XF 1.3 Why is my WHM backup SO BIG!

[NeoCHI]

So recently I setup a weekly backup of my site in WHM but I've realized they're HUGE...I just want to know if this is normal and what I can do to make it smaller cause I can't even scp locally at this size.

Here's some stats of my forum:

~30k members
~1 million posts
~100k threads

This is the only site on my dedicated server and the complete backup tar file is 11G!

Here's some settings I have set for my backup that might make a difference:

Backup Bandwidth Data - enabled
Backup Bandwidth Data - enabled
Backup SQL Databases - Per Account Only

Is this size normal? What can I do to lower the size but would still allow me to restore my site if anything happens.

 

[dawg]

My database alone is 15 gig

So yes this seems normal, you are backing files also with WHM.

 

[Mike Edge]

Always make just a dump of your database too. If in the event MySQL times out "goes away" during the backup, WHM sees it as completed and will save it that way leaving you to find a incomplete database in the event of a restore.

 

[TPerry]

A simple cron job with a script works wonders and is usually much more reliable than a web based backup interface (as @Mike Edge correctly pointed out).

 

[AndyB]

So recently I setup a weekly backup of my site in WHM but I've realized they're HUGE...I just want to know if this is normal and what I can do to make it smaller cause I can't even scp locally at this size.

Here's some stats of my forum:

~30k members
~1 million posts
~100k threads

This is the only site on my dedicated server and the complete backup tar file is 11G!

Here's some settings I have set for my backup that might make a difference:

Backup Bandwidth Data - enabled
Backup Bandwidth Data - enabled
Backup SQL Databases - Per Account Only

Is this size normal? What can I do to lower the size but would still allow me to restore my site if anything happens.

Something is very wrong as your database backup should be about 600MB uncompressed.

Do you have SSH access on your server? If so, you should be using mysqldump to backup your database.

 

[x3sphere]

I agree on using mysqldump. My database size is ~40GB and I have no problems backing it up.

That said, 11 GB for a forum with 1 million posts doesn't seem normal to me. Did you run a different forum system on it prior to XF? vB used to store attachments in the DB by default.

 

[Sheratan]

Don't forget to put your site in maintenance mode before dumping database.

 

[AndyB]

Don't forget to put your site in maintenance mode before dumping database.

That is not required when using mysqldump.

 

[Sheratan]

That is not required when using mysqldump.

I like to play safe.

 

[AndyB]

I like to play safe.

Closing your forum to use mysqldump is not safer. The mysqldump function automatically prevents any database operations while performing a backup.

 

[Walter]

Something is very wrong as your database backup should be about 600MB uncompressed.

Just a note: the WHM backup not only contains the database - maybe the users on his site use attachments heavily?

@NeoCHI, another thing to check in WHM is if you use backup retention, e.g. keep several daily/weekly/monthly backups