Administration

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Admin can be accessed by appending /admin to the end of your Alexandria URL. We recommend bookmarking that link if you use Admin.



If you are self-hosted, see Self Hosted for the information you need. 

Administration Settings

 /admin

The Administration settings are high-level preferences intended for network administrators, IT support departments, or operators with administrator-level permissions. In other words, they're advanced settings used to configure your main Data Station once and then be forgotten.

While every operator with the proper security permissions can access the Administration module, it contains settings that most operators won't be able to configure without help. An operator's access to these settings is governed by their security preferences. Your library's administrator can manage these settings in Preferences > Security.

Navigation 

Status

These settings allow you to perform maintenance on your library catalog and update your Alexandria program.

Web

These settings allow Alexandria and Textbook Tracker to communicate online.

Database

These settings allow you to set up automatic archives and database maintenance.

Email

These settings allow you to designate an SMTP server to use for sending emails, such as Item Overdue Notices, to patrons and/or staff.



Actions Menu 

This menu appears on each interface of the administrative settings in the upper left corner. These options allow you to update to latest version, send your library data to COMPanion, log out of the program or quit the data station remotely. 

Check for Updates

If there are any updates available, it will be listed here. You simply click on the version number to initiate the upgrade.

Send Data to COMPanion

If a Customer Support Representative needs your library data for troubleshooting you can easily send it to us by selecting this option and entering the Authorization Code you are provided.

Log Out

This button will log you out of Alexandria, despite if you have multiple windows open.

Quit Alexandria

This option will stop the Data Station from running and log out any active operators.

Status

This is where you can access your registration information, perform database maintenance, run or restore from archives, and update to the latest version.

Restore From Archive

Use this option to replace your current data folder with a previously created archive. This is useful if you need to undo a completed process such as imports or utilities.

  1. Click Restore From Archive, this will trigger a roll-down menu.

  2. From the list of Available Archives, select the archive date/time you would like to restore to; dates/times are listed as yyyy/mm/dd 24:00

  3. Click the Restore button to proceed. If you no longer want to restore simply click Cancel to abort the process. By clicking Restore your current data will be replaced by that contained in the selected archive folder. 
  4. Check the Delete the archived data after restoring box to remove the selected archive from your archive directory upon successful restoration. (optional)

Archive

Selecting this button performs an immediate, manual archive of your database. An archive is a complete copy of your library data file. However, archives are not backups. The difference between a backup and an archive is that backups are made on removable media and physically stored offsite or in cloud-based storage. Archives are entirely useless in the event of a hard drive failure hence keeping an offsite or cloud backup is highly recommended. While the archive is running all services on the data station are temporarily disabled. We recommend running an archive before making any large-scale changes to your database, such as imports, updates, utilities, or machine upgrades.

Restart

Selecting this button will restart the Data Station remotely. During the restart duration, Alexandria services and modules will be unavailable to all operators.

Database Maintenance

Selecting this button will examine your database files and perform patron, item, and circulation verification routines. If database damage is detected, it's automatically fixed. While maintenance is being performed the Data Station will be inaccessible. We recommend performing this maintenance at least once a month to keep your data in good, working order.

Database

Scheduled Archives and Database Maintenance are allocated in Database settings. These settings allow you to specify if and when automatic archives and/or database maintenance is performed. You are also able to configure the location where local archives are stored. For a Centralized or Distributed catalog these settings will apply to all sites. Cloud-Hosted customers don't have the database settings in the administration module because their hosted subscription includes automatic nightly archives and regular database maintenance.

Related Link: Archive Your Data

We strongly advise you to review these settings regularly to ensure that your archive directory is up to date and the number of archives stored is properly configured based on your needs and available disk space.