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Author Topic: How can I know if I the backups I am doing will work?  (Read 192 times)
Jacopo
italian dude
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« on: May 15, 2008, 02:28:09 PM »

I have a forum (phpbb with mysql database) hosted here at Lunarpages since january 2007.. this is my second year here and I must say everything went fine.
I never experienced a single problem, and the staff was very helpful when I needed it. Furthermore, reading this forum helped me a lot with those little hassles I initially experienced (as every beginner do). So this thumb up is for you guys  Thumbs Up

Ok, now my question:

(1) I would like to know if all the backups I did would work properly if tomorrow I'll need them. Am I doing backups correctly?

I do a backup of my forum every 3 months.

This is what I do everytime:
- I log in at lunarpages.com and then I go to CPanel
- I click on "Backups"
- I click on "Download a home directory Backup" and on "mydatabasename" (the link under "Download a MySQL Database Backup").. and I download those two compressed files.

This is all I do.

On the last backup I did, one was called backup-mydomainname-4-27-2008.tar.gz (size 189 mb) and the other one mydatabasaname.sql.gz (size 10,4 mb).

I think I don't have an "Email Domain Forwarder" nor "Filter Backup", so I never click under "Download Email Domain Forwarder or Filter Backup".. (2) is it ok if I don't download them? Or do I have to save them as well to make my backups working properly if I need to install the forum again?

I never click on "Generate/Download a Full Backup" as well, because I guess it just create the backup in my webspace and doesn't allows me to download it. (3) Am I right? Furthermore, I am confused by that page.. why does it asks my email, for example? Smile

.. last question.. (4) How can I try if my last backup work? What do I have to do, step to step, to create a copy of my forum from my last backup (just to see if it would work if recreated from my backup)?

Thank you for your time,
Jacopo
« Last Edit: May 15, 2008, 02:38:26 PM by Jacopo » Logged
katrina1
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« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2008, 04:22:34 AM »

From what you describe, yes the backups would work tomorrow. You are doing it correctly. You may want to automate it with a cron job and backup the database once a week instead (files rarely change). See http://www.lunarforums.com/lunarpages_how_tos/site_and_mysql_backups_via_cron-t22118.0.html

You can see if you have any forwarders or filters defined in Cpanel under Mail. If you don't have any, there is no need to back them up.

A full download backs up files, databases, email, etc., everything on the account, and puts the backup under your root folder where it can be downloaded via FTP. It asks for an email address so it can email you when the backup is done just so you know. If you don't want to be emailed, don't enter an email address there.

Actual testing is not necessary. You can unzip a backup file and check that everything appears to be there. If you really want to test, upload it to a new subfolder, unzip the file, create a new database and add the same dbuser to it, import the .sql file from the backup into the new database, edit the config.php file and database to the correct new path and dbname.
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