How to backup your website

[areidmtm]

Everyone should backup their sites regularly! It's quick and easy and will give you peace of mind. Login into cPanel (www.yourdomain.com/securecontrolpanel) and follow this instructional video.

http://bluehost.com/demo/cpanel_xskin_backup.htm

Then keep your files in a safe place. You should keep your files in several places just in case. (Home, Work and somewhere offsite)

Mozy (https://mozy.com/registration/free/) is a great tool that will automatically encrypt and backup your files off of your hard drive. It's free and really easy to use. The free account comes with 2GB of space! Also check out the referral program. The more people you get to sign up, the more space you get. (If you feel so inclined, you can sign up with my referral ID, M3AH46 and you will get an extra 256mb! :D)

[Hamjat]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.

[silentcollision]

I've got three backups of my sites in two different houses, not including online backups. I'm not risking losing my content.

[areidmtm]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.

Bluehost is automatically doing backups for you, daily, weekly and monthy. But it is also a good idea to do them yourself. Thing might happen on BH end so it's just a good extra precaution to have several copies for yourself.

[felgall]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.

Bluehost do backups of your site for their benefit eg if the box crashes completely and they need to restore all the sites from that box onto a new one. All of the files from all the sites on that computer could potentially be jumbled together on the backup. Also you have no way of telling when they take a backup. Basically their requirements for keeping backups of your site are different from your requirements for keeping a backup of your site. If you were to accidentally delete some files from your site and then asked Bluehost to restore them for you then if they were able to locate a suitable backup and restore it for you then they would be justified in charging you for that service since you are taking staff away from their regular responsibilities to perform a task that is really your responsibility.

For static wweb pages you are best to create them using a web editor on your computer and then upload the finished pages to your site. Doing this means that you already have a copy of all of the static content on your own computer and only need to have a backup plan for the database content.

Most of my site is static and so I usually only take a database backup only every couple of weeks.

NEVER RELY ON SOMEONE ELSE BACKING UP YOUR DATA FOR YOU - ALWAYS TAKE YOUR OWN BACKUPS. With your own backups you are in control.

[Hamjat]

Good to know. I will definitely make it a habit to backup my sites now.

[mantisinc]

I have already backed my website up twice...always a good idea ;)
Thanks for the head up though, didn't realise cPanel had an auto backup function.

[lunatinker]

I've got three backups of my sites in two different houses, not including online backups. I'm not risking losing my content.
your site : http://www.silentcollision.com/
lacks an index for /www or /public_html or .htacess forwarding/aliasing.
er.....nice looking sites too! i don't backup anything. not until i have content. lol:) :o :D

[KKEN]

I have a set of backups on 3 CD's (rewritable) and on 3 different PC's. This subject is a sore spot for me. I have had the experience where one of my early hosts had a catastropic failure of a server. Complete hardware failure and their backups were hosed as well. (at least that was what the email stated) Any changes I made on the site via control panel/file manager were gone too! (had the bad habit of just doing html changes remotely and didnt wait to do it when I got home)
I increment my backups and I rotate 3 cds. (in case one of them gets bad)
Just ordered a new 250GB WD external drive and will utilize it as well.
KKEN

[borderline]

newbie question:
if i back up my coppermine database, apart from the settings, it backs up all the pictures as well, right?
does anyone knows how long would it take to back up an entire coppermine gallery with more than 2000 pictures? :o
will I get CPU errors while backing up? if I do, do I have to start all over again or is there a resume download? :confused:

[dual]

umm just 1 thing if our account has alot and i mean alot of files say over 4 GB of data that will take hours to backup to my local machine

[felgall]

Presumably most of that data remains unchanged from one week to the next. Once you have a complete backup of your site on your computer you only really need to download any changes that have been made since the last backup when you run the next backup and apply those changes to the backup you already have.

[silentcollision]

your site : http://www.silentcollision.com/
lacks an index for /www or /public_html or .htacess forwarding/aliasing.
er.....nice looking sites too! i don't backup anything. not until i have content. lol:) :o :D

I run far more than that one website, and its down for a re-design. I also do web design and development for other people, which I backup for their reference as well as mine.

Seriously, all you had to do was do some quick research and you'd see that I run an image hosting site, which I backup, rather than trying to undermine my opinion.

[dixieau]

From one who only backups sporadically, I would definitely suggest backups!

Yesterday I was fiddling with php code and crashed my main site, baring in mind I have 6 in all. My backup was from 27 Feb (I forgot to do one before fiddling which is my usual practice and usually only backup the site I am working on).

I resorted to Bluehost restoring their daily backup, 4.5 hours and 4 or 5 different reinstalls later we finally succeeded after moving to a level 1 tech! Something just kept going wrong (no idea what).

My lesson, you just cannot rely on BH backups alone, if I had have had a more current one I could have restored the one domain that needed it, not the whole account.

NB. BH team were absolutely marvellous yesterday, they went above and beyond in my opinion to help me out when I was solely responsible for the problem. Thanks BH (I am glad I am renewing with you guys, I just wish you had mutli-domain/cpanel accounts!)

Now I am heading off to try and find a good tutorial on how to setup cron job to backup for me! Anybody know a good one?

[zenne]

seems good :D

[microbyte]

Is there any Script/Program that'll automatically do backups?

I liked the System Backup thing, but is it possible to make that automatic or something?

Thanks!

[betiryan]

Unless things have changed in the last 6 months or so, if your account is >4gb, the system backup will not work. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but the last time I went to do a system backup, I got and error, called BH and was told that my account is too large to do a system backup. :(

I a monthly backup for my pubic_html and one for my coppermine gallery if I've added any pics. It is of course ftp'd to an external hard drive.

Beti
http://vetstribute.com

[davidp]

Hi all!

I'm seriously confused right now...

I know that I must do my own backups, but it beats me as to which backup I should download? I just want to download everything. So which one is best: "system backup" (daily), "full backup" or "home directory backup"?

Thanks!
David

[davidp]

Hi all!

I'm seriously confused right now...

I know that I must do my own backups, but it beats me as to which backup I should download? I just want to download everything. So which one is best: "system backup" (daily), "full backup" or "home directory backup"?

