It is vital that your Retailer data be backed up EVERY DAY. In the event that a serious hardware failure or a virus affects your Main computer, you will need a current backup to restore onto another machine in order to continue operating.

Main Functions

Backup Files

To learn more about backing up data, click HERE.

Restore Files

To learn more about restoring backed up data, click HERE.

Other Functions

As well as backing up Retailer’s database files, the backup utility acts as a data maintenance tool for our Support team to use. More of its functions are explained below.

Pack Tables

The Pack Tables function removes empty records from your database tables. This process may take some time to process, depending on how many tables it needs to modify. No data will actually be deleted, it will simply compress tables. This can be useful to decrease the size of your backups.

Check Tables

Check Tables simply scans through each database table and ensures that its structure is correct and there are no corrupt files. Sometimes you will be instructed to run this process (either by a Support technician or by the software) to ensure that all files are up to date.

Restart Engine

Retailer relies on a constantly running engine/service on the Server/Main computer. This allows you to restart the engine/service if it is not behaving properly. Do not use this unless under the guidance of Tower Systems Support.

Settings

Database Settings

This screen allows you to specify the location of the database on the network as well as other database-related options. These options should not be changed unless under the guidance of Tower Systems Support.

Backup Settings

The following options can be configured in Backup Settings:

  • Add Day of Week to end of backup filename - Adds the name of the day after the backup file's name (eg. R2dataMonday.ret)
  • Add date to end of backup filename - Adds the date after the backup file's name (eg. R2data18062914.ret)
  • Live Backup - Allows backups to be done while Retailer still runs. Do not use unless under the guidance of Tower Systems Support.
  • In Compression Level, this sets how the data is compressed into a backup file. Fastest (Least Compression) makes the backup quicker but the file will be larger. Conversely, Best Compression (Slowest) makes the file as small as possible but the backup will take longer.
  • In Automatic Backup, you can set up the computer to backup automatically at specified times. Click HERE to learn more about setting up Automatic Backups.

Utilities

Archiver

Allows you to remove old information based on specified parameters from the database. This speeds up Retailer operations such as searching, processing and backing up.

Click HERE to learn more about using the Archiver.

Outpost

Allows you to use another terminal without a network connection. For instance, operating Retailer at an external kiosk.

Click HERE to learn more about the Outpost function.