Backup and Recovery

System Files / Partitions

One advantage of having Forsta Plus installed on a dedicated partition/drive on the server is that required changes to the system such as a full reinstall do not affect Forsta Plus data. If C is your system drive, installing Forsta Plus application files in C and data files on a separate D-drive might be useful. This would allow you to set up the server exactly how you want it, and later using a partition imaging tool to back up the system drive completely. In the event of a system crash, the partition can be restored to a fully functioning state within a short timeframe. With data on a separate partition, the system partition size can be kept to a controllable level, and system restores would not require restoration of data.

Data Files Generated by Forsta Plus

The <confirmdata> folder contains files that have been generated and deployed to different servers by the Forsta Task System service. The amount of data for each server will vary; servers belonging to the Deployment role will typically contain the largest amount of generated data.

Backing up the <confirmdata> folder is strongly recommended, and especially so for servers where only one server is a member of a specific role. If that particular server should crash completely, the data contained on it would be lost if no backups or additional servers containing the same data were present in the server park.

The Windows Server Backup tool included in Windows Server has shown itself to be useful when backing up the <confirmdata> folders. Details about that tool can be found here:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc770757.aspx.

It works quite fast for large volumes of files and directories, creates a backup file in a general VHD format that is readable by many other backup tools, can be set up in a schedule and supports both differential and incremental backups. However, it does not support compression of backup data. Using WinZip (with the command line plug-in) or a similar compression tool allows for compression of the output Windows Server Backup file if this is required. WinZip can also be used for backing up the <confirmdata> folders directly, although it does not traverse directories as fast as Windows Server Backup and might even run into problems on very large systems with files in the millions (during initial traversing of the file system to determine the estimated time required for the operation..)

When backing up the <confirmdata> folders, <confirmdata>\temp can usually be omitted from the backup.

If a restore of any data from the <confirmdata> backup is required, NTBackup supports restore of single files or directories. If restored to their original location, Forsta Plus should become automatically aware of the data providing it was backed up from the same Forsta Plus version.

SQL Server Databases

Forsta system and survey databases should be backed up on a regular basis to ensure the possibility of restoring the system or a survey to a previous point.

The recommended approach is using the SQL Server Agent to set up a scheduled backup job that runs online backup of all databases on the system without affecting availability of any databases on the system. As a rule of thumb, we do recommend that all Forsta databases are backed up. This is so that in the event of a disaster, you simply restore everything and the site is back up where it was without having to go through additional steps to recreate missing databases. If you really do need to reduce backup size, you can omit ASPState, ConfirmitCache, and if needed, hub databases as they can be regenerated through the UI or by running different scripts and tasks. However, note that any hub regeneration on a large scale, on a completely crashed system, will take days. Below are listed some details on what data can be found in some of the databases in a Forsta environment:

• [ASPState] - contains login states for authenticated users.
• [Authentication] – contains information about Forsta logins.
• [Confirm] – – main system database. Contains task system data, Reportal reports, system configuration, survey information, end user system, etc.
• [Confirm admin] - contains information about survey databases on the instance.
• [Confirmlog] – contains company information and also logs from the survey monitor, Reportal, Authoring, and user activities.
• [ConfirmitCache] – contains Reportal data cache. Does not require regular backup but should be backed up at least once (for instance immediately after installation/upgrade/patch) in order to restore the schema if necessary.
• [ConfirmitCATIV15] - database master template for creating new Multimode instances.
• [ConfirmitCATIV15 {N}] - database holding Multimode instance data for companyid N.
• [Confirmit.Reviewer.Service] - data for CATI Reviewer micro service.
• [Confirmit.RuntimeSurveyVariableCache.Service] – data for RuntimeSurveyVariablesCache micro service.
• [Confirmit Search] - contains search queue information for Forsta Searching Service.
• [ConfirmitUrls] - contains mappings between survey links and short URLs. This database may also be installed on SYSTEM instance.
• [Custom_tables_design] – contains hierarchy data in design mode.
• [Custom_tables_runtime] – contains hierarchy data in runtime mode.
• [ConfirmitUrls] - contains mappings between survey links and short URLs.
• [DataCentral] – contains temporary data for Data Central processing.
• [Data_Integrations] - database for Flex extension.
• [Document Store] - contains data used by the Rest (Metadata) API interface (primarily survey definitions, survey layouts, templates etc.).
• [EmailOptOut] - database for Flex extension.
• [FileStorage] – contains uploaded templates for Reportal PowerPoint exports.
• [FraudDetection] - database for Flex extension.
• [Hierarchies[ - contains data for the Hierarchy Management module.
• [Hub] – contains hub definitions used for creating hub_xxx_default and hubs_companyx_prod_x databases. These databases can be recreated as long as the “Hub” database exists, so it’s really important that this is backed up.
• [hub_{n}_default] – database for SmartHub. N is hub number.
• [hub_admin] – common hub resources for a Report SQL Server instance. Mainly used for keeping record of detached databases.
• [hubs_comany{n}_{variant}_{x}] – databases for implicit hubs within a company, created for survey key metrics or from Create Reporting data in Authoring UI. N is company ID, x is a global counter, variant is prod for production data, test for test data and keymetrics for survey key metrics.
• [hubs_companyresources_{n}] – calendars for each company. n is a global counter. You will find company number as part of the schemas in the database.
• [hubs_dbschemas_{n}] – database designer objects. N is a global counter. You will find database designer schema ID as part of the schemas in the database.
• [Identity] – contains data for the Forsta Identity microservice.
• [ImageMap] - database for Flex extension.
• [Individualreports] – contains individual report information (hit lists, single views, etc.).
• [MobilePortal] - database for Flex extension.
• [Node Store] - temporary data storage used by the Rest (Metadata) API. Contains unzipped data from the DocumentStore database.
• [PanelManagement]  – contains community panel data.
• [Resources] – contains languages and system messages.
• [SmsSurveys] - database for Flex extension.
• [Survey_p{N}] – contains respondent and response data for a survey compiled in production mode (legacy or optimized format).
• [Survey_p{N}_test] – contains respondent and response data for a survey compiled in test mode (legacy or optimized format).
• [Surveys_{companyid}_dp] – contains required Reportal metadata for reporting on non-Forsta data.
• [Surveys_{companyid}_express] – contains Forsta Express surveys for a specific company (optimized format).
• [Surveys_{companyid}_poll] – contains Poll surveys for a specific company (optimized format).
• [Surveys_{companyid}] – contains optimized format surveys for a specific company where the ‘reusable databases’ option has been enabled.
• [TextHighlight] - database for Flex extension.
• [VideoQuestion] - database for Flex extension.
• [WITemplates] – contains web interview templates.

Note: Some of these databases are role-specific, meaning that they might not be present on your system if the related role isn’t installed.