Thanks!
David
I did a system backup... which seems to have worked perfectly! It was a tar.gz file which compressed just over 100mb down to 35mb--which I didn't expect. So it looks like I'll carry on doing system backups

[davidp]

Sorry to raise this again... but I was wondering if the "daily" system backup backs up databases and forwarders? Sorry if that's a dumb question...

Many thanks,
David

[allen.jiang]

Hello Areidmtm,
I have a question that whether I can backup all the product catalogue if I do my website backup as you said on page-1.
I backuped my website on Mar.16th, and I download the home backup file with 21.1M, but when I do the home backup today, the file is 12.5M only. I'm confused why the file became smaller after I uploaded additional thousands of pictures.
Could you help me clarify it ? thank you in advance !

[areidmtm]

Hello Areidmtm,
I have a question that whether I can backup all the product catalogue if I do my website backup as you said on page-1.
I backuped my website on Mar.16th, and I download the home backup file with 21.1M, but when I do the home backup today, the file is 12.5M only. I'm confused why the file became smaller after I uploaded additional thousands of pictures.
Could you help me clarify it ? thank you in advance !

You might want to ask Bluehost support that with live chat. I'm assuming that it has something to do with temporary files and fluctuating emails and databases.

[Jim]

Sorry to raise this again... but I was wondering if the "daily" system backup backs up databases and forwarders? Sorry if that's a dumb question...

Many thanks,
David

Yes we get the databases and forwarders. We would have alot of upset customers if we did not get them as well.
:cool:

[packermanvn]

Everyone should backup their sites regularly! It's quick and easy and will give you peace of mind. Login into cPanel (www.yourdomain.com/securecontrolpanel) and follow this instructional video.

http://bluehost.com/demo/cpanel_xskin_backup.htm

Then keep your files in a safe place. You should keep your files in several places just in case. (Home, Work and somewhere offsite)

Mozy (http://mozy.com/) is a great tool that will automatically encrypt and backup your files off of your hard drive. It's free and really easy to use. The free account comes with 2GB of space! Also check out the referral program. The more people you get to sign up, the more space you get. (If you feel so inclined, you can sign up with my referral ID, M3AH46 and you will get an extra 256mb! :D)

My data over 20GB, I cant backup full. backup daily not have full all my data which I need :(

[Falcon4]

In more understandable words, I'm having the same problem. I have 14gb of data on my site, and I can't do a backup. I never have been able to, either. It's always telling me it's too large, and when I try to download a daily backup, I get "Unexpected end of archive" when the download "finishes". I don't even know what the daily/weekly backups are... changed files?

Any ideas? How can I get a full backup?

[areidmtm]

In more understandable words, I'm having the same problem. I have 14gb of data on my site, and I can't do a backup. I never have been able to, either. It's always telling me it's too large, and when I try to download a daily backup, I get "Unexpected end of archive" when the download "finishes". I don't even know what the daily/weekly backups are... changed files?

Any ideas? How can I get a full backup?

For a larger sites, unfortunately you'll have to do the backup manually with FTP

[Falcon4]

http://s.no-ip.ca/i.php/s/TFR13D.gif (http://s.no-ip.ca)

You HAVE to be kidding me. o_O

Well, I'm downloading my delete_files (recycle bin for auto-deleted files) backup now... that's chopping about 2gb off the list. Then I guess I'll get to work downloading the whole site.

I've been trying to look for a TreeSize-like program for FTP, something that can give me a tangible view of the size of the whole structure. My database counts only about 9gb in use, yet cPanel says I'm using 14 GB. I kinda doubt that there's 3gb of thumbnails! I would also like to be able to compare what my FTP client downloaded against what's on my hard drive (size and file-count wise)... does anyone know of a TreeSize for FTP?

Also... what are Daily and Weekly backups? =\

[shahzadmasih]

Hi, this post is very informative; however I would like some specific information. If someone can help me then please send me a private message. Best Regards,

[madness.productions]

How about you gzip what you want to copy to your pc on the server and then download it, it's just as fast as doing big backup, however you can backup what you want to, it's just not as easy to restore and you'll need to backup the databases seperatly.

and I was also told you need ssh access to use the gzip feature on bluehost!

[viphard]

Wow now i have to study how to back up and starting backup my website :p

[whiteknite]

What I do is keep a copy of my websites on a flash drive and update it BEFORE I update my site. Then I just copy & paste onto Bluehost's server.

[Falcon4]

Just as an aside, that's great for people who update their own content, but for a website like mine whose content-I-created only occupies about 1mb (the site code) and all the other 12GB of data is user-created, I have a small problem with backups and cPanel not doing them properly. :P

[Bavarian]

For a larger sites, unfortunately you'll have to do the backup manually with FTP
Please elaborate on the FTP backup suggestion.

Will the backup be compressed or are you recommending that we just download a duplicate of the web-site?

I'm new to Blue-Host, but when I tried the backup feature, I was told that my 6.5 gigs were too large to backup. I envision having MUCH more data on the web-site once I complete uploading everything, but I would hate to lose it in a crash.

Will the FTP programs convert the web to either zip or tar.gz format, or will it just duplicate (same size) what I have on-line?

Thanks in advance, Bavarian

[Basil]

Why would you need to back up that much stuff, if you already have a local copy of your website then you only need to back up what's changed since your last backup. No, you aren't going to be able to compress that on the server because that would use a ton of cpu.

Unless you're running a file hosting service there's no reason for your site to be that big anyways.

..or if you're using your website as storage space..

I'll tell you though, I've never lost any data ever in my two years here.

[Falcon4]

Still need a way to backup my website... so close with torrents, but yet so far. I'd love to be able to find where on the server the backups are stored so I can make a copy of my current backup then torrent it... but noooh. >.<

Can't even "tar czf" my site either... it kills the **** process after like 300mb. OY!

It's like doing a full, reliable backup is **** near impossible with a site as big as I have... :(

[KMadvisor]

Hi, I must have done the dreaded "something" in making a very minor amendment to a bloc kwithin my ite. Strangely, everything now overlaps on the left side.

I think the easiest fix is to delete the site folder and install a backup.
But how?

