It's recommended to backup both the documents stored in Simul and its database of document metadata.

With Simul Enterprise it is ultimately up to your administrators to decide how and when to backup data, but Simul comes packaged with some tools to help.

Database

Backup

Simul uses MongoDB to store all document metadata. Simul comes pre-packaged with a PowerShell script which creates an export of all data. Administrators should schedule this script to run according to their requirements:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Backup.ps1

This will export all data to a “Backup” folder under the database storage location you have configured. Administrators should then migrate this folder to an appropriate location.

By defualt, the backup location will be:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\data\database\backup

Restore

In the unlikely event you will need to restore Simul’s database, Administrators should copy the latest backup to a folder named “restore” under the configure database directory.

By default, the restore location will be:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\data\database\backup

You must then run one of the following scripts:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Restore.ps1

- or -

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Restore-Force.ps1

If you choose to use the -Force script, the restore procedure will delete and overwrite any existing data. Otherwise, the procedure will only insert data which does not conflict with the database configured constraints.

Documents

Backup

Simul stores all documents in their original format using a generated identifier as the document's name. To create a backup, all files need to be copied from Simul’s document directory to an appropriate backup location.

By default, Simul’s document directory is:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\data\documents

Simul includes a simple script which copies the entire documents directory to a configurable backup location:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Backup-Documents.ps1 -backupPath C:\Temp

If you have set a custom document location, you will need to include this as a parameter

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Backup-Documents.ps1 -backupPath C:\Temp -documentsPath C:\Custom\Docs\Location

This script can be combined with a date as an input to support staggered backups:

C:\ProgramData\Simul\scripts\Simul-Backup-Documents.ps1 -backupPath ("C:\Temp\" + (Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd))

Restore

To restore documents to Simul, the documents from the latest backup need to be copied into Simul’s configure documents directory.