To properly backup your FileMaker databases, the first step is to setup backup schedules in FileMaker Server. The next step is to use best practices with the schedules to make sure your backups are safe. Now you need to enable email notification to keep in you informed whether the backup schedules are running successfully.

To enable email notification, first configure the SMTP settings in FileMaker Server. In the Admin Console, go to Configuration > General Settings > Email Notification. Often, you can use the same settings in your email software (Mac Mail, Outlook, etc.). Below is a description of the most common settings.

• From Address – Enter the email address from which you want the messages to be sent.
• SMTP Server Address – Enter the domain name or IP address of your SMTP mail server.
• SMTP Authentication – Most email servers require authentication (user and password) to send email. Check the checkbox and use the default setting of “Plain Text”.
• Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) – Gmail and several other email hosts require SSL. Checking this checkbox will automatically change the port number.
• User – Enter the username to login to the SMTP server. This is usually the same as the From Address.
• Password – The password to login to the SMTP server. Ask your system administrator if you do not know the password.

Once you have entered the SMTP settings, click the Test SMTP Settings button. FileMaker Server will prompt you to enter the email address to send a “test email”. FMS will then display a dialog to inform you whether the email was sent successfully.  The test email should look something like this.

Next, you should enable Notification Settings for the server. This sends email messages when there are general errors (not related to a backup schedule) with FileMaker Server.

• Enable Email Notifications – Check the checkbox to send notifications. (This can be the same email address as the From Address above.)
• Send Email Notifications To – Enter the email address to which to send error messages.
• Security Level – Use the default setting of “Errors only”. The “Warnings or errors” setting will overwhelm your inbox with unnecessary email.

Now, you are ready to setup email notifications for your backup schedules. If you followed the recommendations in the first article, you will use notification for the Daily and Weekly schedules. This will notify you each day if you backups are running successfully without overwhelming your inbox.

In the Admin Console, go to Administration > Schedules and right-click on the Daily schedule. Choose “Edit a schedule” from the contextual menu. Click the Next button for the first four screens in the schedule wizard. On the fifth page, simply check “Send email notification” and enter the “To” address to send notifications for the backup schedule. (FMS will default to the email address from the Notification Settings above.) Click the Finish button.

The schedule will send an email notification whenever the backup executes. The email will describe whether the backup was successful or failed. To test the schedule notification, right click on the schedule and choose “Run a schedule now”. The backup will be performed and then FMS will send the email notification.

Email notification is your first line of defense to ensure your backup schedules are working properly. Setting up the notifications is not enough. You must have the discipline to read the email each day to make there are no errors with your backups. The worst time to find out your backups are not working is when you need a backup copy to recover some data.

So, it is a brand new year and everyone is making resolutions for their personal and professional lives. Along with going to the gym and learning to fill-in-the-blank better, I want to challenge you to make a goal to backup your database better. (Hopefully, you are already backing up some.)

The easiest way to backup your FileMaker database is to use FileMaker Server. So, if you are not using FileMaker Server, why not? If you are using a hosting provider, then I will assume they are backing up the database for you. (Do you know how often they backup your database?) Otherwise, I assume you are hosting the database on your own server—with FileMaker Server.

FileMaker Server includes “Schedules”, the ability to automatically backup the live database at a regular interval. The database server comes with three schedules already created: Daily, Hourly and Weekly. However, only the Daily schedule is enabled by default. I am going to recommend some changes to the default schedules to improve your database backups.

To view schedules, login to the FileMaker Server Admin Console. Open a web browser directly on the server and type this URL http://localhost:16000. This should display a web page to launch the Admin Console. Of course, you will need the username and password for the Admin Console. Once you login, click on Schedules under Administration in the navigation tree.

To edit a schedule, right-click on it in the list of schedules and select Edit a Schedule. This launches a wizard to walk you through the various options for the schedule. These are the changes I recommend for the default schedules, which will backup the database once per hour for 24 hours, one per day for 7 days and once per week for 4 weeks.

Hourly Schedule

• Select the Backup Folder and Options
  • Maximum number of backup to keep: 23
    Note: The daily schedule will take care of the 24th hour.
  • Verify backup integrity: Checked (by default)
    Note: For large databases you may need to uncheck this option due to the time required to verify the database each hour.
  • Clone the backup file: Checked
• Select the Schedule Details
  • Frequency: Daily
  • Run every: 1 Hours
  • Start time: 12:00 AM
  • End time: 10:00 PM
• Schedule Summary
  • Enable this schedule: Checked

Daily Schedule

• Select the Backup Folder and Options
  • Maximum number of backup to keep: 6
    Note: The weekly schedule will take care of the 7th day.
  • Verify backup integrity: Checked (by default)
  • Clone the backup file: Checked
• Select the Schedule Details
  • Frequency: Weekly
  • Select the days of the week: All days except Sunday
  • Once per day, Start time: 11:00pm
• Schedule Summary
  • Enable this schedule: Checked (by default)

Weekly Schedule

• Select the Backup Folder and Options
  • Maximum number of backup to keep: 4
  • Verify backup integrity: Checked (by default)
  • Clone the backup file: Checked
• Select the Schedule Details
  • Frequency: Weekly
  • Select the days of the week: Sunday
  • Once per day, Start time: 11:00pm
• Schedule Summary
  • Enable this schedule: Checked

This is a great start for your New Year’s Database Resolution. In the next few articles, I will cover other ways to improve on this basic setup including email notification, offsite backup, and drive space. Together, we will help you get your database in good shape to start 2012.