Automatic Backup Vs. Manual Backup

[Nomad]

Do you allow the system to back up your site automatically or do you manually back up, or use both methods? I use both methods. I cannot fully trust the system for automatic backup, therefore, I also manually backup my sites and save my website locally on my computer as well as on cloud storage. The reason why I do not trust automatic back up is if I lose access to my web hosting control panel manager, I will also lose my site.

 

[Arantor]

This is why my automatic backups aren't stored on the server in the first place, but pushed to a different server in a different datacenter run by a different cloud company.

I also regularly test that I can open my backups and use them, because a backup you can't use... isn't a backup.

 

[Tracy]

Sorry.. no "automatic" backups (as provided by the hosting provider) for me... I will simply run scripts via CRON and then transfer those backups from the server to my local storage (Dell server NAS, and 2 external hard drives) and a remote storage location using Transmit and the macOS automation process.

This script is specifically for my XF site (and would probably work for IPS since it uses utf8mb4).

#!/bin/bash
####################################
#
# Backup to local storage script.
#
####################################

mysqldump_location="/dump/destination/location

/usr/bin/mysqldump --opt <your DB name> --default-character-set=utf8mb4 > $mysqldump_location/exported_file.name.ext


# What to backup
backup_files="/location/of/site/files/to/back/up"

# Where to backup to
dest="/where/to/save/your/backup"

# Create archive filename
day=$(date +%A)
hostname=$(hostname -s)
archive_file="your_domain_name-$day.zip"

# Backup the files using ZIP then delete the  exported .SQL file
zip -r $dest/$archive_file $backup_files
rm -f $mysqldump_location/exported_file.name.ext

It allows 7 days of backups.. I do some "finagling" on my end and actually keep 3 weeks worth. You can actually create another CRON job that will keep a set number of weeks on the server (and available for export) with some tweaking of an additional script... but since I use native macOS abilities... I won't go into that here.
In a nutshell for those not using macOS/Transmit/Automator (and this is for you as the user to research) you simply copy your old back into a new "holding" directory via a CRON job and script.

I use the same macOS automation to send the files (I use variances of this script for ALL my sites) to a remote NAS available to me.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't trust automatic backups, so I tend to make my own backups every month or so. You just can't rely on your host to make the backups for you.

 

[Cory]

In all the 5+ years I've owned my board I've never made a database backup, maybe because I never even had such an option when I used InvisionFree and ZetaBoards. The only use I could see for a backup on a free forum hosting service like Jcink is maybe because someone cracked your account and wreaked chaos on your board.

 

[Arantor]

Or in case you wanted to leave and go somewhere else and take your users and content with you.

 

[Cory]

Or in case you wanted to leave and go somewhere else and take your users and content with you.

It'd be odd to do that for my board since it's all about the forum software I'm currently using, but I understand where you're coming from.