It depends on your web host. If your server comes with cPanel, it's just a click of a button under the Backups icon. If the server doesn't have a control panel, you'll need to run the mysql dump command.I remember back in the days backing up vbulletin with mySql but l'm wondering if that is the method of doing it with Xen and two if so can somebody refresh my memory on how it's done? Thanks
You could consider downloading an FTP client which will make things a bit easier (Cyberduck, FileZilla...). For the MySQL part, you could always use MySQLWorkbench, this will help you visualize your data.How would a non-IT person start from scratch please?
My host doesn't have cPanel but does permit FTP access albeit a very basic form. This is what we see:
View attachment 239265
What do we back up? All of it?
Had a look at some of the add-ons available but they're executable files and the Host doesn't have php exec function enabled and won't - its a shared hosting environment.
As for MySQLdump to deal with the database well that requires writing some code into something or other and not being IT techies (we need nice idiot proof GUI interfaces) no one here is brave enough to do that for fear of FUBARing what is a busy forum.
Thanks . Filezilla I have so will take a more in-depth look at that. MySQLworkbench I'm not familiar with so will research that. When I first cracked open Filezilla though and got it linked with the forum it's still 'wow, what do I copy to me back-up drive? the whole lot?You could consider downloading an FTP client which will make things a bit easier (Cyberduck, FileZilla...). For the MySQL part, you could always use MySQLWorkbench, this will help you visualize your data.
You can export/import databases also via phpmyadmin (may need some host tweaks to increase import quota though)My host doesn't have cPanel
Hence I mentioned the host. Mattw has tweaked ours so that over 50mb works fine.I wouldn't trust phpMyadmin for anything over about 50MB.
mysqldump --opt --default-character-set=utf8mb4 -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE_NAME > /home/ACCOUNTNAME/backup/XYZFORUM-bkup-$(date +\%a).sql
ex: tar -cf /home/ACCOUNTNAME/backup/XYZFORUM-BU.tar /home/ACCOUNTNAME/public_html/
Your path for the cron is that where you have your backups stored in? For instance what is home/Accountname exactly? ThanksDon't forget, there are 2 different areas that need backup. The public_html files and the SQL database.
I set a cron to run at 3am and 3pm that backs up the sql, in a 7 day rotation which re-uses each day 7 days later.
ex:Code:mysqldump --opt --default-character-set=utf8mb4 -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE_NAME > /home/ACCOUNTNAME/backup/XYZFORUM-bkup-$(date +\%a).sql
I have another cron that compresses a daily file of the html folder.
ex:Code:ex: tar -cf /home/ACCOUNTNAME/backup/XYZFORUM-BU.tar /home/ACCOUNTNAME/public_html/
A script runs on the home PC that ftp's in just after 3am and 3pm to download those archives, so there is an off-site copy as well as the one that lives hidden on the server. I keep 7 days of the tar, also, but do that locally with a script that renames the files each day.
In addition, the hosting company also does a jetbackup off-site backup. (but I don't really trust that one so much, and it doesn't seem to always run daily) It's a 'last resort' for me, but it's nice to have if I ever wanted to go back more than 7 days (HIGHLY unlikely)
So there are 3 backups available, in an emergency. The important one is done every 12 hours, for the SQL database only.
Good luck. Backups are super important, IMO.
on 9/11, one of the towers fell on my ISP at the time. It was months before I was able to access my data/their server again, and they were back. (no one died, thankfully) I had backups, and was up the next day - at a new ISP.
Years later, the data center for an ISP typed a command in error that wiped their entire data center out. It took more than a week to restore everything from an off-site last resort backup they had (because it used so much bandwidth). I had my own backups, and was back in a few hours.
For these reasons, I strongly feel that getting them offsite is important, too.
Mike
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