AdvisorTrac stores student, advisor, and visit data from you centers. This information is valuable and Redrock Software recommends that the data be backed up regularly. AdvisorTrac consists of the application, support files, a webfolder, and a data file. Although all files in the AdvisorTrac folder may be backed up, the most important is the AdvisorTrac data file. On a Windows server, the data file is Advisor.4DD. On a Macintosh, the data file is Advisor.Data.
The application, support files, and webfolder may be reinstalled from the original CD or by download. However, if AdvisorTrac has been upgraded the entire folder should be backed up to preserve the upgrades. Additional features and modules may require that you backup additional directories. If you utilize the SSL Module, you should have a backup copy of your SSL files. If you utilize the student photos, then you need to backup the Photo folder in the root directory. If you utilize the student document postings, then you need to backup the POSTS or POSTFILES folder in the root directory. If you utilize the administrative document postings, you need to backup the AdminDocs folder in the Webfolder directory.
Because configurations vary between each campus and their servers, we can not provide exact instructions regarding the location of the AdvisorTrac files or where to store them. The IT Support department of your campus should be able to use these guidelines to set up the appropriate backup procedure for your AdvisorTrac server.
Back up the data file by copying Advisor.4DD to an external hard drive, zip drive, or a network server volume. The AdvisorTrac application should not be running during the copy unless you use a command line tool such as XCOPY or Robocopy.
AdvisorTrac may be setup to automatically perform a local backup. On page 12 of the preferences, specify a time in the field 'Backup Data file at __ each day'. This allows a backup data file to be created every day automatically. The copy of Advisor.4DD is placed in a Backups folder in the root AdvisorTrac directory. If you use another tool to backup the data file elsewhere, we recommend that you make a backup of this backup file as it is not running the live data.
Back up the data file by copying Advisor.Data to an external hard drive, zip drive, or a network server volume. The AdvisorTrac application should not be running during the copy unless you use a Unix shell command line tool such as cp.
There is not automatic backup function for AdvisorTrac on a Macintosh server at this point, although one will be coming in a future AdvisorTrac version.