Remove automatic backups

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ForrestGumpDDS
Posts: 177
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:31 pm

Remove automatic backups

Post by ForrestGumpDDS » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:02 pm

Hello there,
I was reviewing mysql backups that I have and noticed a weird thing.
While I have a script doing a structured backup jobs daily I found there were several backup archives there were not created by my script. These were full database dumps as if I did them through opendental menu. Except for I never use that feature. Those backups have names "opendentalbackup_MM_DD_YYYY" and the dates on the backup files suggest that those get created every time I upgrade to a new version. This makes sense so I can have something to roll back to in case of trouble. The issue is that my script copies and rotates the files from that folder and sends it to remote location. Now I have my folders "daily", "weekly", "monthly" and "latest" flooded with the opendentalbackup_MM_DD_YYYY files.
So i was wondering if:
  1. this is really what I think it is (backup during version upgrade process)?
  2. should I place a feature request to add an option to remove the backup after successful installation of the new version is confirmed? Or at least have the way of viewing and deleting the backups.
Last edited by ForrestGumpDDS on Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

KevinRossen
Posts: 293
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:49 am
Location: Dallas, TX
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Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by KevinRossen » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:05 pm

ForrestGumpDDS wrote:Hello there,
I was reviewing mysql backups that I have and noticed a weird thing.
While I have a script doing a structured backup jobs daily there are some backup archives there not created by my script. These are full database dumps as if I did them through opendental menu. Except for i never use that feature. Those backups have names "opendentalbackup_MM_DD_YYYY" and the dates on the backup files suggest that those get created every time I upgrade to a new version. This makes sense so I can have something to roll back to in case of trouble. The issue is that my script copies and rotates the files from that folder and sends it to remote location. Now I have my folders "daily", "weekly", "monthly" and "latest" flooded with the opendentalbackup_MM_DD_YYYY files.
So i was wondering if:
  1. this is really what I think it is (backup during version upgrade process)?
  2. should I place a feature request to add an option to remove the backup after successful installation of the new version is confirmed? Or at least have the way of viewing and deleting the backups.
Those are backups from when you ran an update for Open Dental. Anytime you do that the program backs up the database first.
Kevin Rossen
Office Manager, Rossen Dental
Founder, DivergentDental.com
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dgraffeo
Posts: 147
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 3:19 pm

Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by dgraffeo » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:32 pm

Yep, Kevin is correct. They're done "just in case" as we can't always trust people to have recent backups. If something goes wrong we at least know we have a snapshot of just prior to the update. As for deleting them, you can simply delete the folder from the mysql directory if you wish, and it also probably wouldn't be to hard to add a preference that says "Please don't automatically backup during updates".
"To understand what recursion is, you must first understand recursion."

David Graffeo
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

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Arna
Posts: 444
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 3:16 pm

Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by Arna » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:42 pm

We won't ever stop that automatic backup. It's way too risky. We can't count on the convert database script running through completely without issue.
The onus will always be on the provider to remove any unwanted backups from their mysql directory manually.
In this case, the risk far outweighs any benefit.
Entropy isn't what it used to be...

Arna Meyer

ForrestGumpDDS
Posts: 177
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:31 pm

Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by ForrestGumpDDS » Tue Dec 01, 2015 1:52 pm

OK, so I think that answers my question #1.
About the question #2. Would that make any sense for anyone other than me to request a feature to have a shortcut button in the system to access those old backups for the purpose of controlling their growth? We are also talking about old setup files in the ~/Opendental/SetupFiles folder, which are much smaller in size?

KevinRossen
Posts: 293
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:49 am
Location: Dallas, TX
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Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by KevinRossen » Tue Dec 01, 2015 3:10 pm

ForrestGumpDDS wrote:OK, so I think that answers my question #1.
About the question #2. Would that make any sense for anyone other than me to request a feature to have a shortcut button in the system to access those old backups for the purpose of controlling their growth? We are also talking about old setup files in the ~/Opendental/SetupFiles folder, which are much smaller in size?
I'm not sure if I'd use that feature. I like having the extra backup there for all the "just in case scenarios" that are out there. As a workaround for now, can your automated backup system be set to only backup the opendental folder/directory in the MySQL data folder? That might work.
Kevin Rossen
Office Manager, Rossen Dental
Founder, DivergentDental.com
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tgriswold
Posts: 122
Joined: Fri Jun 07, 2013 8:52 am

Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by tgriswold » Tue Dec 01, 2015 3:10 pm

To answer #2: Honestly it's not a hard process to do manually. Any sort of deletion of backups is a touchy subject, especially doing it automatically. Its something that only someone who knows what they are doing should be doing, and ensuring that they understand what happens if they delete all of their backups. As Arna stated, for some customers who do not backup regularly and test those backups as we strongly recommend, those automatically created backups are the only fail-safe they have.
As for clearing out old setup files (previous to current version), that's not horrible idea for a feature request. But then again we're talking about 10's of MB per setupfile so I don't think most users mind. Those that do mind are also the ones that will usually know how to go clear them manually every once and a while.
Travis Griswold
Open Dental Software
http://www.opendental.com

ForrestGumpDDS
Posts: 177
Joined: Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:31 pm

Re: Remove automatic backups

Post by ForrestGumpDDS » Tue Dec 01, 2015 5:29 pm

ok, manualy it is.

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