[mcoyle]

FYI, I use a cron script to backup my site every night at 2 am. I run a command like:

tar cfz mysite.tar.gz public_html/mysite

then every few days I ftp in and download the tar.gz to keep a local copy. My site is under 1G, so I don't know what happens as the file size creep up near 4G.

But I also think that those of you with these huge multi-gig sites should look into co-location of your own servers. Expecting an $80 a year web host to service that type of site is ticking time bomb.

On to my question.... :)

Is there anyway to cron the backup of mysql databases? Doing it manually with phpmyadmin is a pain.

Edited MINUTES later: Found the solution in this thread (http://www.bluehostforum.com/showthread.php?t=336&highlight=mysql)


Thanks,
Michael

[annie]

I do back my site up quite regular, but my site was hacked today and I had to resort to a BlueHost backup.

I was a bit frustrated to be told that the last back up was done on the 22nd of June and today is the 25th. I thought BH did a daily backup? I run a member based photography site where they upload images as well as use the forums, so in essence we lost three days forum postings and images.

I read in the original post of this thread that BH do back up daily, so why wasn't there a backup to restore from yesterday? or even the day before?

I certainly can't back my site up every day, it's too big to do that regular!

[felgall]

Bluehost do the backups that they needfor their purposes (such as to be able to restore a whole server if the hardware fails). Any backups that you want for your purposes are your responsibility. There is enough space available on a hosting account that you could set up a cron job to automatically backup your database to a folder elsewhere on your hosting if the db is getting updated frequently enough with information important enough that you don't want to lose it. Alternatively you could set up the database script so that it archives the prior content whenever changes are made so as to allow you to undo changes.

[CincyKISS65]

Hello ... and sorry for the dumb question, but....

Is a Full Backup the same as doing both a Home Directory backup AND an SQL Database backup?

Thanks. ;)

[JohnPlace]

Hey guys,

Quick question.

My understanding is that all the Daily Backups available through CPanel are completely contigent upon BlueHost's regular backups. So, in other words, if you choose to download the daily System Backup, you may or may not be getting that day's backup, depending upon the success and frequency of BH's actual backing up of your site.

I spoke to someone at BH about this, and they agreed. Since I've heard other users complain that BH may not always back up your site every day as indicated, does it really make sense to depend upon the daily backups like this?

Doesn't it make more sense to do your own FULL backup through CPanel instead? My understanding is that the FULL backup actually creates a new, complete back-up on demand instead of relying upon BH's previous backing up of your site.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Another quick question: If I select "System Backup" through cPanel, does that include the entire site, including the DB, file structure, all files, etc?

[JohnPlace]

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[areidmtm]

Contact bluehost support with live chat.

[wpatters1229]

I am in the habit of backing up my clients folders and all my local publishing to an external hard drive and then rotating it with another every month. I take one of them off site by having a friend or neighbor keep it. If I go on a trip I take both of them with me. I have other things also backed up such as our financial records (quicken). If you ever talk to someone who was on vacation or out to dinner and came home and the house was burned to the ground you will appreciate the extra effort. My wife just had to spend $950 to get the data off her hard drive that had apple juice spill into it. It was her laptop and was on edge next to a coffee table..... We got the date but it would have been alot cheaper to go buy a drive for $100 and restore. We had to buy the drive too and then use the CDs that where sent from the recovery service.
Makes you a believer in backups

[icedancer]

Hey guys,

Quick question.

My understanding is that all the Daily Backups available through CPanel are completely contigent upon BlueHost's regular backups. So, in other words, if you choose to download the daily System Backup, you may or may not be getting that day's backup, depending upon the success and frequency of BH's actual backing up of your site.

I spoke to someone at BH about this, and they agreed. Since I've heard other users complain that BH may not always back up your site every day as indicated, does it really make sense to depend upon the daily backups like this?

Doesn't it make more sense to do your own FULL backup through CPanel instead? My understanding is that the FULL backup actually creates a new, complete back-up on demand instead of relying upon BH's previous backing up of your site.

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Another quick question: If I select "System Backup" through cPanel, does that include the entire site, including the DB, file structure, all files, etc?

Hi - Below is the front page of the Backup wizard on the new CPanel. It should answer your query.

"Backup

This feature allows you to download a zipped copy of your entire site or parts of it onto your computer.

The following are backed up and included in a zip file for your convenience:

* Home Directory
* MySQL Databases
* Email forwarders configuration
* Email filters configuration"

[revron]

if i backup using the control panel and then copy the backup to my harddrive, can i restore to my hard drive and then work away with expression web on my hard drive and then publush any changes back to my website???

normally, my secretary works on her office pc (thumb drive) using expression web and then publishes to the website.

i am home on my own pc and want to somehow download the complete website to my own local harddrive so that i can do some experimentation on our website and then can teach her what i've done so she can do some new stuff.

so, if i copy a fresh backup of the website to my pc, what tool can i use to restore to my own hard drive such that i can point expression web to it and work away???

i am using windows xp home edition.

thanks in advance!

ron

[eddiemoth]

Every time I back up my database, my site goes down during the back and a few minutes after back up for CPU. I checked with the Tech Support, they want me to update to a high CPU server which you have to pay $25 or something because I can only use CPU 20 seconds in a given minute. Is there anyway I can do this without having my site to go down and not pay $25 more a month just for me to have the ability to back up? I had never have to deal with this when I was with my previous server.

[anandsoft]

Are there any third party tools for backing up a web sites, and databases? I mean, a tool that could be configured to backup several web sites and several databases, and restore the backups as required.

[mshs2]

Thanks to whomever started this much needed discussion thread.

I have an account elsewhere, where my account is Cpanelish. Does anyone know anyway that I can back it up using some other application, so I can stop backing up my account individually?


Thanks in Advance.

