Rebuilding a Damaged Database

In some very rare instances, a databases become severely corrupted. We've seen this when a single computer on the network was on the verge or meltdown and only reinstallation of the system software would have saved it, or when write behind caching was turned on a Novell server. If this ever happens and the damage has gone beyond the state where a normal data copy will fix the problem, all is not lost as there are other tools available that can help extract data from one or more backup files.

There are variations to the theme below and will depend on how you got into your current state. At the time of writing this, web page, we have only used these tools twice in over 500,000 Theatre Manager user days, and only when a server crashed very badly or some bad operating system changes were made - chances of you ever needing to do this is very negligible.

Before attempting this process, call the Arts Management technical support line.

There are two reasons:

  1. To be sure that you really need to do this. It can take a long time and you must know what you are doing

  2. You will need to log on to Theatre Manager in a special way to gain access to this routine.

 

How to fix the data

FOLLOW THESE STEPS EXACTLY. Do it on your server or fastest machine for speed.

  1. Call Arts Management to confirm that you should be doing this and to get a special number that enables the utilities

    2. Click Here for contact information.

  2. Get everybody to log off of the database

    3.  

  3. Find your fastest workstation (this usually based on speed of the processor, amount of RAM memory, operating system, and age of the computer.)

    4.  

  4. Copy the database to this computer

    5. If the fastest machine is where the database already resides, make a copy of all .df1,.df2, etc. files. Click Here for more information on making physical backups. Make a new folder (in this case it will be called New DB). Click Here for more information on creating a new folder.

    Make note of how many segments your databases are. Your main data file (YourCompany.df1) may have df2, df3, df4, etc. Each one is a new segment of that database. Your Transact.df1 might have multiple segments as well - make note of how many of each you have.

  5. Log into Theatre Manager on this computer as a master user

    6. When you get to the password screen, type in the master user password followed by :xxxxx. (That's 'colon' and 'xxxxx' right after the password). You must call support to get the value for xxxxx as it is date sensitive.

  6. Go into File -> Statistics

    7. Click the printer icon in the toolbar, which will print a list of all of the files in the database. Keep this for later reference.

  7. Go into Setup->Data Utilities

  8. This will open the Data Utilities Window

    9. Click Here for more information on this window and it's functions.

  9. Click DB Utilities , and pick Power Rebuild from the popup menu. If you don't see that in the menu, go back to step one.

    10. You will see a window with the title 'Applicat-Datatool - © 1999' as shown below. It should fill up with a list of files and show counts of records for all your datafile. Please confirm with Support that the correct data is there.

  10. Create a new TM Database

    11. Click Here to learn how to create a new TM Database.

  11. Create a new Transaction Database

    12. Click Here to learn how to create a new Transaction Database.

  12. Reconstruct the TM Database

    13. Click Here to learn how reconstruct the TM Database.

  13. Reconstruct the Transaction Database

    14. Click Here to learn how reconstruct the Transaction Database.

  14.  Rebuild Database Connections

    15. This relinks all of the separate parts of the database back together and allows you to use the new database files. Click Here to learn how to rebuild the database connections.