is it required to stop the pbx service before backing up?

[fred.bloggs]

Hi, on your manual pages you suggest coping the whole pbx folder for backup:

https://doc.vodia.com/docs/how-to-backup-the-pbx

/usr/local/pbx

Is it required to stop the pbx service before backing up, to make sure we have consistent backups? Or is it supported to backup without stopping the service?

At the moment we stop the service though before making a backup every night with:

service pbx stop

If it is recommended to stop the service, an update to the documentation would be good.

[Support]

It depends on one's usage.

Some PBX are not very high on the usage for it to be stopped and also mostly everyone takes a backup everyday, so stopping the service is not needed / possible. 

But yes, we get the point. Thanks.

 

[Vodia PBX]

If you are changing accounts or the PBX configuration while doing a large backup this might lead to inconsistent data (so—don't do that). However if you are doing a backup without changing the configuration this is by far not as critical. You might miss a voicemail in the backup because the voicemail was written after the backup was started, but you would also miss it if you start the backup afterwards. Stopping the service for backup would be counterproductive. Scheduling backups during less busy times is a very good idea.

[fred.bloggs]

Thank you for clarification. I was not sure if there are some databases used that would end up corrupted in the backup file when not stopping the service. If it is only "flat" files - sure no problems to expect when scheduling the backup in a less busy time at night.