[kimsonvu]

I backup by myself by Tar command via ssh.It is quickly and faster than ,also i can choice folder i need backup not all :D

[cdx]

Could you please reply with the specific Tar command and how to access ssh? Are there step-by-step instructions some where? :confused:

[borderline]

I backed up my db (i have a coppermine gallery) via Download a MySQL Database Backup option on control panel, a gz file was downloaded to my hard drive. What's actually on this file?? sorry I haven't got a clue.
what if i want to back up all the pictures on my gallery? are they all on that file? :confused:

[liam]

My site is mainly a forum so all i do is go to my phpbb admin control pannel and back up from there. Lifes easy for me :)

[ang77]

at the backup page from my cpanel, there are so many backup options.
Would someone kindly explain them to me, what the differences and what is the most essensial to backup...well..for a forum.. :)

there are:
daily and weekly system backup... :confused:
Full backup: for keeping a local copy of your account. (i know this one. I've extract the zip file once and got the whole bunch of my files that i see in my ftp directory)
Partial backup: Home directory.. :confused: What is this? and what is it for? it is so big... :eek:
Partial backup: MySQL database backup...


Thank you.

[gordman]

if i back up my coppermine database, apart from the settings, it backs up all the pictures as well, right?
does anyone knows how long would it take to back up an entire coppermine gallery with more than 2000 pictures?
That's a good question, it's actually of the same interest for me.

[Basil]

The pictures are not stored in the database, they're stored in folders under the coppermine directory.

[Brett]

I use my Web Disk all the time to upload and download files from my site. So I have a question.

If our forums were located at "www.example.com/forums" :

Is there any reason that the "forums" folder itself which contains the files for our forum couldn't be downloaded from the Web Disk and saved regularly on a CD, so that if the forum ever gets broken I could just upload that very same folder back into place?

Wouldn't that be a simpler way to backup and restore, without going through all the seemingly "extra steps" of using Bluehost's backup software?

I'm very new at this, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing a very critical set of facts; if so, I'd appreciate knowing what I'm not taking into account.

Thank you! :)

[wildwillie6]

I'm gradually moving my sites over to Wordpress, used more as a content management system than as a blogging tool. My question is this: If I back up a site using cPanel's backup wizard and choose all "full backup" options, does that get all my Wordpress content backed up? I ask because Wordpress seems to contain MySQL and php elements and some other stuff . . . and I'm wondering, does all that get backed up?

[Believer]

I do believe the answer is yes. A full backup includes the databases as well as the files in the /home/yourDomain/public_html/ directories (might be from the ~/home/ directory actually). You can also just back up the SQL data from the PhpMyAdmin panel by exporting the databases if you only want that, much smaller file that way.

[Klutzys]

Hello All,

I am trying to add mod's and have found I made a mistake in one file, however when I restore it restores THE WHOLE WEBSITE!!! How can I restore only one file, the one I goofed on? It creates more work when you restore the whole thing and have to start completely over.

Any ideas?

Tam

[wnpaul]

Is anyone using a second BH account, on a different physical server, as a backup?

I realize that this won't help if the BH data center burns to the ground, or becomes a terrorist target, etc, but it would provide a reasonable degree of safety.

[Believer]

Well, I use the backup wizard weekly or bi-weekly depending on how much developing I am doing to backup the complete site to a zip or .gz (I forget) file, and then via SSH, scp it to my development server. This way I am keeping an archive of my site in various stages as well as protecting myself from the "house burning down".

[EgyClub]

i lost my DB since more than a week

i suddenly logged to CP to find that DB disappeared !!

i contacted BH and they told me they have no backup for me !!!!!!!!!

and also they didn't help me to know how this happened

or even to let me know thorugh the DB LOG

i'm upset and i'm trying to restore an older backup for the full directory through backup wizard

does the full directory backup contain the DB?

[Homer]

The following bash script will ensure you have an exact copy of your remote server backed up locally:

#!/bin/sh

### Edit Me ###
yourlogin="somebody"
yourpass="secret"
yourdomain="example.com"
backups="/mnt/somewhere/"
databases="drpl1 copp1"
### Edit Me ###

old_cd="$(pwd)"

cd "${backups}"
rsync -aHvcz --delete --progress -e ssh ${yourlogin}@${yourdomain}:public_html . # <-- note the trailing dot "."

for db in $databases
do
mysqldump -h ${yourdomain} -u ${yourlogin} -p${yourpass} ${yourlogin}_${db} >${db}.sql
done

cd "${old_cd}"
exit 0
######

Note, that both ssh and mysqldump are multi-platform, so you should be able to do this with either a Linux bash script or a DOS BAT file (and whatever MacOS uses), but remember that Windows uses a back-to-front path separator "\" instead of "/", and the root of the filesystem is "C:\" (or whatever drive letter) rather than "/". Also, variables are set in DOS using "SET varname=value" and referenced as e.g. "ECHO %varname%", instead of the *nix method.

In fact you can even use actual bash scripts on Windows if you install Cygwin.

Also note, that in order to enable remote access to your MySQL database for backup/restore purposes, you will need to add your (home) IP to the whitelist here:

http://${yourdomain}:2082/frontend/bluehost/sql/managehost.html

The beauty of doing this, is that only the first ever backup is huge and takes a long time. Subsequent backups are small and fast, because you are only backing up the changed files.

PS: to restore a backup, you simply do the reverse rsync, i.e.:

cd "${backups}"
rsync -aHvcz --delete --progress -e ssh . ${yourlogin}@${yourdomain}:public_html # <-- note the dot "." now appears just after the word "ssh".

And for the database:

mysql -h ${yourdomain} -u ${yourlogin} -p${yourpass} ${yourlogin}_${db} < ${db}.sql

WARNING: Please be aware that the "--delete" switch means "remove all files from the destination that are not in the source", so if you do not want that to happen (i.e. not a clean backup/restore), then simply omit that switch.

HTH.

[God's Webmaster]

### Edit Me ###
yourlogin="somebody"
yourpass="secret"
yourdomain="example.com"
backups="/mnt/somewhere/"
databases="drpl1 copp1"
### Edit Me ###

old_cd="$(pwd)"

cd "${backups}"
rsync -aHvcz --delete --progress -e ssh ${yourlogin}@${yourdomain}:public_html . # <-- note the trailing dot "."

Question here, Homer -- I have two accounts on two different servers here at BlueHost. Let's say I want to backup Server #1 onto Server #2: would I run this script on Server#2?

