You may have months or even years of work contained within a database and it is vital that you protect this data sensibly.
On-premise databases
You must back up your database. The InfoAsset Manager database consists of a simple index file and a sub-folder containing all your data.
Your Database.icmm is a basic index file that tells InfoAsset Manager where the database data is stored. The contents of the index file will look like:
There is a sub-folder of the folder where the ICMM file is located that contains all your data. The sub-folder name is the automatically generated name highlighted above (string displayed in the GUID row). This name should be unique for all databases. This folder name can be seen on the InfoAsset Manager About Box.
A good strategy is to keep each database in a different folder. Then simply back up the contents of that folder and all sub-folders.
When you are developing a strategy for backing up your databases it is worth doing a quick estimate of how much it will cost you if you do lose data.
For example, if one user is using a database that is backed up daily, it should cost you a maximum of one day to replace the lost information, plus the time lost restoring a previous backup of the database.
SQL Server and Oracle users should speak to their database administrator to ensure that the database is backed up regularly.
Local folders
You should not need to back up your Local Folders. The only things you would lose if the folder is destroyed are changes to networks you are currently editing that have not been committed to the database.
The best option for protecting changes to the network is to copy changes to the database regularly. This has two advantages:
- Your changes are available to other users
- You have more options for going back and branching in another direction if the changes you have made prove to be the wrong ones
Copying databases
Do not copy on-premise databases using Windows Explorer, or the facilities provided by the database server, and then use both the original and copied database. The two databases will have the same Unique Database Identifier and data in the database and local working folder could become corrupted.
Upgrading InfoAsset Manager
When you upgrade to a new version of InfoAsset Manager, the database version may have changed to support new data types or new fields. InfoAsset Manager will, therefore, display a message when the new version is first run, which informs you that the database version has changed and the implications of updating the database to the latest version.