It's a common request by iSystems support to send a copy of a database to their Secure FTP site so they can look at, and perhaps fix it, and I often do this for my customers. But with a bit of one-time setup in advance, most customers can do this directly.

Note: I'm not documenting the initial setup, and my customers can assume that I'll take care of it for them. I may write it up someday.

Note #2: I urge my customers to try this once themselves with a test file (just pick a random small client) and send it scrambled: iSystems doesn't generally proactively do anything with files that are received, so there's no harm in a test file to help you learn the procedure.

The steps are, in summary:

• Get onto the Request Broker middle-tier Windows machine.
• Use the Evo DB Maintenance tool to backup the databases
• Use the WinSCP tool to send the databases to support
• Notify support that the files are ready for them

We'll go over each in turn.

Get into RB machine

Since the Evo DB Maintenance tool runs only on the machine with the Request Broker — it needs to find your Evo license — that's the only way you can run these processes.

You can do this either directly on the system's console, or via Remote Desktop, and you don't generally have to be an administrative user to run these.

You'll almost always send data from your production RB machine, but now and then, some need to send files from the test environment as well. Either one works.

Backup data with Evo DB Maintenance tool

Once on the middle tier desktop, run these steps:

1. Double-click the Evo DB Maintenance icon on the desktop to launch it.
2. When prompted for the Firebird SYSDBA password, enter it then click [OK]. This password is usually pps97.
3. When prompted for an operation, select (*) Backup then click [Next]
4. You'll now be presented with a full list of clients, and scrolling to the bottom shows the special databases such as TMP_TBLS or S_BUREAU. Click the ones you want to send (as many as you like). Note that the client databases are in lexicographic (CL_10 is before CL_2) order, not numeric order: this is very annoying.
5. If you need to send scrambled databases, check the box. See this blog post for a description of what this is about.
6. Click [X] Compress backup files when sending file to support; this adds a .gbk extension to each filename to reflect compression.
7. Select the backup folder to put the data in: it ought to default to something like C:\SecureFTP or D:\SecureFTP, as appropriate. Note that unlike the now obsolete tool eBackup, the target folder does not have to be empty first.
8. Click [Next] to complete selection of your files and parameters
9. You're now presented with a verification screen, showing everything that it's about to do, and you should check to make sure it's doing what you expect. You typically leave the Threads per db server at the default, because it doesn't really apply when sending one or a few files.
10. Check [X] This is what I want to do, then click [Run] to get the process started.
11. This will run for a while, showing you process as it goes, and finish with (hopefully) zero errors. Any errors must be investigated.
12. Close the program by clicking the [X] in the upper right

At this point, the files you want to send to support ought to be found in the \SecureFTP folder.

Send files to support with WinSCP

To send files to support, you'll follow these steps:

1. On the desktop, double-click the WinSCP icon to launch it (if this icon is missing, talk to Steve).
2. Select IFTP from the list of sessions and click [Login] to connect to the server. Notes:
3. • If you don't see IFTP in the list, talk to Steve
   • It should not ask you for a password. If it does, talk to Steve
   • The first time you run this, it might ask about a "Server host key" - this is expected. Just click [Yes] to save the key fingerprint and connect.
3. You should now be presented with a window showing your local files on the left (probably in the \SecureFTP folder), and the files on the iSystems server on the right.
4. Look for the file or files that you wish to provide to support, and drag them across from left to right. Remember that scrambled files are CL_6000XXXXX and unscrambled files are just the internal client number. You can often use the date/timestamp of the file to help you find the ones you just backed up.
5. It will ask you to confirm that you want to move these files, and it might also ask you to confirm over-writing if you had previously sent the same file.
6. The process may take a while, depending on the sizes of the files and the speed of your internet connection. It will show you a progress bar to show how it's going.
7. When the files are done, close the program.
8. Log out of the Request Broker machine if you have nothing else to do with it.

Notify support

Once you've sent the files, always let iSystems know that you sent them. Always provide the full name of the file — for instance, CL_600000123.gbk.bz2, the ticket number, and perhaps the name of the payroll client in each file.

They'll know whether it's scrambled or not based on the filename, and if you have put the client on hold while sending an unscrambled database, mention this also.