Keeping it running

Backups, updates, server health, logs and security — the maintenance half of the job.

Once the hotel is live, this is everything you will need occasionally and be very glad to have.

Backups

A backup holds the entire configuration — rooms, devices, zones, automations, users, guests and bookings.

1

Settings → Backup → Get backup file

2

Save it somewhere that is not the Harmony server

A backup living only on the machine it protects is not a backup.

3

Name it with the date

harmony-grandpalace-2026-09-25.sql — so you can tell three of them apart in a hurry.

Take one: at the end of initial setup, before any update, before a large change, and on a schedule the hotel agrees to.

Restoring replaces everything. Every booking, guest and configuration change made since that backup is discarded, and there is no undo. Take a fresh backup first — even of a broken system — then type REPLACE_ALL_DATA to confirm.

Factory reset empties the database completely and returns Harmony to a fresh install. It asks you to type FACTORY_RESET. Use it when repurposing a server, never as a troubleshooting step.

What a backup does and does not contain

In it: hotel settings, floors, rooms, room types, gateways, devices, zones, readers, automations, users, guests, bookings, cards, housekeeping history and integration settings.

Not in it: the Harmony software itself, the server's operating system, the configuration held inside gateways and locks, and files outside the database.

So rebuilding a server means: install Harmony, then restore the backup.

Software updates

Updates are published to Harmony Cloud and installed from Licensing → Firmware update.

Before you update: read the release notes, take your own backup, pick a quiet time, and tell reception and housekeeping — all services restart, so the front desk cannot work for a few minutes.

Choose a version, click Update firmware, confirm, and wait. Harmony backs up automatically, downloads, applies any database changes and restarts everything. Leave the page open and do not reboot the server.

Afterwards, verify: the version shown is the new one, all gateways are online, room cards show live values, and a test booking can be created, checked in and checked out.

How often? Security fixes promptly. Features the hotel asked for at the next quiet period. Everything else once or twice a year.

Server health

Server is the quickest way to tell "Harmony is broken" from "one part of Harmony is broken".

Process	Responsible for	If it is down…
Administration app	The :81 app and its API	You could not be reading this page
Reception app	The :82 app	Reception cannot take bookings
Housekeeping app	The :83 app	Cleaners cannot see tasks
Automation rules	Running your IF/THEN rules	Service buttons raise nothing
Syslog collector	Turning device messages into notifications	Alerts stop appearing
Gateway drivers	Talking to BUS, eLAN and API units	Room cards go blank

Refresh re-reads the state. Restart apps restarts the applications — under a minute, but anyone working in Reception loses their session.

Restarting is not a diagnosis. If the same process is down again ten minutes later, read the Logs instead of restarting repeatedly.

Logs and Events

Two pages, two different questions.

Page	Answers	Columns
Logs	"Why did the software behave like that?"	Timestamp, level, component, message
Events	"What happened in the hotel, and when?"	Timestamp, event type

Events is the operational history: buttons pressed, cards presented, booking statuses changing, automations firing. It answers "the guest says they pressed Butler and nobody came" and "who checked this booking out?".

Both pages Export to a file and Clear permanently.

Export before you clear. Clearing cannot be undone, and if the hotel keeps records of access or response times, that file is the record.

Security

The five things that matter most:

1. Change the default password. [e-mail] / harmony is identical on every installation.

2. One account per person — shared logins make the history useless and cannot be revoked individually.

3. Give the smallest role that works. A receptionist does not need Admin.

4. Deactivate leavers the day they leave.

5. Keep Harmony off the public internet. It is designed for the hotel's own network. If remote access is genuinely needed, put it behind a VPN — not a port forward.

Settings → Security additionally restricts which machines may reach the apps, by IP address: one list for Reception, one for Administration.

You can lock yourself out. Add the address you are working from before you add anyone else's, and confirm you still have access from a second browser tab before you leave. And only use this feature if those machines have fixed addresses — a DHCP lease change silently locks the front desk out.

Guest data

Names, addresses, phone numbers and stay history are personal data under GDPR and comparable laws. Collect only what the hotel needs, agree a retention period, and keep backups somewhere access-controlled — a backup file contains every guest record in plain form.