Restoring a deleted Collab Server document

Question

Has anybody found a proven method of restoring a document that was accidetnly deleted from a Collab Server project. We are starting to use Collab V4 for document sharing but have been unable to find any documented process to recover a document that a user might have inadvertantly deleted. This obvioously raises some concern with all concerned.
We would have backups of the database and 'document store' but apart from manually tracking through the database structure to find the original file name(s), assuming there were multiple versions, and then restoring these specific files and getting the user to manually recreate them we see no other way of doing it.
This is obviously not ideal so I am wondering if anybody else has either worked out the database structure to be able to track this through or come up with a way of doing it.
Ross EllardDevonport Management Ltd

Answer 1

I use UNC from the document repository. :)
host A = DR
host B = file server / cluster / whatever
Key idea - the DR needs to run as a Windows user in order to access a remote UNC share. I also do this with Publisher for writing to a common SAN-based share. Ditto on file upload web service. No way I want those processes running on my file server(s). Kinda makes file server clustering difficult as well - not a big fan of single points of failure.
Set up the share
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* Set up a Windows share on host B
* Use either a process-specific domain account or a local workstation account - grant it read/write/delete access to the share and filesystem
* If you have any legacy files from your current installation, copy them over to the new share
Set up the DR
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* Install the document repository on host A
* Stop the DR service
* Set the service to run as the user you configured on Host B. I use local workstation accounts and as long as the usernames and passwords match on both hosts you're good to go. You may need to grant it slightly elevated priveleges, but I would avoid full admin. I think it mainly needs run as a service, access network shares, DCOM launch, etc. Tinker a bit (I'd give you the specifics, but I'm working off site today w/o access to my documentation)
* Open the config file for the DR and set it to point to your UNC share. I think off the top of my head there was an issue when I tried fully qualified domain names, so try the straight workstation name first and see how far it gets you.
* Try starting the service - it may explode until you get the local Windows permissions set correctly. That's where I spent about an hour cranking permissions up and down until we (developers, windows guys, and security guys) were comfortable.
OK - everything should be set and ready to roll. Try uploading a file to collab.
This would be a super-nice thing to add to the install/deployment documentation :)
Thanks,
Eric