WebTrends internal backups – how and why

by rocky

The Why should be obvious. It makes a difference between re-analyzing your entire history and re-analyzing only since the last backup. It’s especially useful when you’ve made a boneheaded configuration mistake and want to cover it up ASAP.

WebTrends has a built-in backup program that works well. Out of the box, it’s not turned on, so consider this a heads-up to do it now.

Your main decisions are:

Where will the backups be stored? They take up a lot of room, so you might want to specify a different computer with more space than your analysis server. Specify the location in System Management >> Storage Locations.
Do you want backups for all your profiles, or just a few critical ones? Many people don’t back up experimental or rarely-viewed profiles. If you want all future from-scratch profiles to be automatically backed up, there’s a global setting for this in System Management >> Backup Options (Note: you’ll still have to individually turn on backups for any profiles that already exist. See below).
How far apart should you space the archived copies? Do you really want to have 365 individual copies of your analysis by the end of the year? Or can you live with one per week or one per month? Many people run backups every day but keep only the most recent four to seven dailies, then keep older copies at increasingly spaced-out intervals. A generous general setting for somebody who thinks they can notice most problems within 4 days would be: save 4 dailies, 8 weeklies, 8 monthlies, one yearly, for a maximum of 21 backup files. These global settings are in System Management >> Backup Options. The same archive schedule is in effect for every profile that is set to get backups.
Do you need to back up your configuration settings too? Many people assume their current configurations are the best ones and don’t archive old configurations at all. If you do, the settings are in System Management >> Backup Options.

Here’s how to turn on backup for one profile at a time.

Scheduler >> Scheduled Jobs >> New Jobs
Choose Backup
Choose the profile you want to be backed up
If you have the processing time available, set it for Daily, at a convenient time

A few more details:

All previous backups get wiped out if you ever run “re-analyze” on a profile. (This is a good time to promise yourself to never touch the re-analyze button, which destroys everything except your configurations. Try to use copies of profiles instead, then delete the originals when the copies are correct. Or at least to hit “re-analyze” only with a cool head and a few deep breaths.)
If you’re backing up only certain profiles, it’s a good idea to change their names to show their backup status, for example by adding (B) to the profile name.
Backup settings carry over to copies of a profile.
Changes to backup setting cycles don’t take effect until after the next backup has run.
As said above, backups can take up a lot of disk space. You might want to review all the backup jobs running from time to time and eliminate those you don’t care about. Also, you might want to store your backups somewhere where there’s room. You get to choose the location ins Administration >> System Management >> Storage Locations. Be sure to use UNC notation for the locations, NOT mapped drive letters.
Backup files and folders can be manually deleted if you need to do some emergency hard disk space-making.
How to restore a backup (roll back a report). You’ve just noticed one of your log files arrived late and you have a hole in your reports four days ago. You need to roll back that profile its state as of more than 4 days ago, then analyze the logs (including the log that was missing at the time.) It’s a simple matter of going to Administration >> System Management >> Backup/Restore >> Restore Backup, choosing the backup copy that is old enough to precede your problem time point, clicking on Restore. Then, back in the Web Analysis list of profiles, click on “analyze” (NOT re-analyze!!!).

You should read the Administration Users Guide for full details, especially if you use Parent-Child profiles. The situation is a little different.

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