How To Create a Backup In Dynamics GP

UPDATE: Dynamics GP is now in End of Life (EOL) status and will not receive core and security updates from Microsoft. We highly recommend a Dynamics GP to Business Central migration to ensure compliance, security, performance, and day-to-day functionality. Click here to learn how 360 Visibility can assist you in migrating Dynamics GP to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Creating a backup is essential to in your Dynamics GP account and it is important to understand the right steps to do it.  There are many reasons why you may wish to perform a backup. You may want to perform a backup prior to starting the year end process before backing up your year-end data is essential, you may be performing some month-end closing procedures, or you’re about to integrate a large amount of data into your GP database. If you do, it is critical that you ensure you have a good set of database backups to recover from if anything goes wrong! If you don’t have a nightly set of Database backups in place (which you should have), you will need to create a one-time backup of your database. Here are instructions on how to create backups of your database.  There are three options to choose from.

How to create a backup

There are a three methods that you can set in place in order to create a one-time set of backups depending on what you’re looking to secure.

1. The Dynamics GP Interface to backup a single database
2. SQL Server Management Studio to back up a single database
3. SQL Server Management Studio to back up all databases

Creating a Single Backup in Dynamics GP Interface

1. In Microsoft Dynamics GP,  go to Microsoft Dynamics GP >  Maintenance > Backup
2. In the Backup Company window use the drop down list on the Company Name field and select the Company you wish to backup. If you have several companies you will need to do these one at a time.
3. Save the backup file to your required destination, and then click OK
4. If you have additional companies to backup repeat steps 1 through 3 for each company that you wish to perform a backup on.

Instead of Worry About Creating a Dynamics GP Backup, Read How You Can Find Financial Harmony with a Dynamics 365 Business Central Implementation

SQL Server Management Studio for Single Databases

**Note you will need to have the appropriate network permissions to connect your back-office SQL Server desktop

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio and login using a user id with adequate rights to perform backups
2. Expand the Databases folder
3. Right-click on the individual data base you would like to make a one-time back up for and choose Tasks and then under the drop-down menu select Backup
4. The Backup Database window should appear.
5. Ensure the in the Source Section, the following:
   1. Database Name is the company you wish to backup
   2. Backup type is set to Full
6. In the destination Section perform the following:
   1. Backup to, Select Disk
   2. If there is a path with a file name in the window highlight it and select Remove to clear the window
   3. Then Click on Add to open the Select Backup Destination window
      1. Click on the Ellipse to Open the Locate Database Files window and navigate to the directory where you wish to store the backup in
      2. In the file name window, enter the name you wish to call the backup file. Be sure to end the file name with .bak

• Click on OK to accept the file location and File Name
• Click on OK in the Select Backup Destination Window
• Your new backup location and file name should appear in the box on the Backup Database Window

7. Click OK to begin your backup
8. You should see your backup start right away, you can verify the backup file exists by navigating out to the file where you saved it

SQL Server Management Studio for All Databases at Once

If you have a SQL Maintenance plan that performs a nightly backup of all your databases, you can run this at any time even if it is scheduled to run late at night

1. In SQL Server Management Studio, expand the SQL Server Agent folder and then the Jobs folder
2. Search through the list of SQL jobs to find the one that backups your Dynamics GP databases
3. Right click on the SQL Backup Job and select Start Job At Step
4. You will see the job begin to run in a separate progress window
5. When the job is complete you will see a status message that says Success, once you see this you close the window. Your backup is complete!