Articles

Giving Escape a Copy of Your Database

The Escape system is considered one of the districts "mission critical" applications. The goal is for these applications to have no down time, which makes it difficult to perform maintenance tasks. It also makes it difficult to get up-to-date copies of the database to Escape for support purposes.

The easiest way to make a complete and thorough "mirror" copy of the database is to restore a backup into a "Test Database" area. This has several advantages:

Verifies that your backups, equipment and procedures are really protecting your data.
Gives you a place to try out new features without affecting the "real" data in the Escape database.
Allows you to run the ZIP-DATA.BAT file during business hours without keeping anyone out of the live database.

This "Test Database" can be stored on another directory on the drive, another server or even to a workstation's hard drive.

After the test database is created, perform a "system lockdown" so that you can change the name of the database (e.g., Test 6/12/03). This makes sure anyone using the database knows they are running in the test database and let's you know the last time you refreshed the database from the Live database.

Overview of the Process

The following are general instructions for downloading and running the batch file. Please read this entire FYI to ensure you understand the specifics of each task listed below.

Verify that PKZIP.EXE and PKUNZIP are available. (From the DOS prompt, type PKZIP. If you receive a screen telling you the syntax of how to run PKZIP, then you're all set. Repeat for PKUNZIP.)
Using PKUNZIP, unzip the contents of zipdata.zip to the root of the network drive that contains the Escape data files (e.g., From the \ESCAPE\COMMON directory, type cd \ and that will take you to the root of that drive). This zip file includes:
- ZIP-DATA.BAT - creates a series of ZIP files for each of Escape's directories, then combines them into one file for easy uploading to Escape's FTP server.
- EXCLUDE.TXT - specifies which files to exclude from the backup.
Review the EXCLUDE.TXT file to verify you want these files excluded.
Make sure that ALL users have logged out of Escape. (If users are still in the system, then some files will be omitted and the resulting backup may not be usable since all files must be backed-up simultaneously.)
Run ZIP-DATA.BAT. This can be performed from any computer that is mapped to the Escape system's drive. (Results will vary depending on the speed of your computer.)

What Directories Will Be Included?

*** SPECIAL NOTE *** This program, as is, will only get FISCAL YEAR 2002, 2003 and 2004 directories. It should be changed each year to get the correct directories for new years data or if you want other directories to be grabbed. Please review this batch file for yourself and verify that all directories that you want are being zipped!

\escape\2002 This directory is zipped.

\escape\2003 This directory is zipped.

\escape\2004 This directory is zipped.

\escape\pay\2002 This directory is zipped.

\escape\pay\2003 This directory is zipped.

\escape\pay\2004 This directory is zipped.

What Files Will Be Excluded?

Files listed in the EXCLUDE.TXT file will not be included in the ZIP files. As distributed, the type of files that will be excluded are as follows:

reqtrans.* - Contains transaction information about the requisitions.

*.zip - ZIP files that usually contain previously uploaded files.

*.exe - Program files.

*.rcb - backup copies of Report Writer files.

Other files can be excluded by adding an entry in this exclude file.

ZIP-DATA.BAT

REM    This batch file will create zip files for each Escape directory.
REM    It excludes any files listed in the EXCLUDE.TXT file. 
REM    Both the exclude.txt file and this ZIP-DATA.BAT file should be in the root
REM    directory of the drive where the Escape data files are stored.
REM    These ZIP files will be created in the Root directory of the drive
REM    where it is run. These files can then be sent to Escape
REM    individually or by removing the REM statement in the last line of
REM    this file, they will be combined into one file called DISTNAME.ZIP
REM    DISTNAME should be changed to your district's name
REM    This file will contain your entire database, and it may be too large
REM    for some e-mail systems, but can be uploaded to Escape's FTP site:
REM
REM       ftp://www.escapetech.com/incoming/
REM
REM    Once you have uploaded your database, please e-mail your Escape Support
REM    Representative or you can email our support e-mail:
REM 
REM       support@escapetech.com
REM
@ECHO OFF
cd\
PKZIP escape \ESCAPE\*.* -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP 2002 \ESCAPE\2002\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP 2003 \ESCAPE\2003\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP 2004 \ESCAPE\2004\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP AP \ESCAPE\AP\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP API \ESCAPE\API\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP BUDGET \ESCAPE\BUDGET\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP CHART \ESCAPE\CHART\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 
PKZIP COMMON \ESCAPE\COMMON\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP ETMENU \ESCAPE\ETMENU\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP FA \ESCAPE\FA\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP FILTER \ESCAPE\FILTER\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt

REM   *** Remove REM on line below if \escape\import directory is needed ****
REM PKZIP IMPORT \ESCAPE\IMPORT\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 

PKZIP IRS \ESCAPE\IRS\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 
PKZIP LEDGER \ESCAPE\LEDGER\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP PSL \ESCAPE\PSL\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP PUR \ESCAPE\PUR\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP REPORT \ESCAPE\REPORT\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP REQ \ESCAPE\REQ\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 
PKZIP SVQ \ESCAPE\SVQ\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP PAY \ESCAPE\PAY\*.* -x@exclude.txt 
PKZIP PAY2002 \ESCAPE\PAY\2002\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt
PKZIP PAY2003 \ESCAPE\PAY\2003\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 
PKZIP PAY2004 \ESCAPE\PAY\2004\*.* -P -r -x@exclude.txt 

REM ** Remember to change the word DISTNAME below to your district's name ** 

REM PKZIP -M DISTNAME *.ZIP

Optional Parameters

-P - Store pathnames specified & recursed into.

-r - Recurse subdirectories

-x@list - exclude file(s) in specified list file

Upload the Files to Escape's FTP Site

There is separate FYIs detailing how to upload files to Escape's FTP server: Uploading to Escape's FTP Server Using DOS and Uploading to Escape's FTP Server Using Windows Explorer .