Backup Systems

Accelerus does not include any automatic backup processes for your database. Each school has control of and responsibility for their database and recovery procedures, which should include daily backup of the following:

•	Your Accelerus database.

•	All of the templates used with Accelerus in the report production processes, including RTF files if your school is in the Victorian Government or Catholic sector and using RTFs for AusVELS reporting.

Daily scheduled backups should be put in place. Also, you should make a non-rewritable backup of your database, templates and RTF files, at least at the end of each report run, stored separately from your servers.

Accelerus performs its own backups of teachers’ offline files, where these are used:

•	Firstly, a .bak file is automatically created by Accelerus in the same folder as the offline file.

This is a copy of the offline file at the last save.

•	Secondly, up to ten prior backup copies of the offline file are stored in the user’s My Documents folder, under Accelerus\Backups.

•	Thirdly, when teachers perform a synchronisation of their class files, a copy of their offline file is stored on the Synchroniser computer in the Local Application Data folder, under Semaphore_Consulting\Accelerus\Synchroniser Backups.

NB In some cases the default backup locations may be unavailable and alternative locations may be set for the backups by a school.

If teachers are synchronising regularly and the Accelerus database is being backed up, at any time the class files can be recreated.

If it is necessary to restore a teacher's offline file from a backup copy, eg data is missing or the file has become corrupted, you should:

•	Firstly, go to the latest copy:

➢	Using Windows Explorer or My Computer, go to the folder where the offline file is stored.

You can find this location from the Accelerus Login window, with the path being displayed under the file name.

Tech BackupOfflineFileLoc

➢	Find the file that has the same name as the offline file, except that it will have a BAK extension, eg MORR.aof.BAK.

➢	Move the original offline file to another location or rename it, eg MORR_Old.aof

➢	Remove the .BAK extension from the file, and then open it in Accelerus.

➢	If it opens and contains the data you require, keep this and delete the original file.

•	If you need to go to an earlier backup:

➢	Go to your My Documents folder.

➢	From there, open the Accelerus folder.

➢	Open the folder Backups to display all of the offline file backup copies.

The files are numbered consecutively, ie Backup 1, Backup 2, etc. The higher the backup number, the more recent the backup.

Tech BackupAOFBackupFolder

➢	Starting at the most recent copy, double click a backup .aof file and log into it in the same way as the actual offline file.

➢	Once you have opened a file that you want to restore from, you may rename it, and place it in the folder where you normally store your offline file.

If the backups cannot be found in the My Documents folder, it may be that this location is restricted on the particular computer or your school has nominated an alternative location for the backups of offline files in the Accelerus.exe.config file.

You should firstly check the AppData\Roaming folder for a Semaphore_Consulting\Accelerus\Backups folder, as this is the location in which backups are directed when the My Documents folder is not accessible. On the other hand, if your school has nominated an alternative location in the Accelerus.exe.config file, check this location.

If necessary, you may also go to the Synchroniser computer and restore the teacher's offline file from there, although this copy will only have data up to the last synchronisation of the file.

Every time an offline file is synchronised via the Synchroniser program, a backup of the file is stored on the Synchroniser computer.

By default, these backups are stored on the Synchroniser computer's Local Application Data folder, within which there will be a Semaphore_Consulting\Accelerus\Synchroniser Backups folder. An alternative location may be nominated for the Synchroniser's backups in the Synchroniser.exe.config file.

To access the local application data folder on the Synchroniser computer:

•	Click the Windows Start button.

•	In the search field, type %localappdata% and press Enter.

Windows Explorer will open in the user's AppData\Local folder.

Tech BackupLocation

•	From there, double click the Semaphore_Consulting folder and then the Accelerus folder.

•	Double click the Synchroniser Backups folder to display the backups of synchronised offline files.

Note that when you use Accelerus and its Tools > Synchronise function, you are not using the Synchroniser, but the Accelerus program. Therefore backups of these offline files are not found on the Synchroniser computer but on the Accelerus computer. Also, should you wish to nominate an alternative location for such backups, you would use the Accelerus.exe.config file.

Accelerus stores log and error files for most of its processes, including:

•	When a MarkBook database is converted.

•	For each offline file synchronised, whether using the Synchroniser or the Accelerus program's own synchronise option found in the Tools menu.

•	When errors are encountered when running a particular Accelerus process.

In addition, other folders of files are created that relate to template creation and Quick Setups.

You may need to go to access these log and error files to investigate issues that have arisen, eg after errors are encountered in converting a MarkBook database. Or Accelerus support staff may require you to investigate such files when a problem is encountered. Therefore, you need to know where such files are stored in order to access them.

By default, the various log and error files are stored in the user's Local Application Data folder in the Semaphore_Consulting\Accelerus folder. Within this folder a series of other folders will be found, holding different types of files, eg error logs, offline file synchronisation logs, converted templates, etc.

To access the local application data folder on a computer:

•	Click the Windows Start button.

•	In the search field, type %localappdata% and press Enter.

Windows Explorer will open in the user's AppData\Local folder.

Tech BackupLocation

•	From there, double click the Semaphore_Consulting folder and then the Accelerus folder.

•	Double click the folder you require to display its contents and, from there, open the file in question.

The default locations for all of the various backup, log and error files created during different processes in Accelerus are set in a registry setting by the Accelerus installation process.

However, although unusual, some computers may have been configured to not allow writing to the default folders or a school may want to store such files elsewhere.

Each of the Accelerus executable programs, once installed, has a .config file, eg Accelerus.exe.config, Synchroniser.exe.config. These configuration files may be edited using Notepad or other text editor so that alternative locations for the various log, error and backup files may be nominated.

To do this, once Accelerus has been installed on a computer:

•	Go to the folder holding the Accelerus programs, eg C:\Program Files\Accelerus.

•	From that folder, using Notepad, open the configuration file for the particular Accelerus program, eg Accelerus.exe.config.

•	Under the <appSettings> tag, appropriate file and backup path locations will be found, eg LogFilePath, BackupFilePath and SynchroniserBackupPath values appear in the Accelerus.exe.config file shown below.

•	Enter the path and folder you want to use for the different types of files.

For example, below, the log file path has been set to D:\Data\Accelerus\LogFiles.

Tech BackupConfigFile

•	Save the file.

Note that the SynchroniserBackupPath in the Accelerus.exe.config file relates to the synchronisation of offline files via Tools > Synchronise in the Accelerus program. This same key in the Synchroniser.exe.config file applies to the synchronisation of offline files when the Synchroniser is the host program.

Backup and Log Systems