Pastel data Management

[Sl33py]

Hello
I have a SLA with an accounting firm and part of our duties is to back up their data. There are 15 users and they use versions from 2007 to V12 with lots of customers. As they work the create copy of companies, there are companies everywhere nobody knows what is going on. A single company can be 300mb so to manage the data is becoming a problem.
Case ware has a tool to find duplicate companies and you compress them which help. Is there something like that for Pastel or a 3rd party program?
Does somebody have some advice on a policy we can create to manage this

 

[Franna]

Sounds like a disaster waiting to happen...

Please tell me you have a NAS server on the network where all the Pastel company databases are stored, and that the 15 users don't all store the database folders on their local machine?

 

[Sl33py]

it runs of the server that has RAID1 "data" drive then we have 3 external usb drives that we back up to and have on a (Mon Wed) (Tue Thur) (Friday * 4 Copies) schedule. I need to shorten the full backup time, its pushing 400gb, its crazy....

 

[PsyWulf]

To be honest i'd create a filtered list with Last Accessed+Modified dates for all the company folders ( if its centrally kept ) and dump into archives the older with maximum compression and do a one-time backup of those. If anybody misses something later you can restore that company

 

[krono9]

it runs of the server that has RAID1 "data" drive then we have 3 external usb drives that we back up to and have on a (Mon Wed) (Tue Thur) (Friday * 4 Copies) schedule. I need to shorten the full backup time, its pushing 400gb, its crazy....

You doing incremental backups? Sounds more like full backups every time?

 

[Sl33py]

Friday is full every time, the rest is incremental and every 5th one is full on them, I use cobian backup and then do a system state on a sunday.
Is there a way to monior who has created new folders deleted/moved folders?
Have anybody used MFiles or maybe an alternative

 

[Stefanmuller]

Maybe start with purging the really old files, those older than 5 years by either having them returned to the client or by archiving them on a separate tape. These files aren't live and dont need sequential backup weekly. You will be surprised how much data this will save. As Pastel only keeps the last 2 years, you also only need the latest file as the one to be continually backed up.

Sounds like most small firms. The key lies in setting down a policy that the users must follow. The fact that many copies of files are kept sounds like the users dont have stand alone licences. So they need to make copies each time they want to work away from the office.

 

[minion]

I can imagine that can be a problem. Users creating companies on their local machines can be big problem. Advise them to please connect to companies on server and not their local machines. Best is go to each user and check their settings. Good luck.