The 'backup' option within an Ap is good, but only for one ap at a time. I'm looking for a quick way to make nightly backups of numerous Sesame applications in a batch (or backup the entire sesame/data folder. )

Is it OK to COPY the DB and DAT files to another folder while they are being served?  While users are active in the application?

If not, then i have to find a way to notify remote users to log out so I can start the backup process.

Thanks for any insight.

Steve

Thanks Mark. This is all good news and will help to minimize the server down time.

Sincerely,

Steve

This seems to work well....

In a Windows environment, these three lines can be saved in a .bat file and run from any windows client.

sesame server will suspend
The xcopy command with /D will copy any CHANGED files to a backup folder. /Y will overwrite any existing files!
sesame server will continue

after running this batch file, you can then move/upload/encrypt the files in your /backup folder.

Seems to work well, but I think sesame requires a free client seat to run this routine.

(replace 'servername' and 'password' with your own info)

c:\sesame2\program\sesame.exe -COMMAND servername:20020:20021 password SUSPEND
xcopy c:\sesame2\data\*.* c:\backups /D /Y
c:\sesame2\program\sesame.exe -COMMAND servername:20020:20021 password CONTINUE
pause
 

Excellent. And I suppose this batch file will run well from some sort of 'task manager' so it can run automatically each night around midnight, or so.

Very cool!

BTW, have you tried using the sesame.ini file entries for backing up apps? These are server wide settings and don't require OS intervention.

Steve_in_Texas wrote on Apr 8^th, 2011 at 8:16pm:


I'm not sure which is "safer". I know the interval backup will wait until there are no active write operations. But it may be possible that a write op can occur after the backup has started. Unlikely though.

Quote:


Turn it on and give it a try. Is there anything in particular you want to know about it?

Images in table mode is a GREAT feature! I've steered our users away from table mode so often because I thought it could not display images. Nice to know it's possible.

Looks like my images need to be re-sized for a clean table appearance, and to keep the table responsive when working over an internet connection.

But at a glance, it looks terrific! Is there an option to 'force' the images to a specific size during display in table mode?

Steve_in_Texas wrote on Apr 8^th, 2011 at 8:39pm:


Steve,
I'm not positive and its nearly 2 AM, but I think the width of a column is set by the width of the element it represents. An image will scale proportionally. So if you set the width, the height should scale so that the image is not stretched or squashed out of proportion.

Thank you, Gentlemen.

For a sesame server running on Linux (Ubuntu)....

I installed 'scheduled-tasks' from the Gnome install screen and found it simple to add a new task to run each night.

I then used gedit to create a file called 'sesame-backup' with the below code.  It (apparently) paused sesame server, copied all by data files to a folder, then un-paused the server in a blink of an eye. (the -u will copy only CHANGED files.)

Used linux commands to make the file executable.

/home/steve/sesame/Program/sesame -COMMAND myserver:20020:20021 password SUSPEND
cp -u /home/steve/sesame/data/*.* /home/steve/sesame/data/backups
/home/steve/sesame/Program/sesame -COMMAND myserver:20020:20021 password CONTINUE
 

Next I'll add a task (or add a line to the batch file) to ftp the backup files to a secure location.

Mark, thanks for all your help. Running sesame on Linux has really put the fun back into sesame. I really appreciate it.

Steve

Steve_in_Texas wrote on Apr 10^th, 2011 at 1:43pm:



That is a little odd. I just tried the code you posted above and Sesame server doesn't have time to acknowledge the connection. It connects, runs the command, and disconnects completely, without increasing the client count at all. In any case, the "admin" and "command" connections get counted separately from normal client connections and do not add to the client count when checking against the license limit. So, even if you have a full client count, you can still connect as admin or command.

That's two for two. I don't see the command client using any licenses, never mind staying logged in. And I haven't seen any segmentation faults when shutting down the server.

FYI, my backup takes about 30 seconds to complete, which is plenty fast for me, but maybe that's just long enough to prevent the 'command client' from disconnecting.

OK, i'll add the '&' to first two lines and try again tonight.

Thanks!

And now i see that my aps that were loaded are locked.

OK, thanks Mark. I'll revert to my old code, but the results will be the same.

If you can think of a different option that will not have 'shutdown issues', please let me know.

Sincerely,

Steve

Perhaps because of my Windows 'up-bringing', I'm a firm beleiver of 'rebooting often'. Hopefully, I can leave the Linux server running more often, but I do see a need to reboot every few days, at least.

My biggest reason; After loading,unloading, and designing my largest aps, The sesame Terminal windows shows this error message: "Warning! File buffer allocation is greater than half of available memory."

At this point, I observe loading times slow down dramatically (perhaps the memory is swapping). Rebooting the machine has always fixed this issue.

So, my concern; after using the '-command' option, I can no longer get a graceful shutdown when I use 'stop this server' option from within the admin panel.

Perhaps there is a better method for shutting down the server?

Steve

You should almost never reboot a Unix box. I have had boxes that have up-times measured in years. It is much better about memory management than Windows.

The loading message is caused by the new application loader. Instead of reading the file in a bit at a time, it reads the whole file in one big chunk and then parses that out to the final in memory structure and deallocates the big chunk. So, temporarily it needs twice as much memory. If there is not enough memory, it will revert to the older load. That message means that it will use the older load, which should only affect the speed of loading applications, not general run speed.

You should not reboot your server computer because you are backing up Sesame files. In general, on Unix, the only reason to shutdown the box is when you get a kernel update, the room is on fire, or you simply want to save electricity.

You can shutdown Sesame using the same command interface you are using to suspend and resume.

Hello Steve,

I also just tried this on my Linux box and am unable to reproduce the clients stacking up in the admin panel. Can you send me your Sesame.ini file in case there is something in there that I need?

-Ray