Nopali Administrator Help Nopali Administrator HelpThe Nopali Administrator Application is used to manage database backups and restoration. Go to the 'Server' tab and look at the lower third of the panel.
To create an immediate backup, simply press the 'Create Backup...' button. After selecting a save location for the backup, the backup system will create a package. Using this method of backing up, users will still be allowed to use the database, but the database will run more slowly. You may wish to do this if you are transferring the database to a new computer, although in this case, it would probably be better to make a backup without any users connected.
The Nopali Administrator will also allow you to automatically create backups once a day at a pre-set time. Press the 'Create backup automatically' checkbox to enable this function:
The default setting for automatic backups is set to 2 am. For this backup to be performed, the computer hosting the database should never go to sleep. Use the computer Energy Saver section of the System Preferences to make the sleep setting adjustments.
You may change the default backup settings and see where the backup copy is being kept by pressing the 'Change Schedule' button. A sheet with details of the scheduled backups will drop down:
The details sheet allows you to modify the triggered backups. Note that you must press the 'Change Schedule' button to save any modifications.
As you can see in the details sheet, the automatic backups are performed once daily. The backup package is also saved to a fixed location ( /Library/Application Support/Nopali/Backups/ ). Each day, the previous day's backup will be erased and replaced by a new copy. It is your reponsibility to ensure that this new backup is saved to a different hard drive by using a dedicated backup program like Time Machine.
Whenever a backup of the database is performed, the end result is a backup package that is saved to the hard drive:
In order to restore the database from a backup package, you can either press the 'Restore From Backup' button on the Nopali Administrator panel and select the desired package to restore from. Or, you can simply double-click on the backup package itself.
To move the database to a new computer, just copy a backup package to the new computer and double-click on the package icon. Make sure you delete the database from the old computer only after you have verified that the restore has worked on the new computer and that the transferred database is functional.
Time Machine comes built-into Mac OS 10.5 and greater. It is a fantastic program that will allow you to easily backup your computer and retrieve important files in the event of a hard drive failure. With regards to backing up Nopali using Time Machine, there are a few things to keep in mind: