As you can see throughout this chapter, the database administrator and manager have a lot of responsibility. The ACT! Scheduler automates database maintenance and backups. And, if you're working on a remote, synchronized database and the administrator has given you his permission, you can use the ACT! Scheduler to automate the synchronization process.
The ACT! Scheduler is actually a service or "mini program" that runs alongside ACT!; if the Scheduler is running, you see an icon in your system tray that looks like a gold clock. The great thing about the Scheduler is it will run your previously scheduled tasks even if no one is logged into the database. You might think of it as a "set it and forget it" ACT! feature.
Because you need to be a database administrator or manager to create and perform backups and maintenance you'll need to be one in order to schedule those tasks. By default the ACT! Scheduler does not have permission to access directories located on other machines, which means you'll want to access the ACT! Scheduler directly from the computer that contains your database.
- Click the Tools menu and choose ACT! Scheduler. The following figure shows an example of the ACT! Scheduler dialog window:
- Click Create a Task to open the first screen of the ACT! Scheduler wizard.
- Fill in the name and location of your database, username, and password and then click Next to continue. The following figure gives you an idea of what this step of the Scheduler wizard should look like:
- Select the task you want to schedule from the Task: drop-down list and then click Next.
- Fill in the specifics of the selected task and click Next:
- Database backup: indicate the location for your backup files, whether or not you'd like to include attachments, and the number of backup files that you'd like to keep
- Database maintenance: indicate whether you want to do an integrity check, re-index, or both
- Indicate when you'd like the task to run. As you can see in the following figure you can run the tasks on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis at the exact time you want:
- Click Finish to return to the ACT! Scheduler dialog window.
- Repeat steps 2 through7 to add additional tasks (optional).
- Click Start Service to start the ACT! Scheduler.
- Click Exit to close the ACT! Scheduler.
The tasks will now run automatically according to the schedule you created. This means that you will no longer have to worry about running routine backups and maintenance.
Although you might heave a big sigh of relief knowing that you are no longer responsible for the routine upkeep of your database, there are still times when you might need to run these tasks manually. For example, it's a good practice to run a backup prior to importing new information into your existing database.
From time to time you may want to take a look at your scheduled tasks to make sure they are running as planned. Of course, you can always take another trip to ACT!'s Tools menu to launch the Scheduler. Alternatively, once the ACT! Scheduler icon appears in your system tray you can give it a right-click and choose Open ACT! Scheduler from the contextual menu to reopen the Scheduler. In either case, the ACT! Scheduler opens just like you asked it to do.
The ACT! Scheduler includes a few other options:
Although theoretically the ACT! Scheduler service will automatically restart even if you reboot your computer, it's never a bad idea to double check that it's running. Needless to say, if the Scheduler isn't running your scheduled tasks won't run. If the service shuts down, a red diagonal line will appear across the clock; right click the icon in the task tray to open the Scheduler and click Start Service to get it up and running again.
Theoretically, you can run tasks as often as you'd like. One rule of thumb is to run backups on a daily basis, and to run the maintenance at least once a week. As to the specific time you choose there are two things to keep in mind:
- Tasks must be scheduled at least 15 minutes apart to allow sufficient time for one task to finish running before the next one begins
- If your server is also running its own maintenance and backup procedures you'll want to schedule your ACT! activities at a different time to avoid any conflict and to make sure that the ACT! backup is captured as part of the server's own backup