This page assumes that you are already familiar with editing Settings, that you have an administrative login code for your server, and that you are accessing the server via the Cloud Services. Once you have finished configuring your server, you should start keeping backups of your Settings. This is especially true when you plan to make major changes, such as overhauling your menu, however it’s a good idea to keep a recent backup on hand at all times in case you make a mistake and need to quickly undo the changes.
This page describes the process of backing up the server settings. This is a useful and important technique, but is not the same as a full backup of the server database, nor does it provide a backup of the operating system on your server. You should consider both of those techniques in addition to keeping a backup of your server settings.
- Ensure that you are logged into your server via your Cloud Services account, using your administrative login code.
- Open the Settings screen and select the “Snapshots” settings category on the bottom left of the screen (you may need to scroll down).
- The right side of the screen now shows a list of settings snapshots saved on your Cloud Services account. This list will initially be empty. It is important to note that settings snapshots are saved per Cloud Services account, not per server or per login code. This means that you can clone a server’s configuration to another server using the snapshots facility.
- To create a backup of the current state of your server, press the “+” button at the top right of the screen. This will create a new snapshot named with the server and date of snapshot. Please note that snapshots only record the settings and do not record reports, logs, or any other form of historical data.
- To delete an existing snapshot, press the
button to the left of that snapshot, then confirm the deletion by tapping on the delete button. Please note that once deleted, a snapshot cannot be restored.
- In order to review the contents of a snapshot, tap and hold on the snapshot, when release, a popover menu will appear. Select “Preview snapshot” from the popover menu.
- While in preview mode, the Settings screen shows you the contents of the snapshot rather than your live server settings. Once you’re done, tap the “Exit Preview” button at the top left of the screen to return to your live server settings.
- If you wish to restore the current server from a backup, tap and hold on the snapshot in question, when release your finger, a popover menu will appear, select “Overwrite current server from snapshot”. This permanently modifies the current server to use the settings from the snapshot. You should exercise extreme caution when performing this operation to avoid catastrophic data loss. If you are an administrator with multiple servers, please always double-check that you are editing the correct server before performing this operation.
- The overwrite operation will automatically generate a snapshot of the pre-modification settings so that you have a way to undo the changes if you make a mistake. However, there are still plenty of ways to go wrong here:
- Operator login codes are part of the settings, so overwriting the settings can overwrite your administrative login code. Always ensure that you know the correct login code for the snapshot that you are installing.
- If you create a snapshot of your server with the intention to restore it, then accidentally delete it, you’re stuck with your changed settings.
- Even if you are only making a temporary change to your server and then reverting the changes, please keep in mind that your changes will affect everybody else using the same server. (Previewing a snapshot does not affect the server.)
- If you are an administrator working on behalf of multiple independent clients and accidentally restore one client’s settings onto another client’s server, you may be responsible for a breach of your client confidentiality in addition to the confusion that your mistake may cause.
