Backing Up Speech Server

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Your Speech Server disaster recovery plan should include regular backups of the following items.

Item	Backup Tool
Event trace log files	Backup
Databases	Microsoft SQL??Server Enterprise Manager
Registry settings	Backup
File permissions	Backup
Application files	Backup

To start the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 backup utility (Backup), click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup. For more information, see Backing Up and Recovering Data.

To start Microsoft SQL??Server Enterprise Manager, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server, and then click Enterprise Manager. For more information, see SQL Server 2000 Backup and Restore.

Event Trace Log Files

Event trace log (ETL) files contain Speech Server activity data and can grow quite large, particularly if they are configured to capture the audio spoken by the user. Speech Server provides several log analysis tools that enable you to extract the data from ETL files and import it into a usable format such as a text file or an SQL??Server database. For more information about these tools, see Speech Application Analysis and Tuning.

Because ETL files accrue with Speech Server usage, you should regularly archive older files using Backup (selecting Normal as the Backup Type). By default, ETL files are stored on the computer running Speech Server in the Logs directory of the Speech Server installation directory. Your disaster recovery plan should also include a company policy that sets the life span of archived files before they can be deleted.

Databases

The Speech Server log analysis tools use Microsoft SQL??Server to import ETL file data, enabling you to obtain detailed results based on SQL queries. As part of your disaster recovery plan, back up your SQL??Server database using SQL??Server Enterprise Manager. Also, because this database grows with use, you should regularly delete older events from the database to keep it at a manageable size. You can do this through SQL??Server Enterprise Manager. If you have created other unique database tables that store events, you can modify the stored procedure or use Enterprise Manager to delete events from those tables as well.

Also, when the data from an ETL file is imported to a SQL??Server database, Speech Server Analytics and Tuning Studio interacts only with the SQL??Server database. The ETL file is no longer required and can be archived or deleted according to your company policy.

Registry Settings

Speech Server uses the Windows Registry to store property values and configuration information. If you have installed telephony interface manager (TIM) software, it can also modify your registry. Registry settings are part of your system state data that is backed up when you create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) disk set. To ensure that your most recent registry settings are backed up, use Backup (Advanced mode) to create an ASR disk set for each server in your deployment.

File Permissions

When you save your files using Backup, the file permission settings are saved as well, provided the files are saved from an NTFS volume to another NTFS volume. You can restore these permission settings by using the Restore Security procedure in Backup. For more information, see "Set advanced restore options" in Windows Server 2003 Help.

Applications Files

In the event of a disaster, you can redeploy your voice response applications along with your other Speech Server requisites and programs. However, depending on its purpose, an application might access and modify files that contain volatile data that, if lost, can adversely affect your business. For example, imagine if an e-mail message service lost files that contain the user information and passwords for all of its customers. As part of your disaster recovery plan, be sure to identify and back up any volatile information that is created or changed by your voice response applications.