Purpose of Backup and Restore
It is recommended to back up Messaging data.
The Communication Manager server backs up messaging data over the customer's LAN to an external ftp server or an external email server. This data can be backed up at the same time as the Communication Manager server data, or the messaging data can be backed up independently from the Communication Manager server data. In the event of a system failure, the information stored on the external server is used to restore the system to an operational state.
The system administrator who is administering network backups using FTP, SCP or SFTP, needs to be cognizant of the possible file storage size and any limitation of the storage size on the customer’s data network.
The number of mailboxes for the messaging application on an supported platform can be in thousands. Hence, the message storage size on the system server hard disk drive has increased significantly.
Previously, customers may have seen backup file sizes of maybe 100MB or more of data.
With 2,000 or 3,000 or more administered mailboxes the backup files could possibly be more than 10GB of data.
Most IT administrators constrain their data networks to a few GB’s of data, so the network backup process may be stopped if the file sizes get too large when using FTP to transfer the backup data from the Communication Manager Server’s hard disk drive to the customer’s network FTP server.
A system administrator can mitigate the backup file size by:
Limiting the mailbox size of users to fewer hours of storage, so that users do not have more than 10 or so minutes of voice storage in their mailbox
Limiting the number of days a message can remain in a mailbox before the message is deleted. Currently the system defaults to 15 days of shelf life for a message before it is deleted. The system automatically deletes messages with the nightly audits when the messages age to the administered number of days.
Data That You Can Back Up and Restore
You can back up any combination of the four messaging data types at any time manually (Backup Now) or according to a schedule automatically (Scheduled Backup). The four data types are:
Translations
Translations comprise system administration data.
Detailed system data on shared memory, speech file system pointers, and so on
Alarm management information
A list of enabled features
A list of installed software
Messaging Digital Networking connectivity and communication information
Message headers, mailing lists, subscriber profiles (including automated attendant administration), and message-waiting indicator status
Switch integration parameters
Hard disk configuration
In addition to the scheduled backups, you should perform a backup now whenever you make extensive changes to subscriber profiles.
Announcements
Announcements are the prompts and phrases that guide the user through the messaging application. This data type does not require a backup unless the system has customized announcements that have just been changed. If customized announcements are not being used, a backup of announcements already exists on the original factory software CD.
Messaging Names
The messaging names data type contains voiced subscriber names. After additional subscriber names have been recorded, you should conduct a backup now of this data type.
Voice Messages
Voice messages are all of the call answer and voice mail messages that subscribers send and receive every day. Also included are voice messaging greetings,which include each subscriber's primary voice greeting, multiple personal greetings, automated attendant menus and messages, and bulletin board messages.
About the Backup Now
Use Backup Now when you want to back up system data immediately. For example, you may want to back up data very soon after you have installed the Communication Manager server and/or the messaging system. Additionally, you may want to run the backup procedure just before making a change to your system. Doing so ensures that the most recent data is backed up, including data that is new since the last scheduled backup was run.
Note
The "backup now" does not cause a degradation in service. However, for best results, perform a backup now at a time when the messaging system experiences low usage.
Additionally, the messaging backup files can be quite large. As a result, your LAN network connection may fail during a backup now. In this case, you can run a scheduled backup instead, which allows the Communication Manager server to handle breaks in the LAN connection and ultimately create a successful backup. To run a scheduled backup in case of a failed backup now, you can simply set the schedule to run on the current day of the week and 5 or 10 minutes in the future. See Create (add) a new backup schedule.
About the Scheduled Backup
The scheduled backup occurs automatically according to a schedule that you set for the system. The scheduled backup can contain all of the information necessary to bring the messaging system back to an operational state after a service-affecting event.
Scheduled backups do not require supervision. However, for the backup to be successful, you must ensure that the ftp or mail server to which messaging sends backup data still has space to accept a new backup.
FTP Server Setup and Maintenance
File transfer protocol(FTP) is the Internet protocol standard mechanism for moving files from one machine to another. The FTP backup method requires use of an FTP server, which must be connected to the same enterprise LAN as the Communication Manager server. The customer LAN administrator is responsible for setting up an FTP backup server.
Configure the FTP Server
It is recommended that the FTP server be installed and configured beforethe installation and use of the Communication Manager server and messaging software. The configuration includes creating a directory for storing backups. Since you will normally backup the Communication Manager server and messaging data during the same backup, use the same directory for Communication Manager server and messaging backups. Use a directory name that makes sense and is easy to remember, such as c:\ftp\s8400back.
Disk Space on the FTP Server
The messaging data can require a lot of disk space. Depending on the number of subscribers, the number of announcement sets you customize, and the amount of message storage you allow, a single full system backup can require 300 MB or more (up to approximately 800MB). This amount of data is in addition to the data backed up for the Communication Manager server itself. Additionally, for each backup, the system creates a new file based on the date and time the backup is run. This means you cannot overwrite a backup previously stored.
As a result, it is recommended that you delete old backup files periodically and diligently, at the same rate at which you perform backups. If the server runs out of disk space for the backup, data will be stored up to the point of failure. Data is stored in the following order of priority: translations, announcements, names, and messages.
FTP Server Availability
Finally, if the FTP server is unavailable at the time the backup runs, the backup will fail. You should ensure that maintenance on the FTP server occur only during times when a backup now or scheduled backup are not run. Lastly, a backup can require 30 to 40 minutes, or even more, depending on the size of your files and the network's traffic.
About Restoring Backed-Up System Files
The messaging information stored on an ftp server or on an email server during the data backups is used to restore the system to an operational state. If your ftp server has a UNIX or Linux® operating system, you start with the View/Restore screen. If your ftp server has a Windows operating system, you start with the View Backup Log screen.
If a system problem or failure occurs, backups can be invaluable in returning the system to an operational state. You are likely to restore backups when directed to do so by an alarm repair action.
Backup Verification
It is recommended that you verify the success of each backup you run. The View Backup Log screen, available from the Server (Maintenance) Web page, allows you to verify backups. And since a backup can include a variety data types, including Communication Manager server data, the View Backup Log screen allows you to open a backup file to verify what data types are included.