QIE Backup Considerations¶

It is highly recommended that the Qvera Interface Engine (QIE) be included in your organization's backup strategy. When considering a backup strategy for QIE it is important to understand QIE's architecture and components.

QIE Component	Description
QIE Application Directory	In a Windows environment, the QIE application directory contains the executable files used to launch the QIE application and manage it as a service
QIE Home Directory	The QIE Home directory is the QIE's "working" directory and contains the main qie application file (qie.war), all 3^rd party libraries, JDBC drivers, Security Certificates, QIE log files, etc.
QIE Service Manager	The QIE Service Manager is used to configure "Java Options", "Startup Arguments" and other settings that control the QIE Java environment and the QIE service in general.
QIE Database	The QIE application requires a backend database to store configuration data as well as a history of processed messages
QIE Nightly Backup Files	QIE automatically exports a nightly backup of the entire system configuration to the QIE Home Directory and to an Alternate Path if one is specified.

QIE Application Directory¶

In a Windows environment, the QIE application directory contains the executable files used to launch the QIE application and manage it as a service. The QIE application is usually installed into C:\Program Files (x86)\QIE or C:\Program Files\QIE and contains the EXE, JAR, and WAR files required to launch and manage the QIE application/service. These files do not necessarily need to be backed up, as they can easily be recovered using the standard QIE windows installer (see the QIE Install Guide for more details on reinstalling QIE and the Java JRE).

QIE Home Directory¶

The QIE Home directory is the QIE's "working" directory and contains the main QIE Application (qie.war), all third party libraries, JDBC drivers, Security Certificates, QIE log files, etc. The QIE home directory is usually installed to C:\ProgramData\QIE or for older Windows operating systems C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\QIE. To find where the QIE home folder is, you can open the QIE Service Manager and look for the -Dqie.home option under Java Options.

It is recommended that the QIE Home Directory, including all subdirectories, be backed up. The only possible exception to this rule is the h2 database directory (see QIE Database section below for more details on backing up the database).

QIE Service Manager¶

The QIE Service Manager is used to configure "Java Options", "Startup Arguments" and other settings that control the QIE Java environment and the QIE service in general. To facilitate disaster recovery, it is recommended that the QIE Service Manager settings be manually copied and saved to a text file in the QIE Home Directory and included in the backup of that directory. The settings that need to be backed up are as follows:

Settings to backup	Description
Log on as	The "Log On" tab of the QIE Service Manager contains the "Log on as" settings. The default is to run QIE under the "Local System account". If QIE needs access to network shares and directories it is often configured to run under a different account. If this is the case, you must record the account that QIE is configured to run under in the text file that is saved in the QIE Home Directory.
Java Options *	The "Java" tab of the QIE Service Manager contains a list of "Java Options". Usually the only option recorded in this field is the `-Dqie.home` value, but other options may be specified here as well. All options recorded in this list should be included in the text file that is saved in the QIE Home Directory.
Startup Options *	The "Startup" tab of the QIE Service Manager contains a list of "Arguments". Depending on the version of QIE that you are using, there may or may not be any arguments listed in this field. If there are arguments in this field, they should be included in the text file that is saved in the QIE Home Directory.

* Be sure to clearly identify Java Options vs. Startup Options in the text file

Caution

Changes to the "Log on as" settings in QIE should be made using the Windows Service Dialog, not the QIE Service Manager. In some cases, changes made using the QIE Service Manager dialog are not recorded/configured properly with the associated windows service and causes the QIE Service to fail on startup. Using the Windows Service Dialog ensures that "Log on as" changes are always recorded/configured properly by Windows.

QIE Database¶

The QIE application requires a backend database which stores 2 main components:

QIE configuration data, and
A history of processed messages.

Because the QIE configuration data is exported to a backup file on a nightly basis (see QIE Nightly Backup Files) and because messages are stored in QIE simply for historical purposes, backing up the QIE database is optional. You should consider the following when deciding on a backup policy for the QIE database.

If you are using a DBMS which does not support or is not configured for point-in-time restore and the database is restored from back up, all messages received between the time of the backup and the time the database is restored are missing from the message history.
Configuring a DBMS system for point-in-time restore capabilities can consume significant disk space and add significant overhead to the database server. These configurations require that every SQL transaction (i.e. every message that passes through QIE) be written to a transaction log which is then used in the DBMS's backup and restore process.

MSSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB Databases¶

If QIE is configured to use an alternate database system such as MSSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB an appropriate back up plan for that database should be considered. At a minimum, best practices for maintaining the database by performing regular maintenance on it should be configured. This includes truncating the transaction log, verifying the integrity of the database indexes, etc. If QIE is configured to use one of these databases the configurations settings can be found in the QIE Service Manager tool (see QIE Service Manager section above for more details on backing up these settings).

MSSQL

For MSSQL the backup and maintenance setting is referred to as the 'recovery model'. Your organization's DBA may want to configure the proper recovery model based on the hardware configuration of the MSSQL server. MSSQL truncates the transaction log every time you back it up under the full or bulk-logged recovery model. If you are using the simple recovery model (which provides no transaction log recovery), SQL Server truncates the log at every transaction checkpoint.

QIE Nightly Backup Files¶

QIE automatically exports a nightly backup of the entire system configuration to the QIE Home Directory and to any network path specified in the "Alternate Path" field under System Administration -> System Configuration. The configuration files are named qie-yyyymmdd.xml and are kept for the configured number of days, and the default is 30 days in the case of the QIE home directory and indefinitely for any directory specified in the Alternate Path field.

You can use these files to restore any channel, web service connection, database connection, etc. to a previous version by simply importing that item from one of the QIE nightly backup files. Doing so restores the item to the state it was in at the time the nightly backup file was created.

It is important to record and backup the QIE Admin user password and any security certificate passwords as these are required when importing configurations from the nightly backup file.

Note

Qvera strongly recommends that you backup these exported configuration files to facilitate a successful recovery in the event of a catastrophic failure.

Backing up to Cloud Storage¶

The QIE Nightly Backup Files can be backed up to a cloud storage environment like Dropbox, Box.com, Google Drive or Synology with the following two steps.

Setup a directory on the QIE server that is synced up with the cloud storage system.
Configure the QIE Alternate Path found in "System Administration -> System Configuration -> Nightly Backup" to point to the synced up directory.

Backing up License Configurations¶

In a multiple license install, QIE has taken steps to preserve the license, license group, and zone configurations. The nightly backup includes this configuration detail. In addition, the default System Administrator user can also export this configuration. However, there are a few things to keep in mind:

The configuration is split across two nodes in the export dialog. The license groups, and their relationships to licenses and zones, are exported under the 'System Configuration' node, while the licenses are exported under the 'Licenses' node.

Note

Both must be selected to capture the full licensing configuration.

Only the default System Administrator user has access to manually import and export the licenses.

Note

Licenses are encrypted in the export file and password protected using the password for the default System Administrator user at the time of export. Licenses can only be imported if the correct default System Administrator password is entered when prompted on import.

Note

For advanced licensing options see Licenses and License Groups.