSSQL\Binn>discover.backup.console /Operation=Restore /database=engwedisco /Server=".\sims" /Username=sa /Password=Passw0rd /Backupfilename=c:\backups\Discover.dbk
Starting console (Backup/Restore) operation .......

 Restore, operation started.....

 Restore, operation finished.....

Finished console (Backup/Restore) operation......