Backups are important.

The purpose of the backup is to create a copy of data that can be recovered in the event of a natural disaster, power failures, virus attacks and human error. Data failures can be the result of hardware or software failure, data corruption, or a human-caused event, such as a malicious attack (virus or malware), or accidental deletion of data. Backup copies allow data to be restored from an earlier point in time to help the business recover from an unplanned event.

Here are a few suggestions when thinking about backups.

• How are your backups being created?
• What is included in the backup?
• How often are the backups being created?
• Are you testing your backups to ensure they are working?
• Do you have access to the backups if necessary?
• Where are the backups being stored?

It is recommended to create a process that everyone in your company has access to and feels comfortable not only in the process but how to restore a backup.

Below are instructions on how to backup and restore a SQL database for Sage HRMS:

To backup a SQL database:

1. From the SQL server launch the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio.
2. Login
3. Expand the Databases by clicking the plus sign.
4. Right-click on the database of your choice. By default, the SageHRMS database name is SageHRMS_Live (Sage HRMS Live database name may change if default name was changed at installation), consult with your Database Administrator or Sage Consultant if unsure, and choose Task, and Backup
5. On the General page under destination, note the destination of the *.bak file.
6. To change the destination, click "Remove" then click "Add" and select the location where you want to save the *.bak file.
   
   Make sure to add the ".bak" extension to the file name as it will not be added automatically.
7. Click "OK"

To restore a SQL database:

1. Open the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio program.
2. Login
3. Expand the Databases by clicking the plus sign.
4. Right-click on the database of your choice and select Task, and then Restore Database.
5. On the General Page under Source for Restore, select the "From Device" radio button.
6. Click on the box to the right to specify a file location. Right-click on the database of your choice if you are restoring Sage HRMS database the default database name is SageHRMS_Live (database name may change if default name was changed at installation), consult with your Database Administrator or Sage Consultant if unsure,
7. Click the "Add" button and navigate to the location of the *.bak file you wish to restore.
   (The *.bak file is necessary). Once the location is listed, click "OK".
8. Select your backup by checking the check box to the left of the new file listing in the field below.
9. Go to the Options Page and select "Overwrite all Existing database (with replace)
10. Click "OK"

Note: Please ensure that the SQL destination folder has enough space to hold the backups. Also, if you have Sage HRMS integrated with Payroll, you must restore the corresponding company database(s) if applicable. Appending to backups will create a larger file than a full backup.