Doors.NET Cloud Backup and Restore

Doors.NET Cloud Backup and Restore


1.0 Introduction

Doors.NET Cloud Backup and Restore allows you to create Amazon Web Services (AWS) backups of your Doors.NET database and all Doors.NET configuration files.


Cloud Backup is a subscription service (with a 1-year license term) which must be renewed annually for the service to continue.


The main purpose of Cloud Backup is for you to easily be able to create a Cloud-based backup of your Doors.NET database and the system configuration files. You can then easily restore or recover your entire Doors.NET system in situations where the host PC hard disk needs to be replaced or reformatted due to data loss or disk damage.


You can specify how many Doors.NET backups will be kept in Cloud storage and the oldest backup file will be deleted on a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) basis.


 

2.0 Important Notes

  • If Doors.NET is not installed using the default file location (C:\Keri\DoorsNET), that is not a problem. The backup/restore feature will use the folder where the software was launched and will add the appropriate '\Cloud' folder (where the Cloud backup files will be downloaded to). For example; if Doors.NET is installed in D:\Software\Keri\DoorsNET, then the program will look in the folder 'D:\Software\Keri\DoorsNET\Cloud.

  • If the Doors.NET database is located on a different PC/server than the application server PC, then this is not supported. the SQL server must be local to the Doors.NET host PC.

  • You will not be able to restore an Doors.NET backup onto a PC that uses an older SQL database engine. For example; if the backup was taken on a machine running SQL Express 2019 you will NOT be able to restore the backup onto a machine that is using 2016 (or any other version that is older than 2019). The SQL database engine on the 'restore PC' must be using the same, or newer, version of SQL/SQL Express.

 

3.0 Licensing Requirements

The Doors.NET Cloud Backup is a licensed feature - you will need to contact Keri Systems Inside Sales with the first 5 characters of your Doors.NET license to enable the feature. When the feature is enabled, Doors.NET License Manager will display the date of expiry (when the Cloud backup service will stop working) - this will be one year after the activation date. License Manager will also display the maximum number of backups that will be stored in the Cloud (as well as a primary e-mail address and a secondary e-mail address).


3.1 Verify the Feature is Enabled

The following steps explain how to verify that the Cloud Backup is enabled.


  1. From Windows Start menu, select Doors.NET >> License Manager.
  2. The License Manager window will open.
  3. Click on the License tab.
  4. Scroll down the list of features and capacities until you locate Cloud Backup settings. You should see the Cloud backup expiry date, the maximum number of backups along with a primary and secondary registered e-mail address.

    Cloud Backup - License Settings

    Note: If the Cloud backup fields are blank, you will need to contact Keri Systems Inside Sales.

  5. If everything seems to be correct, close the license manager window.

 

4.0 Create a Cloud Backup

4.1 On-demand Backup via the Doors.NET User Interface

The first option is to perform a manual backup using the Doors.NET admin client:


  1. Login to Doors.NET.
  2. Select the Tools tab, then click the Backup button.
  3. A standard database backup will be created.
  4. After the standard backup completes, a dialog box appears asking if you want to run Cloud Backup. Respond “Yes” to start the Cloud Backup process.
  5. Live Events will show in-progress messages that include the name of each file as it is uploaded to Cloud storage.
  6. When Cloud backup completes, live events displays progress message and a success confirmation.

    Cloud backup complete

4.2 Weekly Scheduled Backup Using License Manager

  1. From Windows Start menu, select Doors.NET >> License Manager.
  2. Select Application Server from the list on the left.
  3. Click the SETTINGS button.
  4. Select the Backup tab.

    Cloud backup tab

  5. Enable automatic backup is enabled by default (so a local Doors.NET database will always be created at 11pm every Friday). This can, of course, be changed to occur at any time or day of the week.
  6. Select the option to also perform a Cloud backup after the scheduled backup.

    Also perform Cloud backup

  7. Save the scheduled backup settings and confirm to go ahead with restarting the application server service.
  8. When a scheduled backup is generated a Cloud backup will also happen immediately after.
  9. If Doors.NET is open when the scheduled backup occurs you will see backup messages in live events.
  10. The uploaded file will be the .BAK file that is copied to the backup file location specified (default location is C:\Keri\DoorsNET\Backups).

4.3 Scheduled Backup via System Calendar

A scheduled backup can also be setup in System Calendar.



Note:System Calendar is also a licensed feature that therefore must be enabled on your Doors.NET license.
  1. Login to Doors.NET.

  2. From the Home tab, click on System Calendar icon.

    System Calendar Icon

  3. Click New Appointment button.

    New Appointment

  4. Enter a name for the appointment in the subject field (i.e Daily Backup).

    Daily_Backup

  5. Set a date and start time for the backup. The stop time will infill automatically.


  6. Click the Categories tab and select Backup.
  7. Click the Start Action tab.
  8. Select to perform a Full backup.
  9. Enter a Backup Folder location (for example; a folder located on an external drive).
  10. Check the option to also perform a Cloud Backup after the scheduled backup completes.

    System Calendar Settings

  11. Click the SAVE and CLOSE button.
  12. Also click the SAVE ALL icon in the upper-left corner of the Doors.NET client.

    Save All Icon

  13. The Daily Backup appointment will appear on the System Calendar grid at the time when it is set to occur.

    System Calendar Appointment

  14. Again, if Doors.NET is open at the time the backup occurs, you will see backup-related events displayed in live events.

