Coming in v9.0 - Database backup failing

Posted on August 10, 2009

For people who have multiple computers, an error can occur when doing a database backup if another computer is still running RentMaster.

The error message would look something like

Error creating last 10 backups - Line 26 - You attemptedto open a database that is already opened exclusively by user 'XXXX' onmachine 'XXXX'. Try again when the database is available. 

This error does not mean your backup has failed necessarily.  If the program continues on to say Backup Successful then your main backup has completed OK.

This error message will not appear in v9.0 as a way around requiring exclusive use of the database has been found, so other users can continue to use the software while the backup is being done. 

For those that are interested, when a backup is done it creates a backup to your backup drive as requested, but it also keeps a copy of the last 20 backups on your hard drive in the Backups directory.  This is because some people loose their backup drives.  Other people might get a database corruption in their current database and then continue to do a backup, in effect overwriting their last good database file with a bad one.  So the last 20 backups is a backup for the backup, and allows you to go back to a previous backup if required.  Although this should not be relied upon.  The main backup should still be done to a removable drive or flash drive in case the main computer crashes.