Support Roundtable: What Every DBA Ought to Know Q&A (Part 4)
This is our last segment of questions from last week's Support Roundtable, What Every Blackbaud Database Administrator Ought to Know. If you are interested in what the presentation covered please download the Presentation (you will need PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer to download the presentation).
Backups (continued)
Q: Hypothetical: you delete 100 constituents in global and don't know who. Don't realize for a few days. Is there a way to compare current records to previous, backed-up record, to trace changes?
A: The best option to compare databases is to restore a backup from before the global delete onto a Standalone machine or test server. Then run the query that was used for the global delete on both the live environment and test environment to compare results. If you are worried about this occurring you may need to review your users’ security settings so they don’t have the ability to globally delete records.
Q: You mentioned that things other than the databases should be backed up. Am I correct that the backup in the BMC only backs up the database and not the application, settings, deploy share, etc?
A: That is correct. The application and deploy folders are not backed up because they can be reinstalled using a download or installation CD. If you would prefer to back these items up you may decide to use a third part backup utility that backs up files and directories.
Troubleshooting
Q: If you are using a remote Citrix environment to connect multiple locations to the server, is it possible to provide them with the Microsoft products integration like Outlook so they can email reports or export reports to their location as opposed to the server, etc. as if it were a desktop application?
A: Yes, this is possible. It requires that you install Microsoft Office on the servers in your Citrix environment. Once installed you must setup each users Outlook profile on the server so that they are able to send emails via Outlook.
Q: We have a couple users who have had some difficulty logging in to Raiser's Edge would a rest of the registry help?
A: Generally, resetting the registry is used for issues that occur within the product. Log in issues are mainly caused by network issues. BB300248 and BB144086 are common solutions for connectivity issues.
Q: Do you have a decision tree for troubleshooting that you can share?
A: Yes, the General Troubleshooting Process Wizard will provide you with different questions and fixes based on the answers you provide.