Also, do I have to have SSH enabled on my account to run this?

Thanks,

Joel

[Homer]

would I run this script on Server#2?

Yes.


Also, do I have to have SSH enabled on my account to run this?

Yes.

For some reason ssh was enabled on my account without me even asking for it - thanks BlueHost :) ... but I believe one is supposed to request access before it's enabled.

[SWofAZ]

I am on box321, and ALL home directory backups have been disabled in CPanel. Why???? I don't always WANT to do a full backup.

There are other things in CPanel that don't work on this server as well...but that's a topic for a different post.

[canarygirl]

After reading this thread I feel like a complete idiot. I *think* I've backed up my site properly, but want to know how to verify whether I did, in order to proceed with a wordpress upgrade...can anyone please explain how to do this in dumb-speak? lol Thanks very much in advance---:confused: :o

[God's Webmaster]

The first question -- what process did you use, cPanel or some other method? That's the first thing we need to know.

Also, if you use Fantastico or SimpleScripts, they will do a backup (at least of sorts) for you -- but I would still encourage doing your own backup.

What I did for upgrading WordPress (which I had originally installed with Fantastico, and now switched to SimpleScripts) was:

1. Created a directory called "old_updates" and copied the contents of my "updates" folder (where I had installed WordPress) into the "old_updates" folder.

2. Copied the WordPress folder to my computer.

3. Went into cPanel under Backups and downloaded a copy of the database.

4. Upgraded.

I didn't need the backup for the most part, except to snatch a couple snippets of custom code that got overwritten in the template file.

[canarygirl]

The first question -- what process did you use, cPanel or some other method? That's the first thing we need to know.

Also, if you use Fantastico or SimpleScripts, they will do a backup (at least of sorts) for you -- but I would still encourage doing your own backup.

What I did for upgrading WordPress (which I had originally installed with Fantastico, and now switched to SimpleScripts) was:

1. Created a directory called "old_updates" and copied the contents of my "updates" folder (where I had installed WordPress) into the "old_updates" folder.

2. Copied the WordPress folder to my computer.

3. Went into cPanel under Backups and downloaded a copy of the database.

4. Upgraded.

I didn't need the backup for the most part, except to snatch a couple snippets of custom code that got overwritten in the template file.

I used the cpanel to dowload a backup of my site...Do you recommend simple scripts? I was thinking of using the wp auto-upgrade plug in? Which is better? Thanks so much for your help! It's greatly appreciated. :)

[God's Webmaster]

I used the cpanel to dowload a backup of my site...Do you recommend simple scripts? I was thinking of using the wp auto-upgrade plug in? Which is better? Thanks so much for your help! It's greatly appreciated. :)

If you installed WordPress manually, you're probably best off using the auto-upgrade plugin. However, I've never used it, so I can't vouch for how good or bad it is. If you used Fantastico, switch to SimpleScripts. They have instructions at SimpleScripts how to do so, but the basic idea is 1) backup, 2) upgrade to the latest version offered by Fantastico (if you haven't already), 3) install that same version with SimpleScripts, 4) upgrade if one is available.

I use Fantastico and SimpleScripts because I have a dial-up connection and it takes a while to upload a lot of files. Plus, it's simpler because I don't have to create databases or configure it to work with my server or set permissions on anything (usually).

And as to your backup, it should be fine. However, I recommend using the procedure I outlined above as well so that you have a copy of all files you're using now. That way, you can pull out some old code if you want to.

God bless,

Joel

[eddiem]

I did a backup this morning but can't download it.
It is 825meg and bombs out after few percent using the download link.
I also tried with FTP (filezilla) that got a lot further but ultimately it timed out after too many retries. I think the server may still be having overload problems but I wasn't watching when it failed.

later - just checked and the server is dead - I guess that explains it.

Eddie,

[jrisken]

I’ve read every post in this thread looking for the easy answer. It looks like scheduled backups are not an easy thing to come by.

I use Dreamweaver under Windows XP as my development platform. Here is what I do to automate backups from my websites on BH to my development network at home.

I use a combination of two commercial products, WebDrive (www.webdrive.com) and Second Copy (www.cenered.com), and one CRON job. The only thing the combination does not achieve is backups of my email forwarders and filters.

The CRON job makes daily backups of my mySql databases to the root folder of my website.

mysqldump --opt --user=USERNAME --password=PASSWORD DBNAME> /home/MYROOT/backedup.sql

WebDreive, at ($59.95), is an FTP client that can represent your website as a drive letter available under Windows Explorer and thus make your website seem to reside on your local network. Second Copy ($29.95) is a very sophisticated backup program that can retain multiple generations of changed files.

I set up WebDrive always to declare a drive letter for my website at startup.

WebDrive can be used by itself (it has a scheduled backup feature with full and incremental backups), but I prefer to invoke Second Copy on a scheduled basis to copy selected folders from the WebDrive drive letter to my local network drive. Because the CRON job runs daily, Second Copy gets a new copy of the database each day, and because Second Copy can rename earlier versions of a file instead of just deleting them, I have backups of the database (and any other files) going back up to 25 days.

[larryd]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.

Several years ago the IT department of a major New England bank responded to a request for the backup of a Microsoft Access application as of the previous business day, one week prior to that and two weeks prior. All of the backup files they gave us were duplicates of the most current, corrupt file. Their much vaunted "nightly backup" over wrote prior backups! IT never admitted fault nor offered to remediate their process.

I created a utility to automatically compact, repair and backup every Access application as soon as it was closed. That not only assured backups, it brought the frequency of file corruption down sifnigicantly.

The message to take away is that you should trust no one with your data: not your mother, not Bluehost, not anybody; until you have validated the process by actual test.

-Larry-

[jrisken]

I've recently improved my daily CRON dump of a mySql database. It used to be

mysqldump --opt --user=USERNAME --password=PASSWORD DBNAME> /home/MYROOT/backedup.sql

but now it's

mysqldump --opt --user=USERNAME --password=PASSWORD DBNAME | gzip > /home/MYROOT/db1.`date +\%F`.gz

(notice that the characters following 'date' are a space, a plus, a backslash, a percent sign, and an F. It is NOT a backslash followed by a 9 and a 6!)

