When it comes to archiving your Microsoft Dynamics GP data, Company Data Archive (CDA) has been the solution to help you do so. We’ve showed you why your company needs CDA and the best practices in archiving your data. But now, we’ve taken it one step further with our CDA Scheduler.
What is the CDA Scheduler?
With the CDA Scheduler functionality, you will be able to queue an archive to begin and pause at specific times Mon-Sun. This is useful when archiving large amounts of data that would not complete prior to users entering the system. Specifically, this process leverages the Pause/Resume functionality when archiving Customer/Vendor information within GP. The Scheduler window allows setting a fixed cutoff date or configuring a rolling ‘Years to Keep’ which will prompt that an archive is due based on the Day of the Month specified in the Scheduler window.
Why use the CDA Scheduler?
In the past, when users would run an archive session, they had the option to manually start and pause that process, should the archive not finish before users resume their normal work activities. Considering we recommend running the archive session during your down peak business hours, with all users logged out of GP, this would often lead to users waiting for the weekends to begin their archive session. Now, with the CDA Scheduler, there is no more waiting time. Instead, one can set an archive ‘start’ and ‘pause’ time in advance, allowing the archive to automatically process during your off-peak business hours. While we still recommend running the archive on the weekends, this feature will allow your company to plan your archive ahead of time and automate the process. Spend less time waiting around and let the CDA Scheduler help you plan your archives in advance!
How to use the CDA Scheduler?
The following scenario details the recommended steps when configuring and completing a scheduled archive:
- When initially considering a scheduled archive ensure that an archive database is created within GP Utilities. If you require archiving multiple GP companies, a separate archive database will be required for each GP database that will be archived.
- Once the database is created, you will need to complete the ‘Transfer Master Data’ archive prior to the first scheduled archive. This will copy all master data from the originating database into your archive database.
- It is then recommended to complete all Pre-Archive steps detailed within Chapter 3 of this manual. Check Links would not be required again until you are planning to archive data that did not exist when completing the initial Check Links process. However, all other recommendations would apply each time a scheduled archive is initiated.
- If the archive process is known to take a considerable time in your environment, the process can be completed on a dedicated machine logged into the archive company within GP. The following considerations should be made on that machine:
- Ensure that the user logged into GP on the machine is either the ‘sa’ user or a user with sysadmin permissions in SQL.
- Ensure that the machine is configured not to enter sleep mode so GP is available when resuming and pausing the archive.
- If a SQL disconnect is encountered, ensure that GP is closed and a new session is started.
- As is indicated above, if any errors are encountered during an archive, it is recommended to restore the appropriate databases following a failed archive
- Once the machine is configured and all necessary reports are generated from the Pre-Archive steps, the user can click on the Queue Archive button within the Scheduler window. This will create a timed event to begin the archive at the time specified as Resume.
- Finally, after the archive is completed all detailed reports can be accessed at the path configured in the Scheduler setup window. These can help to validate the data that has archive.
Automation makes life easier, and our CDA Scheduler feature is here to help your company with that!
