My backup/restore software failed today - will not launch. So, after the HB Server failed to start, claiming HBDATA was invalid, I had to restore a somewhat long-in-the-tooth copy of HBDATA that I made several months ago. Then I found a later version - the autobackup version.
(I foolishly assumed I could actually restore what the backup software was backing up . Can't trust anything...)
Anyway, how about a HB Server built-in prompt to backup whenever a change is made to HBDATA? Not sure when that msg could be delivered - certainly after a theme change. But how to deliver it if a device or task is added... or any other HBDATA affecting change. If that is unworkable, then maybe a way of changing the interval of the autobackup - from a fixed one month (default) to a user-specified interval in days.
HBData is chaning every second in my case because alphalist properties are filled with new data from rss feeds, indicators change state etc. I made it a habit to mirror my complete HB directory every time I change something in HB. I store it on another harddisk just to be sure. My complete c-drive is ghosted automatically every saterday night also containing the complete HB directory. It has helped me more than once to get my broken setup back to where it was after a change was made. It would be a nightmare to loose a system which is over 5 years in development. I would just take matters in my own hand. Many good mirrors and ghost programs are out there.
Richard, I suspected that there would be some applications of HB where HBDATA was changing frequently "under the covers". That kills any use of a prompting scheme. But making the autobackup feature interval a variable would be helpful. I'm not as methodical as you - I'll make a minor tweak to HBDATA here and there and then forget to make a backup.
One still needs to provide an external backup mechanism - I'm replacing mine as soon as I find some b/u software that actually is reliable and not a resource hog. Can you suggest a program?
I use Remotely Anywhere for remote desktop and file mirroring.
My autobackup file dates from the time I started HB so it seems that HB creates a backup when started.
Manually you can do according the help file:
Backing up the Configuration
It is strongly recommended that the HouseBot configuration be backed whenever significant configuration updates have been made. To save a backup of the current configuration:
From the HouseBot main menu, select the "File \ Backup Configuration..." menu item.
Press the "Backup Now" button to backup the configuration.
Restoring a Backup
To restore a previously backed up file:
From the HouseBot main menu, select the "File \ Restore Configuration..." menu item.
Press the "Start Restore" button to restore the last backed-up configuration.
Restart HouseBot. Until HouseBot is restarted, the old configuration file will be used.
Automatic Backup
Each time HouseBot is started, it checks to see if more than one month has passed since it last auto-backed up the configuration file. If it has been longer than one month, the configuration database is compacted and copied to the \HouseBot\Config\Backup directory. The compacted database is named HBData.autobackup.mdb and can be used as a last known valid database if the running database file somehow becomes corrupted. To restore the auto backup file, simply copy the HBData.autobackup.mdb file from the \HouseBot\Config\Backup directory into the \HouseBot\Config directory and rename the file to HBData.mdb.
Notes:
The entire contents of the HouseBot\Config directory and any subdirectories under the HouseBot\Config directory is included in the backup file (not the automatic backup file). Any files that are needed that are outside of this directory should be backed up manually.
The backup file is a standard ZIP format file.
Backup files should be regularly saved to another machine or backup medium, in the event that the entire HouseBot machine is damaged.
Thanks. Yes I as able to use the autobackup version that HB created - it was newer than one I had manually created from within HB and getting it up to "current" was not a problem.
My suggestion was to allow the user to specify a more frequent interval than monthly for the autobackup. To me, that's too infrequent. But maybe other's use and mods to HBDATA are not as frequent or "critical". Just a suggestion...
getting from monthly to daily can be done as well by setting the registry. However HB needs to be restarted to get the backup done. So with the key in the image set to 86400 which is one day in seconds, it won't check to see if a month has passed by, but now it checks if a day has gone by. Sorry I didn't address that sooner. Mine just backups any time I restart HB if a day has gone by since the last bakup.
. Can't trust anything...)