XF 1.1 Network Solutions wiped out MySql database.

[BGL]

Got the error below. After talking to Network solutions, they were migrating to another server and my MySql database was corrupted. They said they had no back up. You would think they'd do a back up when moving but apparently not. I have no recent backups since I built the forum a year ago and last change I made to Xenforo and add-ons. I had set the forum for daily backup. I thought the "snapshot" would give me the entire website back as of the day of the "snapshot" but NS says that only backs up FTP files.

Mike suggested following and I'll pass that on to engineer NS has assigned to problem.

http://programming.mvergel.com/2012/05/mysql-error-incorrect-information-in.html#.UeKxdVOrtSB

Would NS have a backup somewhere? What is the schedule for backups for the web hosting like NS and would my XenForo database be there somewhere?

An exception occurred: Mysqli prepare error: Incorrect information in file: './olyc_xf_db/xf_option.frm' in /data/15/1/43/0/1858000/user/2017422/htdocs/library/Zend/Db/Statement/Mysqli.php on line 77

1. Zend_Db_Statement_Mysqli->_prepare() in Zend/Db/Statement.php at line 115
2. Zend_Db_Statement->__construct() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Mysqli.php at line 381
3. Zend_Db_Adapter_Mysqli->prepare() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 478
4. Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->query() in Zend/Db/Adapter/Abstract.php at line 825
5. Zend_Db_Adapter_Abstract->fetchOne() in XenForo/Error.php at line 50
6. XenForo_Error::unexpectedException() in XenForo/Application.php at line 295
7. XenForo_Application::handleException()

 

[Biker]

Why should the hosting company be responsible for making backups. Unless it's specifically specified in your contract with the hosting company, you should always assume backups are YOUR responsibility.

 

[BGL]

Why should the hosting company be responsible for making backups. Unless it's specifically specified in your contract with the hosting company, you should always assume backups are YOUR responsibility.

I did have it set for daily backups but apparently Network Solutions does not include the MySql database part of the daily backup. The "Website Snapshot" is just the FTP files.

As for hosting company backups, if I were going to migrate to another server, I would make sure I did a backup. I would have thought NS would do the same.

But here we are and the questions above.

 

[psTubble27]

Brutal. You must have some recourse to superior tech leads at NS, they cannot just lose people's backups like that. You'll probably have some clause in the contract in your favor, about this.

 

[BGL]

They worked on yesterday and today and kind of acknowledged they caused the problem. Fact that I hadn't done any software changes and it was all from NS's migration seemed to be important to them. They asked for the XenForo passwords but I don't know what they can see if the database is gone.

So they assigned it to an engineer and bumped it up a level. When I said "So I've lost the website" the reply was...let's not assume that until we work on it some more. As far as contract stuff, this is Network Solutions. I'm sure the contract is written so they have no liability. My guess is they will try to fix it but after a few hours engineering time will just give the usual "Do your backups" lecture and say sorry.

I'm curious if NS, or other webhosting, would be doing server backups for their purposes and might have a copy from a month(?) ago. I'd be happy if they can restore from that. Is it possible to get anything of value out of the corrupted database files?

 

[psTubble27]

Remember that you can always use public-relations against them, as this thread is already doing. Anybody who reads this thread in their right mind will think twice about choosing NS for anything ever in the future. If you gently nudge them to understand that they will incur this, if they don't help you, you should get good treatment no matter what the contract says.

 

[BGL]

Remember that you can always use public-relations against them, as this thread is already doing. Anybody who reads this thread in their right mind will think twice about choosing NS for anything ever in the future. If you gently nudge them to understand that they will incur this, if they don't help you, you should get good treatment no matter what the contract says.

If they lost it they lost it. I'm hoping that web hosting companies back up their servers at least monthly and they'll have a copy of my database or that some one here has some suggestions for recovering corrupted databases similar to Mike's suggestion which I'll pass on to the engineer when I talk to him on Monday.

 

[Biker]

Remember that you can always use public-relations against them, as this thread is already doing. Anybody who reads this thread in their right mind will think twice about choosing NS for anything ever in the future. If you gently nudge them to understand that they will incur this, if they don't help you, you should get good treatment no matter what the contract says.

Phooey. It's incumbent upon the user to ensure they have backups. Stuff happens. Moaning about how the hosting company didn't do a backup is no excuse for a site owner/admin who failed to do so. Yes, in this case there were backups, but the OP didn't check them to ensure they were good or what would be needed to do a site restoration.

