Backing up Entourage 2008 Database without corruption

M

Matthew Yohe

Greetings,

I've looked high and low for a solution to my problem, and I hope someone
here can offer some solutions.

-I need to have a reliable automated backup of some Entourage databases
-In all cases, Entourage is bound to a 2007 Exchange server
-Some databases are very large in size (years of information archived) so
moving it all to the Exchange server is not an option
-Users need to be able to search this email from their desktop through
spotlight

Any solutions I have found normally incorrectly claim that you can simply
copy the "Main Identity" folder to another drive etc. Yes, you can do this,
but you will also end up with a corrupt database, as the Database Daemon
still runs even when Entourage is closed.

(example of potentially bad solution:
http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_a
nd_time_machine.html)

At this point, I'm looking into shell or applescript solutions to automate
the launch and operation of the Database Utility or the closing of entourage
and killing of the daemon process, and possibly rolling my own script if I
do not find one.

I asked Andy Ruff if there were any command-line tools for the Database
Utility, and he said there currently weren't.

So, before I delve into this, is there anyone who can offer some creative
solution?


Thanks
Matt
 
D

Diane Ross

Matthew Yohe said:
-Users need to be able to search this email from their desktop through
spotlight
Click to expand...

Spotlight does not index an Entourage Identity unless it is an active
Identity. Suppose you index an Identity and create a new one. Spotlight will
find the message in the older Identity that was indexed but will not open
the message until you switch to that Identity.

You can create folders with individual messages (.eml) and Spotlight can
index those.
Any solutions I have found normally incorrectly claim that you can simply
copy the "Main Identity" folder to another drive etc. Yes, you can do this,
but you will also end up with a corrupt database, as the Database Daemon
still runs even when Entourage is closed.
Click to expand...

This is not necessarily true. If you backup during the night, none of the
Office applications should be seeking the daemon.
(example of potentially bad solution:
http://blog.entourage.mvps.org/2008/01/alternative_method_to_use_entourage_a
nd_time_machine.html)
Click to expand...

I have added two AppleScripts to the workflow. One to quit Entourage and the
other to quit the daemon. This should cover your concerns.

This gets your backups, but does not solve the problem of Spotlight being
able to search an archive-type Identity.

You could create an archive Identity (for example that contains all mail
older than say 2 years.) Open Entourage in this Identity and give Spotlight
enough time to index this Identity. Now you can switch to the current
Identity. This should cover most of your needs and then if you do find an
email in the archive Identity, you simply switch to that Identity.

This scenario serves several purposes. It gives you a leaner database to
work with. There is less chance of corruption in the archived data because
it is not being used daily. Entourage should be speedier. Saves time and
disk space backing up because the database is now smaller.
 
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