This produces a gzipped file with a name like 'db1.2008-05-23.gz'

Benefits include an 80% savings on disk space and an ordered sequence of backups that don't overwrite one another.

(I can't take credit for this cleverness since I'm pretty much just a script kiddie on most commands: this incredibly useful bit of syntax was buried elsewhere on the net, and I thought it could use more exposure here.)

The same trick can be played with other commands. I have a CRON job that runs very occasionally to produce an archive of all my subdomains.

tar pzcf /home/MYROOT/pub.`date +\%F`.tgz /home/MYROOT/public_html

[tvance]

I asked for backup and after a long while it sent me an email:

Full Backup Completed

It doesn't look like a file I can save. I don't see any attachments. Now what?

I thought I'd have something to download and save to the external hard drive...

[SimCity]

I asked for backup and after a long while it sent me an email:

Full Backup Completed

It doesn't look like a file I can save. I don't see any attachments. Now what?

I thought I'd have something to download and save to the external hard drive...

Was this through Cpanel or did bluehost do it for you?


Sim

[Ashex]

I fat fingered a backup script I wrote and forgot to set an exclusion of the backup directory and to ignore symbolic links.

So when the backup ran, it backed up the public_html 3 times through the various links bluehost has along with the sql cache, logs, and the backup directory.

I expected a 4GB file. ended up with 27GB

[nitrocrzy]

Grrr......

I get an error when I try and perform a full backup. Tells me I need to free up space. This is the first time out of all these years I have gotten this message so I fired off a ticket to support. They responded and closed the ticket with "For you to manually create a Full Backup, it will not be able to do that unless your account is under about 5 GB.

Thanks,
JXXX XXXXX
Level 1
BlueHost.com
888.401.4678

Most questions can be answered by articles in our forum, knowledgebase, and video tutorials:

Forum: http://www.bluehostforum.com
Knowledgebase: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/kb/
Tutorials: http://www.bluehost.com/tutorials/
Server Status: http://serverstatus.bluehost.com/

When you have a new questions or issue, please open a new support ticket."


How are you guys performing your backups with this new limit?

Help!
My last full backup seems to be corrupted and I have a problem with my site.

[basicxman]

thanks for this, i completely forgot about backing up my site, i dont have much content yet but if i lost the 1000's of lines of PHP code i would be very very upset

well time to checkout that 1TB harddrive i saw at Costco :rolleyes:

[jenny4]

Is there any software which can take backup of whole website

[borderline]

ok, I think I backed up my site. I got a tar file. Is my whole site there, including all my pictures in my coppermine gallery?:confused:

[matteoraggi]

this opensorce is super for backups:
http://www.phpmybackuppro.net

[aliyassa]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.

[matteoraggi]

it depend if you need a backup of a month ago or more or of a week go or more or have backup any day, I think they use this only for crashes of them system, not for anytime clients do error working on it..

[felgall]

Never done a backup...I thought BlueHost is doing the backup for us.


No - BlueHost does full server backups for themselves so they can recover the server if there is a problem with the complete system - if you are extremely lucky their backups may include what you need if you have a problem and need to restore but the chances are that the best they will be able to do will lose you weeks of data.

Each site owner is responsible for making their own backups if they expect to have any say over what data is available to be restored if their site stuffs up.

After all, you have no way of testing the backups that BlueHost make to ensure that your site can be restored correctly and no way of controlling when or even if they run backups. Never rely on someone else to backup your data and always test your backups to make sure that they actually worked.

[borderline]

always test your backups to make sure that they actually worked.

how can I test my backup? I got a tar file that I tried to open and wouldn't open:confused:

[nitrocrzy]

this opensorce is super for backups:
http://www.phpmybackuppro.net

Were you successful in getting this working? I tried but all I can see is the information schema database.
Nevermind.... I was specifying full user name for an individual database.

[Jarmer]

I just have one question regarding backups. I backup my SQL databases through a SSH connection so I can avoid CPU timeout errors. I back them up to .sql files, but I'm wondering about the size.

Are these .sql files compressed versions of the actual database I'm seeing in my database manager on the cpanel? The SQL database in my cpanel is saying it's 125 megs, yet the backed up version I get is 83 megs, and it only goes up VERY slightly week to week as I'm doing more backups.

Is that normal?

[felgall]

The .sql files contain a series of SQL commands to rebuild the database, not an actual copy of the database itself.

[mhJr_]

Thanks for the Sticky!

I was having problems after attempting to back up my website. I kept getting all these broken links. However, I was forgetting key files that this thread pointed out.

Thanks!

[awaisuk]

Everyone should backup their sites regularly! It's quick and easy and will give you peace of mind. Login into cPanel (www.yourdomain.com/securecontrolpanel) and follow this instructional video.

http://bluehost.com/demo/cpanel_xskin_backup.htm

Then keep your files in a safe place. You should keep your files in several places just in case. (Home, Work and somewhere offsite)

http://l1p.info/img1.jpg

Mozy (https://mozy.com/registration/free/) is a great tool that will automatically encrypt and backup your files off of your hard drive. It's free and really easy to use. The free account comes with 2GB of space! Also check out the referral program. The more people you get to sign up, the more space you get. (If you feel so inclined, you can sign up with my referral ID, M3AH46 and you will get an extra 256mb! :D)

Yes, this is very useful, i use it for all my sites and best of all it doesnt take that long aswell.. if your using CPANEL this is a must feature for you to be on the safe side

[GFX-Help]

I found this script a while ago and it's been quiet useful for me...I found it originally on www.justin-cook.com (http://www.justin-cook.com)

A few notes....the bluehost theme is "bluehost" so if you're attempting to try this on your bluehost account it should look like:
$skin = "bluehost"

It says it below, but I'll say it again...this script belongs in your root dir, not anywhere public.

