Whether it be due to a hard drive failure, a bad rollback, a ransomware attack, or a natural disaster, the need for data recovery will always strike, whether you’re ready or not. Here are some common questions you should be asking about your backups and data recovery plan when backing up SOLIDWORKS PDM.
A SOLIDWORKS PDM environment has three major components that work together. Each part is essential to the recovery of the system.
#1. PDM Database in SQL
This is the brain of the PDM system. It knows all the names, references, and metadata for all files. You can use SQL Management Studio to perform this backup. (For more information about performing this backup, refer to chapter 10 of the PDM installation guide: Backing Up and Restoring File Vaults). If you want to automate this type of backup, SOLIDWORKS PDM Professional/SQL Standard users can use the Maintenance Plan tools in SQL Management Studio to schedule these. SOLIDWORKS PDM Standard/SQL Express users will need to go with a third-party tool like this Microsoft KB solution.
#2. Archive Files Backup
This is the storage of the PDM system. It consists of all your files in a structure that is easy for the database to read (but impossible for anything else). This is simply a copy of the 16 Archive folders defined as the root folders of the archive server.
#3. Archive Settings Backup
This is the connection between the database and archive files. You use the Archive Server Configuration Tool to perform this backup. (For more information about performing this backup, refer to chapter 10 of the PDM installation guide: Backing Up and Restoring File Vaults).
As a rule of thumb, we advise to have at least the following:
An important point to keep in mind when scheduling backups is that timing is key:
One of the most devastating realizations after an incident leading to a need for data recovery is finding out that the backups were also destroyed in the same incident. While it might be okay to take nightly backups on the same hard drive to protect yourself against a user error or bad rollback, taking weekly, monthly, or quarterly backups to an offline or offsite location will help protect against the rare, but more detrimental incidents. Consider the following:
Oftentimes, the incident that leads to data recovery is the result of a hard drive failure. Having a secondary drive where backups reside will allow for an easy recovery if this happens.
A natural disaster or more extreme hardware failure can turn a server and all the proprietary data into a very expensive doorstop. Having a recovery option offsite will allow you to recover even if the whole site is destroyed.
Ransomware attacks are becoming more and more common. These attacks can hit your entire network and force you to either pay large sums of money to get your data back or start from scratch. Having a backup to an external drive, tape, or secure cloud service will keep your data accessible to you, even in the worst-case scenario.
Taking a snapshot of the virtual machine that your SOLIDWORKS PDM Environment resides on is a great tool to recover within certain situations. However, just like any other recovery plan, it can have some major flaws.
While users are working in SOLIDWORKS PDM, they are constantly writing data to several temporary tables in the database. If you get a snapshot in the middle of a transaction, it might grab bad data that it can’t recover properly. This can lead to problems in the future.
Purchasing a backup software or taking snapshots of a virtual machine is not the end of the line for a recovery plan, unfortunately. Setting up a backup software properly, knowing how to recover from the backup, and knowing what to do when a problem arises are all important and necessary to being successful with this software.
With a snapshot, you are required to roll back or set up a whole machine with the snapshot, in order to recover. If a user needs a few files they rolled back by mistake, you are forced to choose between taking on a huge endeavor to recover them or having them redo the work.
You’ve gone through all this work to make sure you are prepared, but how do you know your backups are working as they should? The next step is to verify your backups. There are two parts to verifying the integrity of your backups:
I hope you found this guide for backing up SOLIDWORKS PDM helpful. Learn more about PDM by checking out the links below.
How to Move Your SOLIDWORKS PDM Server Components
How To Set Up Barcodes in SOLIDWORKS PDM Data Cards
SOLIDWORKS PDM Preview Tab Mismatch
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