The Backup Server
As part of the Simple Appointments server, a redundant backup of Simple Appointments is provided for use when the primary Simple Appointments server is unavailable or destroyed. Some caution must be employed when using this backup, however.
The backup server communicates with the primary server every five minutes to exchange recent data, such as newly entered lessons. Lessons entered on the primary server may not show up on the backup server until five minutes later when everything is working. If the primary server has lost its connection to the internet for any reason, the backup server will not display the new lessons until the primary server is back online. Either way, if you are using the backup server while someone else is using the primary server, you can end up booking the same time twice, creating duplicate students, and creating other problems.
To prevent these problems, the backup should only be used in certain circumstances:
- The primary server is broken (hardware or software failure)
- The primary server is inaccessible AND the studio is closed
It should not be used in the following cases:
- Some computers at the studio cannot access the system, but others can
- The system cannot be accessed from the outside world, but is accessible from within the studio
Accessing the Backup Server
When you go to http://simpleappointments.com/kw (where kw is the keyword for your studio), it will normally send you to the primary Simple Appointments installation. If the primary Simple Appointments installation is unavailable for any reason, it will display a message informing you that the main server is down, and provide a link to the backup server. If one of the acceptable conditions for using the backup above is met, click this link to continue to the backup server.
The backup server will function just like the primary server, and once the primary server becomes available, any changes made to the backup server will be replicated on primary server within 10 minutes per day the primary server was down. 'Do not' try to manually copy changes from the backup server to the primary server or vice versa, which will create duplicate entries.