I have not tried going from a bh account to another bluehost account so I can't say if that's an option.

the cron command will look something like:
/ramdisk/bin/php5 /home1/username/filename.php >/dev/null 2>&1
or
/usr/local/bin/php /home/username/filename.php

You might need to play around with finding a command line that works for you (the above are just some examples), also make sure your path is correct, some may have "home1" instead of the standard "home". (you can check in cpanel under "Home Directory")


<?php

// PHP script to allow periodic cPanel backups automatically, optionally to a remote FTP server.
// This script contains passwords. KEEP ACCESS TO THIS FILE SECURE! (place it in your home dir, not /www/)

// ********* THE FOLLOWING ITEMS NEED TO BE CONFIGURED *********

// Info required for cPanel access
$cpuser = "username"; // Username used to login to CPanel
$cppass = "password"; // Password used to login to CPanel
$domain = "example.com"; // Domain name where CPanel is run
$skin = "x"; // Set to cPanel skin you use (script won't work if it doesn't match). Most people run the default x theme

// Info required for FTP host
$ftpuser = "ftpusername"; // Username for FTP account
$ftppass = "ftppassword"; // Password for FTP account
$ftphost = "ftp.example.com"; // Full hostname or IP address for FTP host
$ftpmode = "ftp"; // FTP mode ("ftp" for active, "passiveftp" for passive)

// Notification information
$notifyemail = "you@example.com"; // Email address to send results

// Secure or non-secure mode
$secure = 0; // Set to 1 for SSL (requires SSL support), otherwise will use standard HTTP

// Set to 1 to have web page result appear in your cron log
$debug = 0;

// *********** NO CONFIGURATION ITEMS BELOW THIS LINE *********

if ($secure) {
$url = "ssl://".$domain;
$port = 2083;
} else {
$url = $domain;
$port = 2082;
}

$socket = fsockopen($url,$port);
if (!$socket) { echo "Failed to open socket connection… Bailing out!\n"; exit; }

// Encode authentication string
$authstr = $cpuser.":".$cppass;
$pass = base64_encode($authstr);

$params = "dest=$ftpmode&email=$notifyemail&server=$ftphost&user=$ftpuser&pass=$ftppass&submit=Generate Backup";

// Make POST to cPanel
fputs($socket,"POST /frontend/".$skin."/backup/dofullbackup.html?".$params." HTTP/1.0\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Host: $domain\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Authorization: Basic $pass\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Connection: Close\r\n");
fputs($socket,"\r\n");

// Grab response even if we don't do anything with it.
while (!feof($socket)) {
$response = fgets($socket,4096);
if ($debug) echo $response;
}

fclose($socket);

?>


Hope it helps...

-Sam
GFX-Help.com (http://www.GFX-Help.com)

[al7or]

when i take backup through cpanel, the site is closed itself
and it says
exeeded errors

there is no solution with bluehost

[Sageth]

when i take backup through cpanel, the site is closed itself
and it says
exeeded errors

there is no solution with bluehost

You can do it through SSH. It's MUCH faster and I don't get the exceeded errors. I had a lot of problems with the cpanel option. Everything from CPU exceeeded to corrupt backups. SSH resolved all of them.

[lauramba]

Bluehost is automatically doing backups for you, daily, weekly and monthy. But it is also a good idea to do them yourself. Thing might happen on BH end so it's just a good extra precaution to have several copies for yourself.

That is curious since when my site was hacked I called tech support and they told me they did not have a backup. Hmmm ...

[felgall]

That is curious since when my site was hacked I called tech support and they told me they did not have a backup. Hmmm ...


The backups BlueHost make are for their own use in recovering the server when things go wrong that they are responsible for. It is always best that you have your own backups for those occasions where things go wrong that you are responsible for.

[al7or]

You can do it through SSH. It's MUCH faster and I don't get the exceeded errors. I had a lot of problems with the cpanel option. Everything from CPU exceeeded to corrupt backups. SSH resolved all of them.

can u explain plz how to use ssh?

[daren]

I back up my files usually with FTP. But if it's a wordpress based website, backing up the database will be enough already right?

[felgall]

I back up my files usually with FTP. But if it's a wordpress based website, backing up the database will be enough already right?

That and the wp-content folder (which contains all the customisations to your theme).

[friky19]

The backups BlueHost make are for their own use in recovering the server when things go wrong that they are responsible for. It is always best that you have your own backups for those occasions where things go wrong that you are responsible for.


So, bluehost should respond to this:

http://www.bluehostforum.com/showpost.php?p=61006&postcount=39

[erroring]

I have problem with database backup. when i backup it in cpanel, site goes to CPU Limit and suspends. what can i do? is database backup is a painful php?(as said in suspend page)

[matteoraggi]

which type of site it is? how many mb is db an data? which is the url? how many files they are? how are you doing backup?

[erroring]

which type of site it is? how many mb is db an data? which is the url? how many files they are? how are you doing backup?

is type of site or subject of content important? what do u mean? size of db is about 40 MB (sql query may be 55MB or more if created!!)
back up created from Cpanel : Backups (/frontend/bluehost/backup/index.html) cpanel generate sql and compressed it to gz format. but after this site goes to CPU usage limit and suspended for 5 minute.

[matteoraggi]

db size is not super, maybe you could ask help about it with a ticket on bluehost.
to do backups you could try to use it in alternative: http://www.phpmybackuppro.net/

[Abel1337]

Thanks for the sticky. http://images.mydetaileddetail.com/img/491/h08z1005tebx/smile.gif This thread saved me a hellova lot of time!

[redonred]

Hmm, my site is 24GB. I hope they are doing backups at BH.

[Early Out]

Hmm, my site is 24GB. I hope they are doing backups at BH.
You should not count on BH to maintain backups of your site. They maintain some backups for disaster recovery purposes, but the stuff may be incomplete or out of date.

Ultimately, you are responsible for backing up your own stuff.

[nitrocrzy]

You should not count on BH to maintain backups of your site. They maintain some backups for disaster recovery purposes, but the stuff may be incomplete or out of date.

Ultimately, you are responsible for backing up your own stuff.

BH as a policy does not backup any site over 4GB. Be very sure you have your stuff backed up.

[felgall]

The first rule of backups is that if you didn't make the backup yourself then it almost certainly does not contain the data you will need. You should always run your own backups and not rely on any run by others.

