How to backup and restore your forum (Linux / Windows)

[Jake Bunce]

Okay, nevermind the above. I've figured it out (noob problem).

Now I am so close to backing up the files but xampp keeps telling me that the 'tar is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file."

Is there any reason for this?

What operating system? The tar command is always available on Linux.

 

[MKSwni]

What operating system? The tar command is always available on Linux.

Our server is hosted on a Linux system.

 

[Gladius]

Bumping this up... since some of our newer XF/addon tables are InnoDB (though not all since InnoDB was off when we imported from phpBB and I never bothered to convert them) and since I'll likely be adding a few more XF installs with default table configurations, I've been wondering about the suggested dump command here...

--opt is redundant as it's enabled by default (at least on 5.5 and up), so it's not necessary...

But my main concern is not specifying --single-transaction - with all the InnoDB tables in a default XF installation, wouldn't that be an absolute must? I don't know that much about databases but I've read about potential incomplete dumps of InnoDB tables and consequently faulty backups if only mysqldump without --single-transaction is used in a number of articles on InnoDB. Of course there are potential issues with --single-transaction as per documentation as well, but still...

Am I missing something?

(Incidentally, we're on MariaDB 5.5.)

 

[Gladius]

This is probably going to interest many people so I'm reposting the official answer from XF support ( @Jake Bunce might want to update the how-to...):

We recommend to use the single-transaction flag as the benefits (particularly ensuring all tables are dumped at the same point in time but still allowing incoming data so as not to effect your board usage) outweigh the potential drawbacks.

Obviously with any backup solution, periodic checks should be made to ensure the quality of the backed up data.

(...)

It is worth pointing out that the single transaction flag is more of a concern for large boards where backups may take some time to occur opposed to smaller boards where the backup may only take seconds. Though obviously using it on any sized board is ideal if the backup system keeps the site live.

This is problematic on several levels because by default for instance cPanel doesn't specify --single-transaction when performing any backups so that is a problem as I suspect that many (if not most) people are relying either on automated or manual cP backups - none of which use --single-transaction to my knowledge.

Customizing the cPanel backup command to properly dump the XF databases is unsupported by both cPanel and likely your server provider (if you're managed), plus it will get overwritten with every cPanel update, so that's not really an option either.

Essentially, if you've got InnoDB tables in your XF install, to ensure that you have a 100% proper backup of any moderately sized forum and larger you either need to manually create backups with the proper flag or run a custom cronjob dump of your forum database with the --single-transaction flag. Anyone relying on cPanel's backups (or dumping without single-transaction) might be in for a nasty surprise otherwise if they ever need to restore from a backup.

Not trying to cause panic or anything here, but backups are majorly important... for everyone.

 

[pfernand]

Hi Jake. I'm very new to XF and I'm a little overwhelmed by how complicated it seems to be to make a backup of my forum. I'm going to try and follow your instructions, but, before I get started, I need to ask the following:

1. My forum is hosted by HostGator and all my forum files and database are on their server. This means I need to use your LINUX instructions, correct?
2. When I clicked on your PuTTY link to download this shell editor program, it displays a lot of links (i.e. PuTTY, PuTTYtel, PSCP, PSFTP, Plink, Pageant, PuTTYgen). Do I need all these programs or do I just download putty.exe?

 

[Jake Bunce]

Hi Jake. I'm very new to XF and I'm a little overwhelmed by how complicated it seems to be to make a backup of my forum. I'm going to try and follow your instructions, but, before I get started, I need to ask the following:

1. My forum is hosted by HostGator and all my forum files and database are on their server. This means I need to use your LINUX instructions, correct?
2. When I clicked on your PuTTY link to download this shell editor program, it displays a lot of links (i.e. PuTTY, PuTTYtel, PSCP, PSFTP, Plink, Pageant, PuTTYgen). Do I need all these programs or do I just download putty.exe?

1) Yes.

2) Yes.