 

5.0 Cloud Backup Database Download

The following steps explain how you can download the Cloud database and config files. It can then be deployed on a new host PC. For a system migration, you should retrieve the file set from the C:\Keri\DoorsNET\Cloud folder, copy the folder onto a storage device and then follow the steps for performing a database restore (on the new host PC).


  1. Run Doors.NET License Manager.

  2. Select Application Server.


  3. Click SETTINGS button.

  4. Select the Cloud Restore tab.


  5. Click RESTORE CLOUD BACKUP button; the Cloud Restore dialog appears.

    Cloud Backup Restore

  6. Click VIEW CLOUD BACKUP SETS button to see the list of Cloud Backup Sets.

    View Backup Sets

  7. Select one of the Cloud Backup Sets to be downloaded.

    View list of backups

  8. Click DOWNLOAD SELECTED AWS CLOUD BACKUP SET button.

    Download Selected

  9. Wait until the status messages displays that all files were downloaded successfully.
  10. Cloud Restore downloads SQL Server .BAK file and Doors.NET config files.
  11. Cloud Restore also downloads Doors.NET config files.
  12. Cloud Restore status messages will display “SQL SERVER RESTORE COMPLETED”.

    Database restore message

  13. Close the Cloud backup restore window.
  14. Close the application server settings window.

  15. Close the License Manager window - you will be prompted to restart the Doors.NET services. Confirm to go ahead with this.



  16. Go to C:\Keri\DoorsNET\Cloud - you will see the downloaded folder. Go into the folder and you will see the database file and all the config files.

    Downloaded backup files

  17. The files can now be deployed on a different PC (system migration) or copied to a network drive or external drive.

 

6.0 Cloud Backup Database Restore

This restore procedure explains how to obtain the most current database file set and then how to restore the database onto the same host PC. If the database will be deployed on a new host PC, you should retrieve the file set from the C:\Keri\DoorsNET folder, copied the folder onto a storage device and then follow the steps for performing a database restore (on the new host PC).


  1. Repeat steps 1-6 outlined in the previous section.

    View Backup Sets

  2. Select one of the Cloud Backup Sets to be restored.
  3. Select one of the Cloud Backup Sets to be restored.
  4. Click RESTORE SELECTED CLOUD BACKUP SET button.
  5. First prompt asks if you want to Download and Restore? Respond Yes.
  6. Second prompt asks if you want to Overwrite Local Copies of Backups? Respond Yes.
  7. To cancel Restore, click CANCEL button before all downloads finish.

  8. The available backup files will be listed. They are named as the date and time stamp when the database was created. For example; this selected database file was created at 11:55 on 24th March 2022:





  9. The lower part of the screen details the number of files that are included in the backup and the names of those files.



  10. Click RESTORE SELECTED CLOUD BACKUP SETS to download the backup and config files.

    Cloud - Restore Selected


Note: If you attempt to restore a backup file when there is no internet connectivity you will see the following error message:

Restore_Error_Message

 

7.0 Exceeding the Maximum Number of Backups

The Cloud backup service will allow you to create one more than the maximum number that is specified in your license. Once each day (07:00GMT) the service will check if the maximum amount has been exceeded and if so, the oldest backup(s) will be deleted - at 07:00GMT you will therefore be able to create another new backup.




8.0 Cloud Backup E-Mail Notifications

Various e-mail notifications will be sent to the primary e-mail that was used to activate the Cloud backup service. Each of these e-mails is designed to ensure that Cloud backups are being created successfully and frequently - and also to notify if the service is due to expire or is expired.

 

Cloud Backup Complete

This email gets sent every time Doors.NET Cloud Backup runs to completion.


This email will be sent to the email address provided by the customer when the Cloud Backup service is purchased. Customers can provide two email addresses, a primary email contact plus a second alternate email contact.

 

Weekly Backup Enabled

An e-mail notification will be sent when the weekly Cloud backup has been enabled in License Manager.

 

Missed Weekly Cloud Backup

A Email notification will be sent if no Cloud backups were detected as being created during the past 7 days. This will prompt the user to manually create a backup or to investigate why a scheduled backup did not occur. The e-mail notification will be sent every day at 0700 GMT until a new backup has been created.

 

Cloud Backups Deleted

Each customer's Doors.NET license has a limit on the maximum number of Cloud Backups that are allowed to have at any instant in time. If the customer exceeds this limit, the Cloud Backup service will detect that too many Cloud Backups exist, and will delete the oldest ones, (keeping the N most current Cloud Backups), where N is the maximum number of backups allowed for this customer.

 

License Will Expire Soon

An e-mail notification will be sent to the primary e-mail address starting 30 days before license expires. This e-mail notification will be sent every day until the expiry date.


License is Expired All Cloud Backups Will Be Deleted On DD/MM/YYYY

An e-mail notification will be sent to the primary to explain that all backup files will be deleted from the AWS server after a certain date. This e-mail notification will be sent every day after the expiry date. This notification is a warning that the Cloud backup files will be deleted if the service is not renewed.


All Cloud Backups have been deleted - 30 days past license expire date

30 days after customer's Cloud Backup license has expired, AWS code will delete all cloud backups for that customer, and send an email notification to the customer. 







    
P/N: 02436-001 Rev. A
   


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