[ubuntu-uk] website backup

[Alan Lord (News)]

On 30/06/09 21:33, Dean Sas wrote:
> alan c wrote:
>> After reading the horror stories about 'website hacked' and the like I
>> wanted to check my understanding about backing up.
>>
>> I am aware of simple methods such as
>> Copying files directly presumably with say, filezilla , after logging
>> in as admin is what first come to mind.
>> But what about httrack? This can mirror a site. Can this be regarded
>> as a backup?
>
> Any website backup should also include the backup of any databases used
> for it and any files that are above the web root. httrack looks as if
> it'll work only if the website is completely static, any pages using
> e.g. php will only have the output backed up by httrack and not the .php
> file itself. Also it'll only back up files you tell it about or files
> that are linked from other pages on your site.
>
> I use rsnapshot (there are plenty of similar tools) and have it
> configured to make a database backup file before it runs the back-up.
> Unfortunately it's not the easiest thing to configure and it does
> require that you have shell access to the server (I wouldn't consider
> hosting that doesn't have shell access to be honest)

That's good advice,

I tend to write a simple bash script with a little mysql command-line-fu 
to dump the db and zip it, then send the lot using either rsync or 
rdiff-backup to your destination of choice based on a suitable cron 
schedule.

Al