Backing up and Restoring Operational Data

The operational data stored by a system is its most valuable asset. All precautions must be taken to preserve its integrity. It is highly recommended to perform regular database backups and certainly it is a very good idea to perform a backup before publishing a new business space version.

As backup and restore processes are quite sensitive it is also recommended to perform them when no one is using the system in the Operation Mode.

AwareIM uses two databases with the default names BASDB and BASDBTEST. These two databases need to be backed up on a regular basis. Generally, it is recommended that the database backup be performed using the tools provided by the specific database used with AwareIM. In certain cases, it is possible to perform a simple directory backup. For example, if the default Derby/Cloudscape database is used it is possible to backup the DATA directory located underneath the root directory of the AwareIM installation. To restore the data after the backup all you need to do is overwrite the DATA directory with the files from the backup.

warning If you are just doing development and do not care about current data, then all you need is a BSV, so make sure you always have the current BSV file whenever you do something make sure that you save your work. If something goes wrong during publishing the version the easiest solution is recreate a business space and re-import the BSV. This should always work fine as the BSV includes everything.
If you do have production data already that you care about then any publishing of a new BSV that involves changes to the database structure (business objects and attributes) should be considered a MAJOR EVENT. If anything goes wrong during the publishing operation you may lose your data. This is especially the case when you rename your objects/attributes and/or change the types of existing attributes.

So you need to prepare properly for this. Before you publish you need to export the current BSV (and the new one) and perform a FULL BACKUP of the current database.

If ANYTHING GOES WRONG during publishing the first thing you need to do is RESTORE THE DATABASE FROM THE FULL BACKUP. NEVER DO ANY FURTHER WORK ON THE DATABASE THAT YOU ENDED UP WITH AFTER PUBLISHING ERROR.

The full restore should restore everything properly - there should be no report or any other errors. This is because the full snapshot of the database should include EVERYTHING THAT THE SYSTEM NEEDS to work properly.

An alternative to performing backup/restore of the database is to use the the Data Migration feature (see Data Migration). Using this feature, you can perform export of the entire operational data of a business space to create a backup file and then import the file to restore the operational data.