Backing up data from the CLC Workbench
Regular backups of your data are advisable.
The data stored in your CLC Workbench is in the areas defined as CLC Data Locations. Whole data locations can be backed up directly (option 1) or, for smaller amounts of data, you could export the selected data elements to a zip file (option 2).
Option 1: Backing up each CLC Data Location
The easiest way for most people to find out where their data is stored is to put the mouse cursor over the top level directories, that is, the ones that have an icon like (
), in the Navigation Area of the Workbench. This brings up a tool tip with the system location for that data location.
To back up all your CLC data, please ensure that all your CLC Data Locations are backed up.
Here, if you needed to recover the data later, you could put add the data folder from backup as a data location in your Workbench. If the original data location is not present, then the data should be usable directly. If the original data location is still present, the Workbench will re-index the (new) data location. For large volumes of data, re-indexing can take some time.
Information about your data locations can also be found in an xml file called model_settings_300.xml This file is located in the settings folder in the user home area. Further details about this file and how it pertains to data locations in the Workbench can be found in the Deployment Manual: http://resources.qiagenbioinformatics.com/manuals/workbenchdeployment/current/index.php?manual=Changing_default_location.html.
Option 2: Export a folder of data or individual data elements to a CLC zip file
This option is for backing up smaller amounts of data, for example, certain results files or a whole data location, where that location contains smaller amounts of data. For data that takes up many gigabases of space, this method can be used, but it can be very demanding on space, as well as time.
Select the data items, including any folders, in the Navigation area of your Workbench and choose to export by going to:
File | Export (
)
and choosing zip format.
The zip file created will contain all the data you selected.
A note about compatibility Internal compression of CLC data was introduced in CLC Genomics Workbench 12.0, CLC Main Workbench 8.1 and CLC Genomics Server 11.0. If you are backing up data that may be used in software versions older than these, then please select the export option Maximize compatibility with older CLC products. Further information about this is provided in Export of folders and data elements in CLC format
You can import the zip file into a Workbench by going to:
File | Import (
) | Standard Import
and selecting "Automatic import" in the Options area.
The only data files associated with the CLC Genomics Workbench not within a specified data location are BLAST databases. It is unusual to back up BLAST databases as they are usually updated relatively frequently and in many cases can be easily re-created from the original files or re-downloaded from public resources. If you do wish to backup your BLAST database files, they can be found in the folders specified in the BLAST Database Manager, which is started by going to:
Toolbox | BLAST (
) | Manage BLAST Databases (
).