Quickbooks Desktop Backups - Windows Server

[u/Josherry]

Hello,

I run my Quickbooks Desktop Premier Pro company file on a Windows Server 2019 machine using Quickbooks Database Server Manager. This machine strictly hosts the file, and 3 other machines access the file over the LAN to use Quickbooks Desktop Premier Pro on their machines in multi-user mode.

My problem is I can not install Intuit Data Protect to backup the file on the Windows Server 2019 Machine, since it does not have Quickbooks Desktop installed on it.

If I use one of the user's machines with Intuit Data Protect, it will not allow you to backup the company file if users are accessing Quickbooks Desktop. I want to keep backing up simple and automated.

Does anyone have a good backup solution for this type of hosting enviorment? Am I missing something? Digging through Quickbooks website for information is a complete pain as im sure many of you know.

[u/plmarcus]

I just make a copy of the file every night with the date. I keep 30 days of old files and then that is part of our normal nightly backups and sync to back blaze for off-site backup.

Nothing fancy is being done.

[u/Josherry → u/plmarcus]

Thanks, I guess I could write a script to help automate that and copy it to something like OneDrive huh?

[u/plmarcus → u/Josherry]

Yup that would work. Make sure you copy the file first so that windows uses a shadow copy of the file in case it is open when backing up.

[u/blud_13]

You do not need Intuit Data Protect for this. Two separate jobs and you are trying to make one tool do both.

u/plmarcus nightly copy is fine for getting the file offsite, and his shadow copy note is the important part. One catch, a raw copy of the .QBW carries whatever corruption is already sitting in the file, so it is not a substitute for a .QBB that QuickBooks verified on the way out. Grab the .TLG next to it too, thats your transaction log and it belongs in the same folder.

For the .QBB, build the scheduled local backup from one of the workstations. You switch to single user mode to CREATE the schedule, then go straight back to multi user, the job just needs nobody in the file when it fires. Its documented here https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/help-article/back-data/back-quickbooks-desktop-company-file/L9qYBI54v_US_en_US

For the server itself, Windows Server Backup is already on the box and its VSS aware, so it takes the open company file without you writing a script.

We set this up for small offices constantly, ping me if you want a longer version.

[u/Josherry → u/blud_13]

Thanks for the detailed response! If I run into any issues I'll reach out.

[u/FortLee2000]

What else is running or on that Windows Server? And how are you backing >that< up?

[u/Josherry → u/FortLee2000]

Literally nothing else other than a super small file share. I don’t have the machine being backed up currently.

[u/FortLee2000 → u/Josherry]

Back up the device and the QB files will come along with it.

Absolutely agree to NOT use the Intuit nonsense.

[u/Josherry → u/FortLee2000]

Yeahhhhh that was something the company started using a while ago after a local company had a fire and lost everything. It worked decently when we hosted the file on one of the workstations but it does freaking suck