[FX.php List] Do RackSpace "Snapshots" conform to Best Practices?

[Anders Monsen]

If I had a nickle for every time I've spoke with IT departments who want 
to manage servers their way with no idea of the impact on 
FileMaker...and then go ahead and do what they want without listening 
anyway.

Closing the dbs and shutting down the server prior to the snapshot 
should not take them more than 5-10 minutes. Is saving that time worth 
the cost of potential db corruption?

Anders

On 3/9/12 1:26 PM, Jonathan Schwartz wrote:
> Perfect!  Just the feedback I was looking for.
>
> In this case, it is a third party India-based developer company with 
> no FileMaker experience that is challenging the need to shutdown FMS, 
> even though I have explained that the risk is high and the cost of 
> downtime low.
>
> I knew I could count on my fellow fx.php'rs.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
>> I don't know, I haven't dealt with hot-adding memory to a virtual 
>> machine so I can't say whether this snapshot stuff they talk about is 
>> something of concern or not.
>>
>> What I would say though is that regardless of how *they* do things 
>> you should have your own backup of the data on that machine, so it 
>> can easily be restored if they fail.
>>
>> One would think that they know what they're doing and that it's not 
>> the first time they've done this on a VM they maintain :o
>>
>> In any case I don't see why they or you cannot just shut the machine 
>> down, change memory, and then turn it on again. Have them do that and 
>> there shouldn't be much to worry about. If they refuse, switch to 
>> another hosting provider :)
>>
>>
>> 9 mar 2012 kl. 19.20 skrev Jonathan Schwartz:
>>
>>>  Hi Folks,
>>>
>>>  I need a quick weigh-in from FileMaker experts on the list.
>>>
>>>  One of my clients has moved FileMaker Web Publishing to third party 
>>> RackSpace, which uses virtual servers under Windows.
>>>
>>>  After a week of trying to run FMS on only 2gb ram, they have agreed 
>>> to upgrade the instance to 4gb.  The upgrade process consists of an 
>>> automated system that takes a "snapshot" of the server and then 
>>> rewrites the "snapshot" once the memory has been upgraded.
>>>
>>>  I contend that taking the "snapshot" is the same as copying live 
>>> FIleMaker Server files, and in violation of FileMaker Server Best 
>>> Practices.  I am urging them to shut down FileMaker Server and do 
>>> the upgrade with it shut down.  Others are saying the the "snapshot" 
>>> approach is OK.
>>>
>>>  Does anyone have experience with snapshots or RackSpace or both?
>>>
>>>  Need a quick answer, as I am standing on the tracks refusing to 
>>> budge....for the good of the data. ;-)
>>>
>>>  Thanks
>>>
>>>  Jonathan
>>>
>>>
>>>  --
>>>  Jonathan Schwartz
>>>  Exit 445 Group
>>>  jonathan at exit445.com
>>>  http://www.exit445.com
>>>  415-370-5011
>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>  FX.php_List mailing list
>>>  FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
>>>  http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list
>>
>>
>>
>> -|
>>
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>