1. Administrator Guide
  2. Administration – Global Settings
  3. Account
  4. Automatic Backup Service

Automatic Backup Service

The OpenAir Automatic Backup Service (ABS) lets you set up a regular delivery of your OpenAir account data to an email address or SCP/SFTP server for safeguarding. Your data is compressed as a ZIP file and can be PGP encrypted for additional security. You can use this feature to download all of your data, workspace documents and attachments.

Note:

The Automatic Backup Service is a licensed add-on and must be purchased separately. To enable the Automatic Backup Service feature, contact your OpenAir account manager or OpenAir Professional Services.

Setting up the Automatic Backup Service

When the Automatic Backup Service (ABS) is enabled, go to Administration > Global Settings > Account > Automatic backup service and configure your backup settings.

  • Data to include in the backup — Select which data will be exported in each backup. You can include the OpenAir data dictionary, text files (either comma- or tab-delimited) and MySQL import file. You can set the default CHARSET for your MySQL import files to "UTF-8", and include table relationships in the MySQL import file.

    Note:

    If the Apply relationships box is checked, the MySQL import file contains statements to support table relationships:

    • Change the storage engine to “InnoDB”.

    • Change foreign key columns to allow null values.

    • Set foreign keys to null if the value is 0 (zero).

  • Documents and attachments — Check the Document and attachments box to include them in the backup.

    • By default, the filename of each attachment and workspace document is the OpenAir internal ID number. You can append the original names and extensions to documents and attachments in addition to the OpenAir internal ID number.

    • You can use a Date range filter to include only documents and attachments created or updated during a specific period. Using a date range filter can be useful to manage the size of the backup file. The form indicates the total file size of selected documents before compression.

  • When do you want the backup to run — schedule when you would like the backup to run. You can set the schedule to particular days of the week or month, or every day. You can also set the time for the backup to run. You should run the backup in the evening for better performance.

  • How do you want the data sent — Select how the data should be sent. Options include SCP, SFTP or Email. Emails will not be sent if the files are larger than 60 MB. You can also suspend the service.

    Important:

    Support for the FTPS protocol in the Automatic Backup Service stopped on January 20, 2021.

  • SCP/SFTP settings

    • Address — Enter the IP address or DNS name for your SCP or SFTP connection.

    • Directory — Specify a directory to place the exported file in.

    • User name — Enter the user name used for your SCP or SFTP connection.

    • Password — Enter and verify the password for the SCP or SFTP service.

    • Status email — Enter an email address for status emails to be sent to.

    • Status notification — Select which events are included in status emails. You can include all events or errors only.

    • Disable remote file attribute copy — Try to check this box if you receive setstat errors during the ABS transfer.

    • Try to resume transfer when it fails — Check this box to try and resume the transfer in case the connection to the SFTP server is interrupted. This is only available if you choose to send your data using SFTP.

      If the SFTP connection is interrupted, OpenAir will attempt to retry the scheduled automatic backup transfer twice. After the third unsuccessful attempt, an error is logged and a status notification email is sent to advise that the automatic backup was unsuccessful. The status notification email also indicates if the connection is interrupted but the automatic backup completes successfully on the second or third attempt.

    • Seconds between retry attempts — Enter the time interval (in seconds) between ABS transfer attempts. The interval can be between 5 seconds (default) and 5 minutes.

      Note:

      After you change the transfer method to SFTP, click Save to see the Try to resume transfer when it fails box and Seconds between retry attempts field.

    Important:

    Support for custom remote ports for SCP or FTPS in the Automatic Backup Service stopped on January 20, 2021.

  • SSH Security Information — After you set up the ABS and OpenAir connects with the SCP or SFTP server, OpenAir stores the SSH public keys for all hosts ABS connected to (Known hosts). To clear the list, check the clear list box.

    Note:

    To replace an existing SSH public key with a new one:

    1. Check the clear list box.

    2. Click Save.

    3. Click the Tips button then Test ABS connection settings. If the connection test is successful, the new SSH public key is added to Known hosts.

  • PGP Encryption — If you want to use PGP encryption, copy and paste the PGP public key in the text box.

  • Other

    • Include the audit trail in the text backup — By default, text files do not include audit trails. Check this box to include the audit trail. This can make the text files difficult to parse. MySQL import files always include the audit trail.

    • Include all tables in the text and MySQL backups — By default, the export excludes some tables with typically large datasets such as assign_by_day, booking_by_day, schedule_by_day, and user_tag_by_day for example. Check this box to include all tables in text and MySQL backups.

    • Include status file with backup — Check this box to include a small status file with data about the transfer. The status file contains the checksum of transferred file(s), file size, and the list of all tables.

    • Tables to exclude — You can exclude tables from a MySQL import file here. Enter the list of tables to exclude, separated by commas.