Backups of your own data

Taking a backup of this installation’s data, what it counts on the meter, deleting one, how one is restored, and the backups the platform takes before each release.

Platform → Operations → License → Backups lists the backups this installation has taken of its own data. The same list appears on License & Metering. A backup is a consistent snapshot of the whole database, taken at one moment, compressed. It is kept in the document store where one is configured, and in the database otherwise.

Choose Take a backup now. Only one backup runs at a time, so the button waits while one is being taken.
The list updates while it runs: Being taken, then Complete (or Failed, with the reason). Each shows when it was taken and finished, its size, how many tables and rows it holds, where it is kept and who asked for it.
Held now, above the list, is what the completed backups weigh together.

Every backup counts as backup data on the meter until it is deleted. To stop paying to keep one, choose Delete on its row and confirm. A deleted backup cannot be recovered; it stays in the list marked Deleted, with when and by whom, and stops counting at once.

Restoring

Restoring is done by TRANXACT support, not from the console — a whole-database file holds every password hash and sealed secret in it, so the console never hands one out. Raise a ticket naming the backup by the time it was taken.

Backups taken by the platform

Beside the backups you take, the database service this installation runs on takes one before each software release, and the provider takes automatic ones of its own. They hold this installation’s data and they are paid for, so they are listed under Backups taken by the platform, on both Backups and License & Metering, and counted on the meter.

Each one is of the whole database instance, and the instance also holds other installations. So the list shows each backup’s whole size and this installation’s share of it, worked out from this database’s size among the databases on the instance, and only the share is metered here.
Each row says when it was taken, why (before a release, or automatic), and whether it is still held. One the provider no longer holds is marked Removed, with the date, and stops counting.
They are read-only. There is no Delete on them, because deleting one would delete every other installation’s copy too; TRANXACT removes them at the provider.
If the list cannot be read from the provider at the moment, the screen says so and why, and shows what was recorded before.

Who may do what

Display on Backups lists them; add takes one; delete deletes one.
As with License & Metering, not available to a borrowed identity, an external accountant, the assistant or a service account.