PART 1: SQL Server Program Deployment

07/11/2016 - Added a blurb regarding backup and restoration to this page and the vMedia prerequisites page.

Click here for vMedia Non-SQL System and Server Requirements.

Backup and Restoration

It’s important that you have a backup plan as well as a recovery plan. At some point your data will be at risk. It could be a machine error, operator error, a virus or even a natural disaster. People are not perfect and can easily overlook an important step in a process, accidentally delete data, open a malicious attachment or simply enter the wrong data. Although SQL Server backs up its own database, you should be sure to back up the backup as part of your recovery plan.

It’s even more important to act on those plans. Be sure to put your disaster recovery plan to the test. Create a current backup and make sure you can actually restore your data from it.

It’s critical that you can confirm that data restoration from your backup works. Not taking the proper precautions today could mean losing it all tomorrow.

vMedia-SQL Deployment Methodology

The SQL Server data access mechanism for vMedia is being delivered as an integrated feature enhancement to the core software. Full backwards compatibility with existing DBF based tables is provided by default which provides flexibility in deploying the SQL server features to selected workstation groups. This will allow certification testing of the new features in a production system while providing data isolation for non-participating workstations.

During the public beta stages, data will be mirrored and synchronized between SQL and DBF based tables, which should permit side-by-side use of SQL enabled and DBF enabled clients in the same system. Once functional consistency (fancy term for relatively bug free operation) has been achieved, you can elect to migrate a larger group of workstations to the SQL access method. Eventually you may choose to completely switch over to SQL exclusively, at which point the DBF based tables would not be used.

These usage decisions can be made on a Machine ID group basis, as well as an individual database basis. In other words, certain vMedia databases can migrate to SQL while others remain as DBF tables even after the Machine ID group has been enabled for SQL access.

Prerequisite:

Install the latest vMedia update from the Vertican website.

Next Topic

Primary Installation of SQL Server Program

Related Topic

vMedia-SQL Database Notes