Live Backup

Live or Online back-up is available in Mailtraq Professional from the Options menu, and allows you to back-up Mailtraq whilst it is online or live - without having to shut it down. Online back-up is available from the Options menu in Mailtraq Professional installations running with the Firebird or AFX databases.

Other backup options are discussed in this knowledgebase article.

Backup

The online backup system copies all messages in the database to a secondary location. In the event of a catastrophic failure the entire message database can be recovered. Mailtraq will backup:
     • Message Database
     • Configuration
     • DIS (Address Books)
     • Calendars

Automatic Backup Schedule allows an appropriate schedule to be configured.
Backup is inactive by default: you must set your own schedule.

Backup should normally scheduled to be at a known 'quiet-time' on your system.
Mailboxes may not be available during the backup processes:
incoming messages are processed normally.

The Destination Path allows you to choose your own location for the Backup files.
The default location is in C:\Program Files\Mailtraq\Database
Ensure that you do not do not leave your backups in those directories
Backups left within the Mailtraq folders will be removed by the 'Purge Deleted Objects' tool.

See 'Configurations Tips' below on selecting a suitable location for your backup.

Perform Backup Now allows you to backup on demand.

Restore

The Restore tab allows you to select which Back-up you want to restore from - either local, or from the directory stucture, and which components you want to restore:  

• Message Database, 
• Configuration,
• DIS (Address Books) 
• and/or Calendars.

 

If you are Restoring using the option [x] Restore from directory below (rather than from a Known Backup), set the File name to *.* in the Windows file selector to allow Mailtraq to select the appropriate file.

Note: The Restore function & dialog were updated from version 2396 to simplify operation and automatically select the correct files. See www.mailtraq.com/upgrading to access this feature.

Restore Single Mailbox

 

It is possible to restore the contents of a single Mailbox from backup without having to restore all mailboxes. 

Note:
This Restore process will shut Mailtraq down whilst it is in progress.

If the mailbox you are restoring is large this may take some time.

 

 

 

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Configuration Tips

Restoring

1. It is recommended that the Mailtraq machine is rebooted before running the Restore process.
2. Once the Restore process has begun it must not be interrupted. 
3. Allow enough space for your backups, particularly if you are holding messages on the server (IMAP/Webmail). One week rotating backup - Mailtraq's default - will require at  least seven times the size of the working database.

Selecting a suitable destination
The drive you select for the destination of the Backup should be formatted as NTFS, not FAT32 which can only store files up to 4gb. Microsoft publish this KB article on converting to NTFS.

If you use a FAT32 format hard-drive, and the backup files exceed the maximum file size then the backup will fail and you will see a log entry similar to:
EXCEPTION (NexusDB: <unnamed> TnxTable instance>: Table is full. [$2507/9479]) @ Backup Service

Care should be taken to use "Safely remove hardware" before unplugging any USB mass-storage devices used in this context.

Backing up to 'remote' drives
Mailtraq's default backup location is to the Database folder. If you wish to backup to a drive across your network you need to be aware of the Windows Permissions Mailtraq is running under. Mailtraq is normally installed and starts as a Windows service and runs with the SYSTEM 'user name' - which is reserved for services.

When you access network drives from the machine that Mailtraq is installed on you are normally doing so as a Windows User. So, although you may have permission from that machine to access those paths, the SYSTEM user may not. You will need to adjust the permissions to allow the SYSTEM access.

Tip: To avoid having to adjust SYSTEM permissions - set Mailtraq to backup to 'local' space and then get your organization's back-up software to 'collect' the backup from there, or use a simple scheduled xcopy or move batch-file to move the backups to a different location.