Back Up and Restore Your StepVane Server
Look at who can sign in, make a backup, set up automatic backups with a password, find where a restore is done, and check an app's health.
What you will learn
- See who can sign in under Server settings, People, and what each role may do
- Make a backup now, and set the automatic schedule, number to keep and folder
- Protect backups with a password and know what a backup contains
- Find where a restore is done, and check the health of a published app under Publish
Transcript
In this guide you will look after the StepVane server. You will see who can sign in, make a backup, set up automatic backups, find out where a restore is done, and check the health of a published app.
Server settings holds what is the same for the whole server: people, email, folders, phones and backups. Open the person icon at the top right, and choose Server settings. Only an owner or an admin sees it.
The first section is People: who can sign in to Studio, and what each person may do. The Local owner is the account of the server PC itself, and it signs in by itself. To add a colleague, type an email, choose a role, and press Add person. A Member builds apps and sees results. An Admin also sets up devices, corrects records, and manages stored passwords and people. An Owner may do everything, including managing other owners. A one-time password is made and shown once.
Now choose Backups. A backup is one file with a copy of all of StepVane's data: your apps and their versions, the records, the devices and people, the settings, and the lookup files. The first card, Last backup, says how backups stand. No backup has been made yet, and the first automatic one is planned for two in the morning.
To make a backup right now, for example before a big change, press Back up now. The server keeps working while it is made, and phones keep syncing. A line under the button names the file that was made and its size, and the card shows when the last backup was made.
Under Schedule and folder, Back up automatically is on. Choose Every day and the time, here two in the morning, or every few hours. How many backups to keep decides when the oldest are deleted. The Folder is best on another drive or a network share, because backups on the same disk are lost with it. Press Test folder to check that StepVane can write there.
The Backup password card protects the backup files. Without a password, anyone who can open a backup file can read your records and your stored connection passwords, so Studio warns you here. Choose a password of at least eight characters, type it twice, and press Set password. Keep it somewhere safe: a backup cannot be restored without it. This guide does not set one.
Backups in the folder lists every backup with its date, how it was made, its size, and the StepVane version. Restoring is done on the PC that runs StepVane, not in this window. Open How to restore a backup: with the StepVane app, choose File, then Restore from backup. A restore replaces all of StepVane's data on that PC with the backup, so StepVane first keeps a copy of what it replaces. A backup made by a newer StepVane is refused.
What is in a backup lists what is kept: apps, records and photos, devices and people, settings, stored connection passwords kept encrypted with the key that unlocks them, and the lookup files folder. The session signing secret is never in a backup. Do not give backup files to people who should not read your records.
One more place to look after: the health of a published app. Close Server settings, open the app, and go to Publish. Under Devices and connections right now, you see how many devices are online, how many changes are waiting to upload, how the live connections answer the phones, and which phones have synced. A failed backup also shows as a red mark by the person icon, and the menu entry then reads that the last backup failed.
That is the basic care of a StepVane server. Add the people who need Studio, back up now before a big change, let the server back up every night to another drive, protect the backups with a password, and keep that password safe.
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