Every database is backed up daily to multiple (redundant) servers in locations of the United States. You never have to worry about us losing your data and you can request an export of your data anytime. You own it.
Additionally, a weekly SQL database file can be downloaded under the [Admin] tab (see screenshot here).
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What specific format is my network backup file in?
Network backup files are MySQL sequel files. These files are intended to create a one-to-one copy of your network at the time they are generated.
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Why do I have multiple network backup files?
For larger networks, we have to split backup files to 200mb multipart archive files. This helps to prevent and mitigate issues when downloading your backups. For example, should your connection drop while downloading one part of an archive, you will only have to restart the download of that one 200mb part rather than the whole archive file.
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Why do my network backup files end in “.tar.gzaa” or “.tar.gzab” instead of “.sql”?
We use industry standard compression libraries and utilities for unix file systems to make your network backups and compress them. This helps to reduce the size of network backup files by approximately 60-80%.
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How do I get my “.sql” file from these multipart archives?
We recommend the [free and open-source archive utility 7-zip] (https://www.7-zip.org) for combining and unzipping your multipart archive files. We recommend placing the multipart files into a dedicated folder for easier handling as you process them with 7-Zip.
Step 1: Navigate to the folder containing your multipart archive files in 7-Zip
Step 2: Select all the multipart files of your archive
Step 3: Right click / cmd click on the highlighted files, and select “7-ZIP” -> “Extract Here” from the context menu
This will extract your .sql file to the same directory your multipart archive files are in.
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Why doesn’t my extracted file have the “.sql” extension?
Some networks may have their files extracted to a “FILE” type file without an extension by 7-zip. There are several reasons this may occur, but if this happens to your extracted file, you can simply rename the file manually and add the “.sql” extension to it. Most MySQL tools, such as MySQL Workbench, will still work with the file as-is.
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Why is my extracted file a “.tar” file?
A “tar” file is another compression format that is used in conjunction with our multipart archive compression. 7-Zip should automatically decompress your file from the “tar” format when extracting it as a multipart archive, but some system configurations require you to manually extract the .sql file. Simply selecting the “.tar” file and using the same “7-ZIP” -> “Extract Here” process as above should result in your SQL backup file.
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Why does 7-zip say “Unexpected end of data” or “Cannot open file as archive”?
This most often denotes that you are missing one of your multipart archive files or that your are trying to open one of the files later in the sequence alone. Be sure you have all your files in the folder and that you are trying to extract all of them instead of just a single file.