Take Your Vault Back-ups to the Next Level

Posted on March 7, 2015 by Mark Lancaster, Synergis Product Support Specialist:
Hard to believe it’s already been 6 months since I shared an article reminding you to check to see if your Vault backups were occurring. Today I wanted to share some additional techniques you can apply to your Vault backups.

Improving Vault Backup Time

Occasionally we receive a call where a customer reports their Vault backup is now taking 8 to 12 hours to complete and it’s interfering with users who arrive early to work. The time to complete a backup all depends on a few things including the overall size of your Vault, however the overall time can be reduced by updating a (Windows Server) task scheduler priority value as outlined in Tip #1 of this link.

Excluding Inventor Standard Content

Another method of reducing your overall Vault backup time/space is to eliminate the need to backup Inventor standard content each and every time. To do this, simply add this switch “-DBSC” to the command line containing the execution of the Vault backup.
For example:
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS 2015\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A” -VU”administrator” -VP –DBSC -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A \Backuplog.txt”

Vault Backup Validation

Validation of your Vault backup is important part of your backup. However on the other hand, adding that capability does increases the time it will take for your backup to finish. To validate, simple add this switch “-VAL” to the command line containing the execution of the Vault backup.
For example:
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS 2015\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A ” -VU”administrator” -VP –VAL -DBSC -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A \Backuplog.txt”

Current Backup Fails – Retain previous backup

Most likely when one of our Vault Application Consultants created your backup script, Vault would be backing up to a folder called “A” and then on the following day, folder “A” becomes “B” and then a new one (“A”) is created and used for the latest backup.
For example:
RMDIR /S /Q “D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\B”
REN D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A B
MKDIR “D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A”
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS Professional 2015 R2\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A” -VU”Administrator” -VP -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Backuplog.txt”
If the backup does fail on a given day, folder “A” would end up being empty. You are still protected at this point since you have the previous night backup located in folder “B”. But if the backup does fail two days (or more) in a row and no one is monitoring it, both folders would now end up being empty. Meaning if disaster struck, there is no easy way of restoring your Vault since there is no backup information in either folder.
By incorporating a temporary backup folder and some error checking into your script (per this link), you can now protect your last two (2) successful backups from being overwritten when a backup fails for some apparent reason.
For example:
MKDIR “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp”
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS Professional 2015 R2\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B“D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\TEMP” -VU”Administrator” -VP -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Backuplog.txt”
IF ERRORLEVEL 0 GOTO OverwriteLastBackup
IF ERRORLEVEL -1 GOTO End
:OverwriteLastBackup
REM DELETE B AND CASCADE A BACKUP SUBDIRECTORIES
RMDIR /Q /S “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\B”
REN “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A” “B”
REN “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp” “A”
REM CREATE A NEW DIRECTORY FOR THE BACKUP
MKDIR “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp”
REM START THE WEB SERVER
IISRESET /START
:End
REM Purge D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp
RMDIR /Q /S “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp”
MKDIR “ D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Temp”
REM START THE WEB SERVER
IISRESET /START

ADMS Console Left Opened – Vault backup does not run

Recently one of our Vault customers called and stated their backups had stopped working. When the (Vault) server was accessed, it was discovered the ADMS console was still open. When this occurs, the backup is unable to start.
To correct, simply add “taskkill /IM Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” to your backup script and the ADMS console will close prior to the start of your backup.
For example:
taskkill /IM Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe
RMDIR /S /Q “D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\B”
REN D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A B
MKDIR “D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A”
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS Professional 2015 R2\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A” -VU”Administrator” -VP -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\Backuplog.txt”

Vault Backup – Server Event Log

The other day while speaking to one of our AEC Application Consultants, he shared a snippet with me of what he applied the other day to a customer’s Vault backup script. This snippet will basically log the individual (backup) steps in the Server Event Log.
For example:
eventcreate /L Application /T INFORMATION /SO “Vault Backup” /ID 1 /D “Begin Vault Maintenance”
eventcreate /L Application /T INFORMATION /SO “Vault Backup” /ID 1 /D “Stop IIS”
IISRESET /STOP
eventcreate /L Application /T INFORMATION /SO “Vault Backup” /ID 1 /D “Kill ADMS”
taskkill /IM Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe
eventcreate /L Application /T INFORMATION /SO “Vault Backup” /ID 1 /D “Start Vault Backup process”
“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\ADMS 2015\ADMS Console\Connectivity.ADMSConsole.exe” -Obackup -B”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A ” -VU”administrator” -VP -VAL -DBSC -S -L”D:\AutodeskDM\Backup\A \Backuplog.txt”

Vault Backup Email Notification

From the previous article I shared on this topic.
Until next time….
Mark L.
Mark Lancaster is a Product Support Specialist on our Helpdesk team working to support customers to create data-rich designs and efficient workflows.  Mark’s most previous experience is as the CAD Design Manager of Pall Corporation, one of our long time customers.  In that position, he was responsible for workstation optimization and design management, established uniform standards for the local and global offices, and developed global systems to control and manage their design data.
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