Artisan Backups Via Windows Tasks
Artisan supports backing up to UNC path, FTP, and local path. In this example we use DropBox (third party company) for cloud based storage. If you are going to be backing up to a different location just replace "C:\dropbox\artisan\backup" with your path. See this Article on how to setup DropBox if you would like to use this as well.
Setting Up Artisan Exit Times
Before setting the tasks up to automate the backup, you will want to adjust Artisan to close out when the store is closed in case a station is left open since all stations need to be closed when Artisan does a backup.
To adjust the exit time in Artisan follow these steps:
This needs to be done on every station.
- From the Main Menu => System Administration => Configuration Settings => Miscellaneous Program Options (this station) => ( F4 ) More Info, top right
- At the bottom adjust the times to force Artisan closed using the 24 hour military time. If your store closes at 9:00PM, set the exit time From: 21:30:00 to 06:00:00. This will make Artisan exit if left idle for 15 minutes during the hours of 9:30PM to 6:00AM
Setting Up The Backup Task (Only Windows)
You must set this task on the main computer that has the Artisan data.
- Click on the Windows Start button and then select All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then Scheduled Tasks / Task Scheduler.
- Select Create a Basic Task (on right side) to start the Add Task Wizard.
- In the Name field type in "Artisan Backup" then select Next => and Next again leaving the Triggers on "Daily".
- On this screen select the time you want the data to be backed up. This should be after the store is closed and nobody will be using Artisan, select Next.
- The Action on this screen should be Start Program => select Next.
- In the Program/script field select the Browse button=>go to the Desktop and select the Artisan icon. => Select open.
- Now you will see "C:\Program Files (x86)\Artisan POS 3\POS Plus\artisan.exe" filled in the box. Next after artisan.exe" add one space then Backup <path> X, Replace X with number of backups you want to keep, i.e. 5. Now you're program/script should look like this.
- "C:\Program Files (x86)\Artisan POS 3\POS Plus\artisan.exe" Backup C:\dropbox\artisan\backup 7 Notice the "7" this will keep rolling 7 most current backups.
- Now select Next at the bottom
- Click "Yes" or "Finish" to the popup.
This task will only run if the computer is on and logged in to the current user that set the task up. If the computer goes to sleep, the user logs out or the computer is powered off. The task will not run,
You may need to adjust sleep settings under power options in the control panel so the computer does not go to sleep.
IMPORTANT:
If you want to avoid missing backups because of user not being logged on, skip the previous step 10 and follow along this article to set admin privileges.
