by Franky Branckaute on December 21st, 2009
Regularly backing up your database and files is one of the most important things to do when running a website. One never knows what could happen and the words have become infamous:
I was sure I had a backup.
Most database plugins for WordPress offer the option to weekly backup your database and even email it to you but if you have a popular site, you might want to prefer a more frequent backup routine. Imagine how many posts and comments Gawker would lose if they only kept weekly backups and suffered problems the 6th day after their last backup.
Another problem with all database plugins is that they will not backup your files. With server storage space being really cheap nowadays, you can easily have several backup procedures in place, even if you host many pictures on your blog.
Personally I have three different, totally automated backup routines, using cron jobs:
- Daily backup
- Weekly backup
- Monthly backup
The reason why I also use weekly and monthly backups is because if you have a corrupted database, probably your daily backups will be corrupted and unusable. This can happen on sites you do not use on a daily basis.
Daily backups are overwritten every 7 days, weekly and monthly backups are stored with attached timestamp.
Because most web hosting companies offer cPanel in their package, this tutorial is based on cPanel but the syntax is the same for Plesk and other backends.
What Are Cron Jobs
From Wikipedia:
Cron is driven by a crontab, a configuration file that specifies shell commands to run periodically on a given schedule.
Backing up your database.
In your cPanel (http://yoururl/cpanel) under the header Advanced Tools, you will find a link Cron Jobs. Click this link or click the icon on the right if your cPanel is setup with icons.
On the next page choose Advanced (Unix Style). There is no real difference between both options, the needed attention level is the same and in both simple and advanced you have to fill in the correct command.
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Categories: Backups
Tags: Backups, Howto, tips, Tutorials
by jim on September 26th, 2008
I’m filing this post under “backup” because we’ve been told many times over to backup your drive like a month or so. Please please do it now if you haven’t. OMG, am I sounding like your dentist (!), well, he’s right when he tells you to brush your teeth at least 3 times a day… and floss!!! har har har.
Ok, ’nuff about teeth, backup these days are equally important though. If you’ve been situated where there was “hair pulling” and “table banging” because you failed to backup, here’s a tool that may make you avoid that horrific episode.
The Imation Apollo Pro WX Hard Drive.
It’s a USB wireless hard drive (comes in 250GB to 1TB storage capacity) that you can hide anywhere within 30 feet AND STILL be able to access as if you’ve got your own “data cloud” at home. Comes pre-packed with data security features that ensures you private and sole access to it. No worries about the neighbors trying to peek in and create havoc with your files.
Right now, it works with the Dell Latitude and XPS models AND with Kensington’s four-port Wireless USB Docking Station. Soon enough, I’m sure it will expand its compatibility to a lot of PCs and notebooks.
It will be available Q4 of 2008. No price listed yet.
Categories: Backups
by David Peralty on May 10th, 2007
Robert Nyman talks about Amazon’s S3 service, which provides pretty much anyone with a great online storage system and talks about their upcoming pricing changes, which will make it even more affordable for some people.
Basically, what this means is that I pay about 20 – 24$ a year for a safe and reliable backup of about 10 GB of data. Not too shabby, eh? If you’re looking for safe and very cheap backup, I would really recommend Amazon S3. No need to worry about malfunctioning external disk drives, burning backup CDs/DVDs all the time or other issues. Transfer the files to Amazon and you’re safe!
There are also recommendations for various tools you can use to access the S3 service. I, for one, am excited to give the service a try to back up all my personal photos, coding projects and design work. Check out Ryan’s post for more details.
Categories: Backups
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