A question that I wish more people asked me is, "How do I back-up Accpac?" That question can be broken into three sections:
Each item has its own challenges
But once a routine is established, disaster recovery can be a pleasant experience as it relates to Accpac.
A database dump can be scheduled, but this requires an add-on product. The result of a database dump is a proprietary format backup of the Accpac data. One thing to keep in mind about a database dump is that it will only include the data Accpac knows about. If an add-on product adds data to the database without properly registering it with Accpac, then it will not be included.
The second approach to performing a back up of the database is to interact with the database engine itself. In the case of Pervasive SQL, the files that make up the database can be copied to your backup location at the file system level. Something to watch out for is again, locked files. Pervasive keeps each table in an individual file and only locks files where their respective tables are in use. If someone is logged into Accpac, there is a strong possibility they have locked files. Most backup utilities will skip over locked files, which will create an incomplete backup. If you restore this incomplete backup, you're most assuredly going to have data corruption, so keep an eye on your logs.
Where Pervasive SQL has many individual files that create the database, Microsoft SQL has one. This almost completely eliminates the possibility of doing a backup by copying the database files. You must shutdown the SQL engine, because while it's running, all the database files are locked. Shutting down the SQL engine, even at night isn't always practical, because some applications use the wee hours of the morning to perform maintenance.
The proper way to make a backup is to issue a command to the SQL server to produce one. This can be done a couple ways. For the sake of a daily backup, you can use the Agent. The agent can be used to execute maintenance plans that among other things include backup tasks. Unfortunately with SQL Express, however, there is no agent, as this is one of the limitations of this particular version. To get around this, I've developed a script that can be scheduled by the Windows Task Scheduler that will create a set of backups that can be accessed without conflict by a backup utility. This can also be done manually from the SQL Management Studio.
Here's another article you might find helpful: Accpac Error: You Do Not Have a License to Use This Product!