About using Advanced Settings

Advanced Settings in Database Administration are sophisticated tools that enable you to take advantage of the power and flexibility of SQL Server, even if you have no expertise in SQL Server Management Studio.

Advanced Company Settings for maintaining database history

Database activity history is maintained in separate audit tables, which you can query using SQL Server Management Studio to view details about changed records, such as the date and user ID of the employee made the change.

You use the options on the Advanced Company Settings tab to specify how long to keep database history for each Sage 100 Contractor company you manage. Details older than the retention period you specify are cleared during nightly maintenance.

You can also purge all database history for a selected company by clicking the [Purge History Tables] button.

Advanced SQL Server Settings for controlling access and managing memory

You use the options on the Advanced SQL Server Settings tab to maintain tight security and exert fine control over user and program access to your SQL Server instance.

Advanced Backup Settings for storing and retaining backed-up data

Sage 100 Contractor automatically creates backup copies of your company data during scheduled nightly maintenance. Backup files created during nightly maintenance are stored in the default location (\Sage100Con\Backup\Nightly on the designated data drive). The number of nightly backups that are retained for a company are specified in the maintenance schedule associated with that company.

Sage 100 Contractor also backs up your data whenever you archive, upgrade, or delete a company, and when you use the Back Up Companies tab to back up your data as needed. These "on demand" backup files are stored in a separate location on your server. The default location for on-demand backup files is \Sage100Con\Backup\On Demand on the designated data drive.

You use the options on the Advanced Backup Settings tab to:

• Specify the local folder to store backup files.

• Specify a secondary network location to which to copy nightly backup files for additional security (for example, an external USB drive or another computer on the network).

  Note:  

  • Retention options do not apply to secondary backup locations.

  • You receive no notification if the main backup is successful, but the backup to the additional location fails.

• Specify a retention plan for local "on demand" backup files.

• Specify one or more email address to notify administrators if an unattended (nightly) backup is not successful.

About specifying an alternate backup location

You can store nightly and on-demand backups at a different location, if you prefer not to use the default folder. For example, you might want to store your data on an a secondary, large capacity external drive rather than a high performance data drive where space is at a premium.

Before you specify an alternate backup location, you should note the following requirements:

• The location must be on a physical drive that is formatted as NTFS.
• The drive must be local. You cannot specify a UNC path.
• You can specify a removable device, but it cannot be an optical drive (CD or DVD).

• You should specify a folder, ideally an empty folder, to which other users do not require access. When you save your changes, Database Administration sets the permissions on the backup folder. That is, only administrator users have access to the folder.Permissions are not modified for the secondary backup location.

About notifications of backup failures

You can set up Database Administration to use your Twilio account to notify you or another administrator automatically when an automatic (unattended) nightly backup fails. First, use the Twilio Email Settings tab under Advanced Settings to connect Sage 100 Contractor to your Twilio account. Then, on the Advanced Backup Settings tab, specify one or more email addresses to which to send notifications.