Make Act Backup Scheduler more reliable

[#1]

Please make improvements to Act! Backup Scheduler to make it more reliable.  

As it stands, it's the most untrustworthy backup utility I have ever used.  When I set an automatic backup in Act! my thought is "at least it'll save me some time if it works."  However, the sad part is that several backups fail on a nightly or every 3rd,4th, 5th night basis.  This is on a server with 24 databases.  Maybe it just wasn't tested with this many databases originally?  All I know is that 6.. yes 6 backups completed successfully last night.  That leaves me with 18 databases to go into manually to do backups.  Talk about time consuming (and painful).  Also, it's never the same backups that fail.  A database that fails today, may backup just fine tomorrow.  I've tried all the suggestions in the forums and knowledgebase such as chaning the service account, backing up to a local drive, etc.  Nothing has worked.  

If you're going to lock us out of SQL, can you at least provide a reliable backup utility???

[#2]

24 databases to back up on the same host? That seems excessive, and unusual. I wonder if you have them scheduled too closely, so that backups can't start because the last database hasn't finished it's backup yet. Particularly if you are including attachments in your backups.

[#3]

That was one thought I had too, but if they're backedup in the same order every night, why would some work sometimes and not other times?  Also, I timed the largest database when performing a manual backup, then added 10 min. between databases.  Seems to me that would be adequate.  

[#4]

At very least they should make it notify when it fails - email or an activity created for specified user(s) in ACT!

BTW: That many databases, I assume using Premium? Get the sa utility and use a proper SQL backup

Actually, I've just been talking to a backup developer... just need to test before saying publicly, but might have a backup solution that doesn't need sa - uses the Windows Admin in SQL Mixed Mode

Regards,
Mike Lazarus
ACT! Evangelist
GL Computing, Australia
http://Blog.GLComputing.com.au
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GL Computing Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/GLComputing
LinkedIN ACT! Fanatics Group - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=49896

[#5]

Ya, well the sa utility at (last I checked) $1000 is a hard sell when my boss is cursing at Act! every day because it's not doing what he wants and he's threatening to move to some other CRM.  

A few versions back, I was able to modify the sql code upon install that gave me sa, but Act! caught on to that pretty quickly and doesn't work anymore.  

Interested in hearing about you new backup solution, if it pans out. 

[#6]

Sounds like you need to space your backup schedule among the databases more.  First, why would you need 24 separate databases?  Sounds like your contact management implementation isn't correct and I bet your databases have more activity that is taking longer to backup such as attachments.  Secondly, if you had Premium and one centralized database you could afford the sa password, or at least hired an ACT consultant to install ACT with manual unstallation and create your own SA. Then you could use backup exec and avoid the backup tool from ACT.

If those aren't options you like, you can also look to asdscomputer.com which sells AutoAdmin that can properly backup an ACT database and email you details.

hope that helps a little,

Alanna