Database settings

ManageEngine SecureAI holds its configuration, inventory, and governance records in a database. Use database settings to protect that data and check what the product is running on.

You can schedule a backup at the frequency and time your recovery plan needs, send it to a folder on the SecureAI server or to a shared folder on another machine, choose how many backup files or how many days of backups to keep, back up the database outside the schedule when a change is about to be made, and review whether earlier backups succeeded and where they were written.

Database settings also report the database SecureAI runs on, its version, and where the database server is installed along with what is involved in moving to Microsoft SQL Server. Use database settings to set up a backup schedule, to change the folder or share that the backups are written to, and to confirm that recent backups completed.

How it works

At the scheduled time, SecureAI copies its database into a single compressed file and saves that file in the backup location you configured. Where that location is a shared folder that asks for credentials, SecureAI signs in with the username and password you saved, and then writes the file.

SecureAI records each backup: the build number SecureAI was on at the time, where the file was written, when the backup took place, and whether it succeeded. The backup history is drawn from those records. In that same location, SecureAI keeps only as many backup files, or as many days of backup files, as the retention setting allows. A backup you start outside the schedule uses the same location, credentials, and retention as a scheduled one.

SecureAI holds one database backup configuration and applies it to the whole installation rather than to an individual account or role. Turning the schedule on or off takes effect as soon as you switch it, while the values within the schedule take effect only once you save them. Failure notification depends on the email server configuration and the administrator's email address held in the server settings, and SecureAI asks you to configure the email server before it accepts the notification option. Password protection for the compressed backup file comes from the privacy settings held in security and privacy, not from the backup configuration. SecureAI reads the database information from the installation it is running on, so that information reflects the current database rather than the one recorded at installation.

Prerequisites

Complete the following before you configure database settings:

• Log in with a role that includes the Database Settings permission under Security & Storage, because database settings cannot be reached without it. Of the roles supplied with SecureAI, Super Admin and Governance Manager include this permission.
• Create the folder that will hold the backups and confirm that the SecureAI server can write to it, because the configuration cannot be saved against a location SecureAI cannot use.
• Where the backups are to be written to a shared folder, obtain the credentials of an account that can write to that share, because SecureAI presents those credentials each time it writes a backup.
• Confirm that the location has room for the number of backup files the retention setting will store, since each backup adds a new file.
• Configure the email server and the administrator's email address in the server settings, because the failure notification cannot be selected until a mail server is configured.
• Set the password for compressed files in the security and privacy settings, because SecureAI writes the backup as a compressed file that is otherwise readable by anyone who can reach the location.

Configuration instructions

1. Navigate to Settings > Security & Storage > Database Settings > Database Backup.
2. Turn on Schedule DataBase Backup.
3. Select how often the backup runs in Backup Frequency, and select the hour and minute at which it runs.
   • Daily runs the backup every day at the time selected.
   • Weekly runs the backup once a week, on the day of the week selected.
   • Monthly runs the backup once a month, on the date of the month selected. If you need this to run without fail each month, be sure to select a date that falls in every month, because the list of dates runs to 31, but not every month has 31 days.
4. Select where the backup is written in the Backup Storage Path, and enter the location.
   • Local writes the backup to the SecureAI server. Enter the path in the form <drive_letter>:\<path>.
   • Shared writes the backup to a folder on another machine. Enter the path in the form \\server\share\path.
5. For a shared folder that restricts who can write to it, select Authentication Required then give SecureAI an account that can write to the share. Both values are required.
   • Enter the account name in Username, in the form Domain\Username.
   • Enter that account's password in Password.
6. Select how much history to keep in Maintain Backup Files. The retention can be set by age, as the last 15 or 30 days of backups, or by count, as the last 10, 20, or 30 backup files. Retain all keeps every backup file.
7. Select Notify when the database backup fails to have SecureAI email the administrator when a scheduled backup does not complete.
8. Click Save.
9. Click Backup Now to back up the database once outside the schedule. This is worth doing before an upgrade or a configuration change that would be difficult to reverse.
10. Click the backup history icon beside Schedule DataBase Backup to review earlier backups. Each entry reports the build number SecureAI was on in the Build Number field, the location the file was written to in the Backup Location field, when the backup ran in the Last Backup Time field, and whether it was completed in the Status field.
11. To stop scheduled backups, turn off Schedule DataBase Backup.
12. Click Database Configuration to view the database SecureAI runs on, its version, and where the database server is installed. That move is made outside the product by stopping SecureAI, running the database change utility supplied with it, selecting the server type, and entering its configuration details. Next, choose whether the existing data is migrated, and apply the change.

Tips

• Write backups to a shared folder on another machine, so that the loss of the SecureAI server does not take the backups with it.
• Use a service account for the shared folder rather than an administrator's own credentials, and update the credentials here whenever that account's password is rotated, because SecureAI keeps its own copy of them.
• Review the backup history after you change the storage location or the credentials, so that you confirm the first backup lands where you expect.
• Where the backups are held on a share that other teams can reach, set the password for compressed files in security and privacy, so that the backup cannot be read by everyone who can reach the folder.
• Note the build number recorded against a backup before you rely on an older file, because it tells you from which version of SecureAI the backup was taken.