We will continue the discussion about backups started on last blog post. I want to make sure that we cover an important subject related to backups so that you can have a “good” data file available whenever there are issues on the original database.

Backing up the company database is a very important process that allows to retrieve (restore) a file when necessary. But sometimes it is possible that the program is not able to complete the backup or the backup takes long before it gives an error message. When that happens, it will be important to address that as soon as possible as it might be a sign for other issues.

If the backup is unsuccessful, when you are backing up on a network location, try to backup on the local computer on the desktop for example. If you can, then there is a problem on the server.

When backup fails on the local computer but the database open fine, it might mean that the saj folder cannot be compressed to create the cab file. That will happen if there are other files in the saj folder that should not be there. The saj folder is where the program keeps proprietary files and folders and the MySQL database tables.

The saj folder will be located on where the company database is located. On that location there is always a sai file and the saj folder. They will both have the same name for example for a Sage 50 Canada file name that is: Company XYZ there will be Company XYZ.sai and Company XYZ.saj. Sometimes you might see just Company XYZ with some colors (for the sai file) but no sai extension but there will always be a saj extension for the saj folder.

To locate the sai file and saj folder please proceed as follow:

• If the database is open click on File > Properties, that will give you the file location.
• If the database is not open you can do a Windows search for: *.sai.

Once the database is located open the saj folder and make sure that the following sub-folders and files are in there:

• Simply folder (should contain frm and myd files),
• Mysql folder (should contain frm and myd files),
• Errorlog file and sometimes ExceptionError.log file,
• Ib_logfile0 file,
• Ib_logfile1 file,
• ibdata1 file,
• And process.pid file if the database is open.

If there are other files or folders different than those mentioned above, please cut/paste them outside of the saj folder and try to backup again. In most of the cases that should resolve the issue. If it does not, I will advise to retrieve and restore a previous backup then attempt to backup and see how that goes.

That concludes our backup discussion. Feel free to ask questions or share your experience with backup on Sage 50 Canada.

Thanks