Purpose

The purpose of this document is to assist the user in setting up the Send Data to Tech feature within MCS Software applications. This process has been built into all MCS Software applications  This unique feature allows end-users the opportunity to provide MCS technical support with a backup of the District's working production data. If permissible, this allows the School District the opportunity to readily provide access for research and or troubleshooting to MCS representatives.

Operation

This feature operates by the software application executing a Copy-Only BACKUP command specifying the backup location as the “Path Relative to Server” parameter from System Functionality in the software application.

Once execution is completed and the backup file exists the client attempts to retrieve the file from the shared location as listed in the “Path Relative to Client” parameter in System Functionality. The file is compressed and encrypted as detailed in the above Send Data to Tech Security document and then communicated via HTTPS protocol to MCS Software’s server (https://mcstech.mcssoftware.net/) for later review.

Requirements

For this process to function the following requirements must be met:

1) A location must exist on the network that can be used to transfer the backup between SQL Server and the client workstation that will be used for the Send Data to Tech operation. Typically this is a folder on the local hard drive of the server. 

2) The user that the SQL Server Database Engine Service runs as must have read/write access to this location.

3) The user on the client workstation must have read/write access to this location.

4) The “Path Relative to Server” must describe the path SQL Server will use to access this location.

5) The “Path Relative to Client” parameter must describe the path that the client workstation will use to access this location.

6) The user/client computer must have be able to communicate outbound via HTTPS

NOTE: In the event the School District does not wish to allow access to the data to users/client workstations, the "Path Relative to Client" and "Path Relative to Server" can be specified as the same physical location on the server. Sending Data to Tech will then only be operational directly from the server.