Skip to main content

BriefCam Administrator Guide

Backups

Last Updated: 4 minute read

Important

Backups are the customer’s responsibility, and the integrator can help design a backup strategy to meet the customer’s needs and environment.

Daily backups are carried out automatically at midnight and 2 AM for Research and MongoDB.

The database and MongoDB are backed up to: \\server\Briefcam\ServerData\Backups.

The RESEARCH backup files are saved to: \\server\Briefcam\ServerData\Backups\RESEARCH.

Backups for High-Availability and/or Large-Scale Systems

For high-activity systems, it is best to schedule the backup while the system is idle (e.g. weekends). If that is not possible, replication to another server is the right solution.

In systems where 24/7 processing is configured, the automatic backup may cause database timeouts. For these types of systems, it is recommended to contact BriefCam’s support to come up with a backup strategy that meets the customers’ requirements.

In general, in large-scale systems or when the system is operational 24/7 it is highly recommended to set up replication and disable the automatic backup scheduled tasks.

It is recommended to set up a different backup to another machine or copy the backups to a different machine.

The components that should be backed up are:

Component 

What to Backup 

Backup Method 

PostgreSQL database

Dump of database

Run the exportDB.bat file

BriefCam shared folder – ServerData

The entire storage utilized by BriefCam

Disk mirroring, replication, RAID configuration, external backups

BI data – QlikShare

The QLIK data files

Run the bi_backup.exe file

MongoDB – only in large scale environments

The camera activation blobs

Contact BriefCam Support

License data

The license activation file

The license activation file

Configuration files of databases

postgresql.conf and postgresql.auto.conf (located in the PostgreSQL_Data folder)

Backup files to another server

Load balancer

Nginx.conf file (located in the \Nginx\Conf\ folder)

Backup files to another server

IIS

web.config.js and webConfig.js from the ProWebAdminClient and ProWebClient folders respectively

Backup files to another server

Changing the Backup Times

The scheduled backup times can be changed in the Windows Task Scheduler.

  1. Double-click the backup task.

    Backup task.png

  2. Click Edit.

    Backup task edit.png

  3. Edit the schedule.

    Backup schedule.png

Changing the RESEARCH Backup Folder

To change the location of the RESEARCH backup after installation:

  1. Open the BI_Backup batch script, which is located at: BriefCamServer\scripts\db\backup\.

  2. Change the value of the BACKUP_PATH parameter.

Restoring the PostgreSQL Database Backups

Important

Before restoring the database, it is recommended to first contact the BriefCam Support team.

  1. From the Windows services, stop the VSService.

  2. To restore databases, run the following commands:

    .\pg_dump.exe --no-password --verbose --blobs --format=c --file="<pg_dump_file.dump>" .\pg_restore.exe --verbose -d briefcam -U "<pg_superuser(dbadmin is the default)>" -h" <hostname>" -p <db port(5432)> "<pg_dump_file.dump>" 

  3. Restart the services.

Restoring Database Backups of Research Dashboards (Qlik)

  1. Run the scheduled backup task.

  2. Copy the created files to the migration site.

  3. Run the Research installer.

  4. Stop all Qlik services.

  5. Run only the repository database service (the PostgreSQL service).

  6. Drop the fresh PostgreSQL db: dropdb -h localhost -p 4432 -U postgres QSR

  7. Create new PostgreSQL db: createdb -h localhost -p 4432 -U postgres -T template0 QSR

  8. Restore the PostgreSQL db from the backup files: pg_restore.exe -h localhost -p 4432 -U postgres -d QSR "c:\QSR_backup.tar"

  9. Copy the backed app share folder into the share folder.

  10. Run the repository service in bootstrap mode: repository.exe -bootstrap -standalone -restorehostname

  11. After it finishes, run it again without -restorehostname: repository.exe -bootstrap -standalone

  12. Login to the qmc with Firefox as <previousmachine>\bcuser.

  13. Manually update the owner of all data connections’ user/password to the <newmachine>\bcuser including the password (12 connections).

  14. Directly update the local BCUser to be the RootAdmin in the PostgreSQL db (table = users)

  15. Directly update the user in the PostgreSQL: <newmachine>\bcuser (table = ServiceClusterSettingsSharedPersistenceProperties

  16. Run the reload tasks.

Restoring the MongoDB Backups

  1. From the Windows services, stop the VSService.

  2. Kill the session by running the Session Kill run command.

  3. Restore the database by running the following command: PS> ./db-tool.exe restore-mongodb --backup-path "{backup directory path}" --no-auth -y

    For example: PS> ./db-tool.exe restore-mongodb --backup-path "d:\my\mongo\bak\briefcam_mongodb_backup_2022-03-31_09-52-37" --no-auth -y

The parameters for the command are:

--backup-path

Backup directory path

--no-auth

Do not use authentication. Currently this is the only option.

-y, --yes

Confirm the restore. If this is not added, a confirm message will appear.

-help

Display the Help text and exit.

Note:

  • The restore operates only on the collections that exist in the specific backup directory.

  • If a collection to be restored already exists it will replaced by the backed-up version.

  • Indexes are also restored.