How often should I make backups?

The M-Files server is used to save important data, so it is very important to take care of backup procedures. A regular backup should be made of each document vault and master database on the server. Backups are easy to set up with the scheduled jobs in M-Files Admin. We recommend setting M-Files to run backups every night.

Each backup produces files that should be transferred to a safe place.

Example

Your organization has a separate disk server. The master database and document vault backups are run on the M-Files server every night using the scheduled jobs. The jobs are set up so that each produces a single file that replaces the older one. Backup files are set to be transferred to the disk server and from there to a tape drive. In the event of problems, like hardware failure, the backups allow quickly returning M-Files to working order.

Important: Do not back up an active M-Files system with a snapshot of the file system where its data is stored. This can create a damaged or unusable backup because write operations to files (most importantly, the database engine files) can be ongoing and, thus, incomplete. If you use full virtual machine (VM) snapshots for backups, make sure that the VM software fully supports creation of snapshots of an active system. This means that the software can restore the system to exactly the same state, including the memory and CPU states.