What if you have a server failure, hard drive failure or SQL Server catastrophic failure? These types of hardware/system failures can damage your Vault or Fortress database.

If a database is damaged, it may not be recoverable. If it is recovered with data loss, your database may still be unusable for source control or item tracking operations.

You may believe you have a recent backup. Are you sure? Maybe the backup job ran out of disk space, or something on the network has changed and the backup isn’t occurring as scheduled.

These are all real issues that have impacted our customers in the past year.

This is a friendly reminder from your SourceGear Technical Support Team to back up your sgvault, sgmaster and (if you’re using Fortress or Vault Pro) sgdragnet databases on a regular basis to prevent downtime for your production team and possible loss of your source code and item tracking information.

Once you've established a backup routine, it's crucial that you test your backups. Every couple of months, restore your most-recent backup to a separate SQL Server - which is the situation you'll be in if you really need the backup. Make sure the backups are intact and accessible, and that you know the steps to restore a working SQL Server database.

For additional information and tips on scheduling regular backups, please see this KB article:

Tips on Scheduling Regular Backups

Interested in additional guidance on scheduling backups, or information on the latest features in Vault Standard and Vault Pro 5.1? We offer weekly online demonstrations of both products. Each session is 45 minutes (plus Q&A), and you can attend right from your desktop. You can request a demo here:
 
Demo Request Form

As always, you can visit our SourceGear Customer Service Portal to review your entire order history, see pricing on maintenance and new licenses, request a trial version, purchase new licenses, set your e-mail preferences, and much more, at http://csp.sourcegear.com

Have other questions about Vault or Fortress?  The SourceGear Technical Support Team is happy to assist you. You can contact us at support@sourcegear.com, or 1-217-356-0105 extension 700.
 
And thanks again for choosing SourceGear!