MLS Log Files?

Discussions around using and interfacing with the Church MLS program.
craiggsmith
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MLS Log Files?

#1

Post by craiggsmith »

We suspect that one of the ward clerks for some unknown reason restored an old backup file. Is there any kind of log file that would show this? I'm trying to figure out when he did it and what file he used. I think I know but would like to be sure.

I will also look at the automatic backups and see if I can deduce what happened; otherwise we'll have to just restore the backups one by one until we find the latest data. I will backup before doing this, but are there any problems you can foresee with this?

I know that the system remembers the most recent backup folder, but does it do the same for the restore folder?

Thanks.
Craig
South Jordan, UT
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

hemismith wrote:We suspect that one of the ward clerks for some unknown reason restored an old backup file. Is there any kind of log file that would show this? I'm trying to figure out when he did it and what file he used. I think I know but would like to be sure.

The mlslog.txt file in C:\Program Files\LDS Church\MLS will tell you all the backups and restores that were done (and a lot more information). Look for a line that contains "Restore DB Called" -- that will appear whenever a restore was done, which should be very rare.
hemismith wrote:I will also look at the automatic backups and see if I can deduce what happened; otherwise we'll have to just restore the backups one by one until we find the latest data. I will backup before doing this, but are there any problems you can foresee with this?

Note that the "data" folder (a sibling to the "Units" folder) contains information (saved forms and financial statements) that are NOT included with the backup files. So make sure you copy that folder to a safe place before you start playing with backups and restores. You may also want to examine all saved forms and financial statements and print out any that you have not yet printed, just in case they get lost.
hemismith wrote:I know that the system remembers the most recent backup folder, but does it do the same for the restore folder?

There is no "restore folder"; there is just a "backup folder" whose location is remembered. When you start a restore, it defaults to the location you last backed up to. When you successfully store, part of what it restores is its memory of what folder was last used for backup -- the folder that the very backup you just restored was saved to. So I can see what you were hoping -- that by going into the Restore feature you would see what folder was used for the last restore -- but such is not the case.
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craiggsmith
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#3

Post by craiggsmith »

Thanks very very much. I apologize for not knowing these things; I'm brand new to this, and I read what I could find on the wiki, but haven't gone through the training. There has been lots to do. And I'm not sure if it would cover something like this anyway.

That's great news about the log file. I will definitely copy the data folder, and planned on printing as much as I can think of for comparison afterwards.

Actually, the strange thing is that when I went to do a backup, it defaulted to the USB drive, where I saw a month's worth of backups including one from the day before. But when I selected the restore option, it defaulted to the original mlsdata-backup directory. The last backup there was a month ago, and it seems the data is about a month old. So that's what gave me the idea of what I think happened. But I wasn't sure if the restore feature remembers the last folder or always just goes to the original folder. At any rate, the two functions did not default to the same folder.
Craig
South Jordan, UT
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aebrown
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#4

Post by aebrown »

hemismith wrote:Actually, the strange thing is that when I went to do a backup, it defaulted to the USB drive, where I saw a month's worth of backups including one from the day before. But when I selected the restore option, it defaulted to the original mlsdata-backup directory. The last backup there was a month ago, and it seems the data is about a month old. So that's what gave me the idea of what I think happened. But I wasn't sure if the restore feature remembers the last folder or always just goes to the original folder. At any rate, the two functions did not default to the same folder.
That's interesting. Perhaps my testing wasn't thorough enough. One factor is whether the USB drive is present or not. I know that if I last backed up to a USB drive, and the drive is inserted when I initiate a backup, MLS will default to the USB drive. But if the USB drive is not inserted when I initiate a backup, then MLS will default to c:\mlsData-backup.
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craiggsmith
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#5

Post by craiggsmith »

One more question -- I'm hoping I'll find a backup from a few days ago that I can use, but would there be any value to requesting a unit data refresh?

Thanks.
Craig
South Jordan, UT
russellhltn
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#6

Post by russellhltn »

It would insure the membership records are in sync. It won't help on the finance side.
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aebrown
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#7

Post by aebrown »

hemismith wrote:One more question -- I'm hoping I'll find a backup from a few days ago that I can use, but would there be any value to requesting a unit data refresh?
Yes. After you restore an old backup, you will have an old copy of the membership data, but CHQ will think it's already sent you any membership updates that have happened between the date of that backup and now. So a data refresh is a good idea.

But it only refreshes the actual membership data, not callings or finance or anything else that is stored locally.
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craiggsmith
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#8

Post by craiggsmith »

Sure enough, I found a restore on 9/30 back to 9/5, and another on 8/15 back to 6/29 in the history file. They said it had happened before. I think he accidentally did restore when he meant to do backup; he's a bit aged.

I restored the backup prior to 8/15, printed some reports, then restored the 9/30 backup (which was done just prior to the restore). Luckily, with conference, the only entries since last week were 2 checks and some HT/VT data.

Thanks again for your help.
Craig
South Jordan, UT
jonesrk
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#9

Post by jonesrk »

Alan_Brown wrote: But it only refreshes the actual membership data, not callings or finance or anything else that is stored locally.
Actually the refresh request does request a callings refresh and CDOL will send those down. The one thing that is still remains it for MLS to clear all the callings and replace them with those from CDOL when this refresh file comes down. This is planned for MLS, now that all the parts in CDOL are ready.

But if there are some callings out of sync they may show back up in MLS because of the refresh request.
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aebrown
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#10

Post by aebrown »

ryan jones wrote:Actually the refresh request does request a callings refresh and CDOL will send those down. The one thing that is still remains it for MLS to clear all the callings and replace them with those from CDOL when this refresh file comes down. This is planned for MLS, now that all the parts in CDOL are ready.

But if there are some callings out of sync they may show back up in MLS because of the refresh request.
I'm a bit confused by this answer. In one sentence you say that CDOL will send those down. But then it seems like the next sentence says that MLS doesn't actually use the callings that are sent down.

Upon a data refresh, does MLS currently update its collection of callings assigned to unit members or not?
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