Backups are Critical for Virus Protection
Virus protection for Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate
While global attention currently focuses on the COVID-19 coronavirus, all the hand sanitizer in the country won’t protect you from another kind of catastrophic virus.
The most heartbreaking call to Sage Support or to a Sage consultant is from a user who was attacked by a ransomware virus. More devastating is when the user does not have a backup of the files critical to restoring the system. In many cases, the user must pay the exorbitant ransom to regain access to their software.
Beware — with viruses, it’s often not if, but when.Backups are critical for virus protection. Your Sage 300 CRE needs to be backed up regularly to protect and restore your system from ransomware virus attack.
Best practices for protecting your software are:
- Confirm that you store all custom reports in the correct location on your Sage server: \\[servername]\Timberline Office\9.5\Accounting\Report (preferably in a subfolder such as Custom or Custom Reports).
- Make sure you link all custom reports to the menus in your software using a UNC path (like the one above), not a mapped drive (such as T:). If you store all your custom reports in the same subfolder, go to Common Tasks > File > Company Settings > File Locations to enter the UNC path to the custom report folder. Then, when you link a custom report to a menu, the software opens that folder directly so you can select the report design.
- In all data folders in the Open Company selection list, verify that you entered the File Locations using a UNC path instead of a mapped drive.
- Periodically create a backup of the entire 9.5 folder and store it in a safe place! Use File Tools or right-click the folder to create a compressed file. Then copy the .tsZip2 or .zip file to an external storage device that you keep disconnected from your server and any networked computer.Store it in a fireproof safe if possible! If a virus can access the external drive from a networked device, it can also infect and destroy the backup.The 9.5 folder contains all of your custom reports, inquiries, menus, formulas, and security files – it’s important!!!
- Periodically create backups of each of the data folders in your Open Company selection list and store these on the same external device with the 9.5 folder backup.
Backup frequency
How often should you create these backups? That depends on how much data you want to re-key. Also, how often you are adding new reports, new inquiries, and new users in your Sage software. Full 9.5 and data folder backups let you restore Sage in hours.
Yes, we realize that your IT provider (hopefully) is periodically backing up your system. However, the second most heartbreaking call is from a user who discovered that the backups had failed or could not be restored. Protecting your software again a software virus infection has become vital in today’s networking environments. We encourage you to be proactive in making sure you are not the next victim.
Check out Sage City for more info on auto-backups.
All backed up and feeling safe? Read how Sage 100 Contractor has built-in tools to keep your employees’ information healthy and fight labor shortage.
by Kyle Zeigler, Sage Senior Certified Consultant