With any program or computer, data loss is possible. It is mandatory that the data be backed up on a regular basis. This ensures that when there is a disaster, the computer breaks, get's stolen or worst scenerio, the data is not lost foreaver. Notice the use of when and not if; It is inevitable that there will be a failure in the hardware at some point. In this respect, computers are just like cars.
To help with this, there is a script called /opt/bin/backup.sh. This script dumps and encrypts the data stored by the program, the configurations of the program and other usefull items onto a USB flash drive. The purpose of encrypting the data is to ensure the customer's information and the business information cannot be easily discovered if the USB flash drive is lost. A restoration script is also placed on the USB flash drive to aid in recovering the data when the time arises.
The script should be viewed and modified to suit the individual needs of the business. The password to recover the data is script as well as the name of the flash drive. The instructions for restoration and the restoreation script can be modified as well. They are both built by the backup script. Both of these are basic with many assumptions on the machines configuration. These cannot be guessed at by the author of the program before hand.
When to run the program is a business decision. It can either be run through cron or configured to run when the computer is shut down. The restoration script will configure the system to do the backups when the machine is shit down. This is another portion of the backup script you may want to change.
It is envisioned that the user will have two USB flash drives. This will allow one of the drives to be kept off premises or in the posession of the shop owner such as on their key ring. This two is a mandatory practice to ensure worst case scenerios such as the fire or theft.
The size of the drives depends on the amount of data. A 128MB flash drive should work for all but the very largest national chains. A business with 1000 customers and 3000+ workorders takes under 2 MB of space. Before you by a 2 MB drive, keep in mind that in the end 2 copies of the data is saved on the flash drive.