What needs to be backed up
Not just the database. A dealership record includes the documents and photos attached to it.
- Customer, vehicle, deal, and payment records
- Scanned documents, signed packets, and generated PDFs
- Vehicle photos
- Accounting and title records
The checklist
- Keep more than one copy, and at least one copy away from the building
- Back up on a fixed schedule, and after any big day such as month-end
- Encrypt every copy that leaves the device
- Keep the backup passphrase somewhere separate from the device and from any recovery key
- Label each copy with the date, and keep older copies, not only the newest
- Check that each backup finished and verified, not only that it started
- Know who in the dealership is responsible, and who covers when they are away
- Know the restore steps before you need them
How ClozBox handles it
ClozBox keeps rotating backups on its encrypted storage automatically: 14 daily and 8 weekly copies. Those protect against mistakes, but they live on the same device, so they are not a replacement for an external copy.
For an external backup, you approve a USB drive and enter a passphrase of at least 16 characters. ClozBox copies the database and files, writes a checksum for every file, encrypts the archive, then decrypts a test copy and only reports success when every checksum matches. Store that passphrase away from the appliance and away from the printed storage recovery key.
About restoring
A restore replaces the current records with the backup’s records, so it is something you do on purpose, not as an experiment. ClozBox checks the archive, restores into a staging area, switches over only if health checks pass, and rolls back otherwise. If the power fails during a restore, the appliance finishes or undoes it at the next start, so you never end up with a mix of old and restored data.
No hardware replacement can bring back records without a valid backup. The external copy is what protects the dealership.
This guide is general information, not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Your contracts, state rules, and qualified advisers decide what applies to your dealership.