Site owners constantly demand cheap hosting solutions from hosting companies. If you're paying 5 bucks a month for a VPS, please tell me how much extra a hosting company should charge to ensure backups are done for every single account they may handle? I'd wager if they were to do so, you wouldn't be paying 5 bucks a month. You'd be paying more like 50.

This is a harsh lesson to be learned by an admin. Don't let it go to waste by crying about the hosting company. Do your job. Ensure your backups are being done and ensure that they contain exactly what you'd need to restore your site from a catastrophic failure.

 

[BGL]

Phooey. Harsh. Crying etc.

When one uses the hosting companies "Daily Website Backup" utility, fair to assume it means "Daily Website Backup".

As for cheap, not Network Solutions, the reason for going with them would be performance, security and data integrity.

Interesting that NS does not take your attitude. They are treating it as a NS problem. I had made no changes. If I had been making changes, I would have done a back up prior. Same should be true on hosting side. The database loss was entirely on their end and they have assumed responsibility for it and have an engineer working on it.

But the questions are about solutions though. Would the hosting company do monthly(?) backups that would include the website database? Would they have offsite storage? Can the corrupted database be fixed?

 

[psTubble27]

If they lost it they lost it. I'm hoping that web hosting companies back up their servers at least monthly and they'll have a copy of my database or that some one here has some suggestions for recovering corrupted databases similar to Mike's suggestion which I'll pass on to the engineer when I talk to him on Monday.

Even the most common system admins have periodic (at least monthly) backups, as you have said. Only if they were apocalyptically unprofessional would your stuff be truly lost. At this point your case is probably just an inconvenience they don't want to deal with, when they have so much else (understandably) on their plate. Your job is to convince them that your case is worth more resolved, than unresolved. That's what this is about.

A corrupted database might, or might not be of much use, but in a worst case, you just ask for the month prior's database. At some point going back far enough the database will be fine.

 

[BGL]

Even the most common system admins have periodic (at least monthly) backups, as you have said. . A corrupted database might, or might not be of much use, but in a worst case, you just ask for the month prior's database. At some point going back far enough the database will be fine.

Still my beating heart...even a month ago would fine.

Have to say NS, so far has been good about it, saying it is their fault, bumping it up get it fixed. If, as you say, there's a month old server backup around and they can use that to restore it, that would be fine. NS's plan is to get it all back so can't complain about their response. They could have bikers about it like Biker and there would not be anything I could do about it.

 

[BGL]

NS could not repair the database.

They do daily backups of the entire server and the database should be there.

They've created another ticket to request a restore from that server backup. They said it's an "involved" process.

So how "involved" is it to find the database file in an entire server backup?

 

[imno007]

Good luck! While I agree with others here that it's always a good idea to make sure you do your own backups and have local copies, I'm of the opinion that if a host is migrating everything from one server to another it would probably be common-sense of them to do a backup of everything first.

 

[MattW]

Good luck! While I agree with others here that it's always a good idea to make sure you do your own backups and have local copies, I'm of the opinion that if a host is migrating everything from one server to another it would probably be common-sense of them to do a backup of everything first.

or at least give you some forewarning to ensure you have time to make your own backups for this very situation.

 

[TPerry]

When one uses the hosting companies "Daily Website Backup" utility, fair to assume it means "Daily Website Backup".

Actually, I would assume that they are referring strictly to the website (the information stored in the web server holding location) and not any associated data bases. If it was the latter, I would expect them to refer to it as a data backup (which would encompass both).
That's the reason I do daily dumps of mine and then transfer them to my remote server and to the house (to the house every other day now). Whenever I make a major change to the structure of the site (/var/www/xxxx) I then will archive that up and transfer it to the server and house also. I don't depend on anyone else to do it - that way I know it's done right.

 

[psTubble27]

You guys are talking about best practices, whereas BGL is talking about the professionalism of the hosting service. Nobody can say that 'losing' the client database with nothing but an 'ooops' for a response is professional, although it sounds like NS is trying to pick up the slack now.

 

[BGL]

So NS does daily backups of the entire server and restored the forum database from their backup day prior to the migration. Whew! Dodged a bullet.

 

[MattW]

So NS does daily backups of the entire server and restored the forum database from their backup day prior to the migration. Whew! Dodged a bullet.

At least you are back online and you can now put your own backup solution in place.

 

[BGL]

At least you are back online and you can now put your own backup solution in place.

Set the automated database for "Entire Website" and "Database", two separate spots on the NS web site account management tools. Looked at the list and apparently NS put two backups from different days into the backups directory already.

 

[MattW]

Is the backup directory on a separate machine?