The second rule of backups is that if you didn't test the backup to make sure that it backed up properly then the files you need are most likely either missing from the backup or are corrupted. You should always check your backup after you make it to ensure it worked properly.

If you don't do these things yourself then it is guaranteed that you will eventually have a situation where a file is lost and no backup of the file exists.

[Sageth]

The third rule of backups is that we don't talk about backups. :D

[felgall]

The third rule of backups is that we don't talk about backups. :D

You don't have to talk about backups as long as you actually take regular backups and test them to make sure they work.

[Valdeam]

Protect your work! This should be a given. Take it from experience, where I lost ALL my work due to a hacker going in and putting in their own pron-ad pages when I was first starting out on the internet. I had no backups and had to start from scratch. One of the most aggravating and unnecessary experiences of my life.

Valdeam

[soozoomc]

I'm trying to back up my site using my FTP software. However, all three FTP programs are telling me that they're truncating directories at 2000 files.

In other words, if there are more than 2000 files in a directory, the surplus will not be displayed or downloaded. This includes subdirectories of directories containing more than 2000 files.

Is there a way around this. My wp-content directory has more than 2000 files and I really want to download everything. It's the only kind of backup I trust because it's the only kind I know how to restore.

Thanks.

[felgall]

I'm trying to back up my site using my FTP software. However, all three FTP programs are telling me that they're truncating directories at 2000 files.

In other words, if there are more than 2000 files in a directory, the surplus will not be displayed or downloaded. This includes subdirectories of directories containing more than 2000 files.

Is there a way around this. My wp-content directory has more than 2000 files and I really want to download everything. It's the only kind of backup I trust because it's the only kind I know how to restore.

Thanks.

Just because the file list is truncated at 2000 files shouldn't stop a download of the directory itself from copying the entire contents. You just need to not be in the directory specifying files to download, you need to be up a level specifying a directory to download.

[akc42]

I just thought I would add my approach into this discussion.

I backup my databases via a cron job run in the middle of (Bluehost's) night

I have the following script installed in ~/bin

(the databases are two mysql - aaaaaaa and bbbbbbb and one postgres ccccccc - I also have directories storing uploaded files in the forum - which will be referenced in the databases and therefore need to be synchronised as nearly as possible with the databases)



#!/bin/sh

cd $HOME/dbbackup
mv smf.sql.gz smf.back.sql.gz
mv chat.sql.gz chat.back.sql.gz
mv ball.sql.gz ball.back.sql.gz
mv smf.attach.tar.gz smf.back.attach.tar.gz

mysqldump --opt -pxxxxxxxxx aaaaaaaa | gzip -9 > smf.sql.gz
mysqldump --opt -pxxxxxxxxx bbbbbbbb | gzip -9 > chat.sql.gz
pg_dump -Fc cccccccc | gzip -9 > ball.sql.gz

cd $HOME
tar -cf dbbackup/smf.attach.tar public_html/forum/attachments/
tar -rf dbbackup/smf.attach.tar public_html/forum/avatars/

cd $HOME/dbbackup

gzip smf.attach.tar





I have two versions of each dump - one without and one with the ".back" part in the name - with the above job run via cron every day. So effectively I always have two days worth of backup available.

(My forum has approx 100,000 posts - the database file for the forum is just under 17MB - and those backups take almost no time at all to run)

I then take a backup from my home machine (also a linux box) using the ability to connect via ssh into bluehost - this is also triggered to run from a cron job an hour or so later

(mb: is locally configured with all the info to get me ssh'ed into my bluehost account)



#!/bin/sh
logger -t "XXXXX:" "Starting Database Backup"

rsync -aqz mb:dbbackup/*.sql.gz /bak/mb.com/
rsync -aqz mb:dbbackup/*.tar.gz /bak/mb.com/

logger -t "XXXXX:" "Finishing Database Backup"



Finally, on a weekly basis I have something to suck up the complete site



#!/bin/sh

logger -t "XXXXX:" "Starting Site Backup"

rsync -aqz --exclude /dbbackup/ --exclude /public_html/forum/attachments/ --exclude /public_html/forum/avatars/ mb: /bak/melinda/

logger -t "XXXXX:" "Finishing Site Backup"


This site is primarly some code - plus about 20Gb of media files. The first backup to transfer ALL of that took almost a week - but with rsync, now the weekly backups are normally completed within about 90 seconds.

(Actually I also extend this task to extract from this full backup a subset of everything bar the 20Gb of media files - and then publish this as a tar file - and the database tar files on my private web site, for the other admins to access if they need to)

[jfc]

what ftp program would be best to backup all the files? i tried smartftp and that was really slow. thanks http://www.image-jump.com/image/Bq/Bh.gif

[Early Out]

All FTP clients are pretty much the same, when it comes to speed. The FTP protocol is the same, no matter what software you're using.

[GFX-Help]

what ftp program would be best to backup all the files? i tried smartftp and that was really slow. thanks

It depends mainly on your connection speed, but some FTP clients can transfer multiple files at the same time. For example Filezilla can transfer 10 files at once which can make transferring a little faster since you'll have an easier time utilizing your connection.

[susanspy]

hi all,

I like this post the most "The third rule of backups is that we don't talk about backups." lol that is reall what i thought as well, but on a seroius not if you use firefox fireftp is the best one around, it is slow well but all ftp are slow the speed depands on your internet connection.

Hope this helps!!!!
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[ajsloan]

Be careful with your backups. I had several backups stored on my domain. Several weeks ago I found my sites all offline. I called and was told that I had violated the TOS. Although I had been told that I was purchasing unlimited space. False advertising by Bluehost. I have now switched to Dreamhost after being with Bluehost since 2003. The least they could have done was notify ahead of time to let me know what the problem is. :mad::mad::mad:

[Early Out]

I called and was told that I had violated the TOS. Although I had been told that I was purchasing unlimited space. False advertising by Bluehost.
You were purchasing unlimited space to store files directly associated with your website. That is stated very clearly - there's no false advertising involved. You can't store backups.

Of course, storing backups on the server doesn't make a whole lot of sense, anyway. If the server fails, you lose both your primary files and the backups. Great plan.

[reginaldjoyce535]

Thanks for the guide.