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Source Removal and Case Backup issues


pmow

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Backup is a requirement, not only for best practices and data integrity, but also because without backing up, there's no way to remove a source.  In order to remove a source, the entire case must be scrapped.  Obviously this is unacceptable, and the workaround is to back up the case prior to adding any source.

 

With the above in mind before adding sources we need to back up.  In order to back up a case we need to:

  1. un-share the case
  2. open up Intella Pro (via RDP in my case)
  3. open case
  4. close case
  5. choose to backup case while closing
  6. switch to Intella Connect
  7. share case again

There needs to be an easier way.

 

Users are now able to process new data in the web interface which is great.  But considering this limitation, they'd still all need to have Remote Desktop access to Intella Pro just to backup the case.

 

Intella Connect needs more robust backup because it addresses these two important areas.  Perhaps an automatic backup of all cases into a designated folder?

 

 

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The backup process is somewhat restrictive I agree and I suspect they are looking at improving this, but in the mean time there are other options which are effective.

 

You can use third party software to backup the active database without having to shut anything down. I use Bvckup2 which mirrors the data directory to a network share every hour (only mirrors updated/changed files) and in addition I have Veeam endpoint backup software (free) running on the server.

 

If a new source causes an issue I can go to the backup software and restore the files/folders from any point in time, in addition if need be I can grab the entire database from an hour ago.

 

Bvckup2 pro was only $40 so very cheap and perfect for what I needed. 

 

This may not work for you but thought I'd share as an alternative.

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The ability to remove existing source from an existing case is already on roadmap for Intella and Intella Connect.

 

I agree that having an automated back-up solution already provided by Intella Connect would make things easier for Connect administrators, so I have added it to roadmap. Here are my thoughts on how it could work: Each case would have an option (checkbox) indicating if it should be backed up automatically after unsharing a case and also a text field indicating to which location on disk it would be backed-up. The location could be pre-filled with a default location, but user will be able to change it.

 

Would you agree? Or is there anything else you would expect from backup solution within Intella Connect?

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The ability to remove existing source from an existing case is already on roadmap for Intella and Intella Connect.

 

I agree that having an automated back-up solution already provided by Intella Connect would make things easier for Connect administrators, so I have added it to roadmap. Here are my thoughts on how it could work: Each case would have an option (checkbox) indicating if it should be backed up automatically after unsharing a case and also a text field indicating to which location on disk it would be backed-up. The location could be pre-filled with a default location, but user will be able to change it.

 

Would you agree? Or is there anything else you would expect from backup solution within Intella Connect?

Thanks for taking the time to reply and adding it into the roadmap!

 

Actually, AdamS's process of using third party tools is what we prefer, if you're open to it.  We already have backup and filesystem versioning/snapshotting in place.  Assuming his exact backup method isn't recommended due to data corruption issues backing up attached databases (I know other vendors would tell me not to) I think an option to simply take them offline at a regular interval is all that's really needed.

 

With modern backup/filesystems, "backup" could be done almost instantly, taking up almost no additional space.  A maintenance window feature which could simply unshare all cases and reshare all "Auto-share" cases between certain hours would be great.  I assume this would take less time than a full Intella backup solution.

 

Andrej, your proposed solution is also good.  The only thought I had was that if it only backs up unshared cases, there should be a way to automatically unshare a case.  For example, this could be done during off-peak hours for all cases without an active reviewer.  The problem with only doing unshared is that the shared cases are the most active, and by definition are the ones which we really want to back up.  :D

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Hi,

 

Maybe the Windows Task Scheduler can be of use to you? If you run Connect as  a service, you could add a task to shut it down after office hours and start it again the next day.

Thanks, this is helpful!  I did try running as a service with not-so-good results.  Our cases are on a mapped drive (SAN presented as a CIFS share) and the service doesn't see mapped drives.  

 

Edit: The options are a little hacky and UNC paths are working on the case watch folder so I think I'll just adjust the workflow and have people use the UNC path each time.  Thanks again for the idea, it looks like this will work.

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