Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › A too small backup?
Tagged: wp backup
- This topic has 9 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by RonnyMac.
-
AuthorPosts
-
December 14, 2012 at 3:49 pm #5285willyrParticipant
Many of the plugins suggest regular SQL backups, and this I do. My http://www.all-about-ottawa.com WP site has 80+ pages and tons of slideshows and photos, yet, when I do an SQL backup, the backup file is only 480 K or so. That seems to be an awfully small file to c/u that much info.
Am I missing something? Any help much appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill
December 14, 2012 at 5:36 pm #5299AnitaKeymasterI don't back up the SQL as often, but I use the Export function under Tools and I export everything. I only use the SQL backup every so often. Have you tried the regular export function? Under Genesis - you can Export your theme and SEO settings also.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
December 14, 2012 at 11:57 pm #5358MarcParticipant480K seems acceptable. Your "SQL backup" contains only text. No image files are backed up when you backup the db.
December 15, 2012 at 6:12 pm #5480Robert NeuMemberIf you want to make a complete backup of your site you'll need to do more than export the database. There are a number of different ways you can accomplish this. I personally perform backups at the server level but you might find it easier to use a plugin.
Some plugins you can check out:
http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-backup-to-dropbox/
If you're interested in backing up via command line here's some information that can get you headed in the right direction:
http://lifehacker.com/5885392/automatically-back-up-your-web-site-every-night
http://theme.fm/2011/06/a-shell-script-for-a-complete-wordpress-backup-4/
Hope that helps!
December 16, 2012 at 8:26 pm #5652willyrParticipantAnita C - thanks, I am going to have to come up with another backup method.
Marc, thanks, didn't know it wouldn't back up photos.
FAT Media - very much appreciate the links to back up sites.
Thanks all.
Bill
http://www.all-about-ottawa.com
December 18, 2012 at 3:25 pm #6001willyrParticipantI'm wondering if using an FTP program to copy critical files to another location might be the easiest way to do WP backups, since I've got installs on a number of sites now.
Can anyone provide a list of the files that should be backed up from a WP site such as those containing photos, text, theme info, any anything else critical?
And, if a site goes south, would simply copying these files back into their original folders on the server result in a rebuild?
I thank you.
Bill
December 18, 2012 at 3:45 pm #6006AnitaKeymasterThis is what I do monthly. I go to Tools - Export - All and download that. I then go to my Genesis settings - Export - All and save that to my hard drive. If I've made any customization to the theme - I use FTP and copy my theme over. That's all I do. I don't really understand the fuss people make about exporting/backing up content. These steps are easy enough. If something happens - just do a fresh install of WP, add your theme, import your content and there you have it.
*additional note - I FTP my plugin folder also.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
December 19, 2012 at 1:22 pm #6228willyrParticipantThank you Anita C.
Please forgive my ignorance if you will. Does the Tools – Export function for sure export all photos, graphics etc? That's what I'm trying to ascertain.
I have done as you suggest, and that seems pretty straightforward, as long as the tools grab all the data including text content and photos.
Good idea on FTP of the plugins folder.
Any other files should be ftp'd?
Thanks for your patience.
Bill
December 19, 2012 at 1:25 pm #6230AnitaKeymasterYes, it brings it all over. You could always create a test site. Export the site and import the contents into your test site to see all the files - especially if you want to see how that process works. I don't like using the backup programs because depending on what hosting company you use, sometimes the time you spend trying to haggle and make things work - you could have just done it the "old fashioned" way and been done with it.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
February 7, 2013 at 11:43 am #18694RonnyMacMemberRegular backup on a WP install may be the single most important function of a site developer. That said, there are umpteen twenty different ways to backup.
The key is to understand which files need to be backed up and where. The critical files are the site's database, config.php file, and images. Pretty much everything else can be duplicated and rebuilt rather quickly if you have those files backed up offsite.
I keep a replica of each site I manage (dozens) on my Mac using MAMP. That way, the entire site is backed up locally and can be used for offline development purposes (including plugins), too. Also, I use the Amazon S3 for WordPress plugin which replicates a site's images to an Amazon S3 account, and modifies links so Amazon acts as a mini-CDN (content delivery network), which reduces the site's server load on graphic intensive pages. And, because it uploads images to the site and Amazon, that serves as yet another backup for the site's images and assets (usually some JavaScript, and CSS files, etc.).
Automating the database backup is straightforward, and there are a number of apps which create a database backup daily, and will email the DB. I use WP-DBManager. That gets a fresh DB backup each day. The config.php file doesn't change much, so that's easily backed up manually.
The difficulty in automating a backup is getting files, especially image files, plugins, and themes, off the site's servers to a separate location; to your local backup, preferably. I use a combination of an sFTP app and an Automator function to make it as painless as possible.
ronnymac
—
Ron McElfresh
Honolulu, HI
—
http://mac360.com/
http://mcelfresh.org/
http://mcsolo.com/
http://pixobebo.com/
http://noodlemac.com/ -
AuthorPosts
- The forum ‘General Discussion’ is closed to new topics and replies.