How often do you backup your websites and how do you do it?

[Rox]

Again and again i have seen hosts facing some or the other issues (internal or external factors) which causes their servers being hacked, files being deleted etc. This results in the websites of users being deleted. I have seen people in here crying (literally) for backups of their sites.

So, the question is - How often do you backup your sites? And, how do you do it? Also, how many backups do you keep?

I personally back up my sites once a week unless i have done some major changes to my sites. I prefer manual backup since my sites are all of small size and backup does not take much time. I keep atleast 3 backups of my site to ensure even if one location is corrupted / hacked / crashes etc the other one is available.

There are many automated tools to backup your sites, search them around WJunction and you'll find them. The purpose of this thread is to re-iterate the fact that every person running a website MUST take regular backups of their sites instead of blaming the web hosts.

Post your responses below.

 

[iMage]

I normally backup my site once a week as well manually, there is no excuse not to, even if you host says they do it for you, still backup and download the backup yourselves to avoid issues

 

[Tennouji]

Monthly, also manually. One copy on a server/storage and another on my home PC. But I just lost a few days worth of effort, so I was thinking of making weekly backups from now on.

 

[DaringHost]

Daily. We have a cPanel plugin that creates backups for all accounts on our servers and transfers them remotely to another server where they are stored. The backups are kept for 7 days before they are overwritten. Of course nothing on the internet is 100% hack free, but there are definitely steps you can take to secure your backups. Basic things include change your SSH port and disable username access (meaning only SSH keys will work)

Doing a weekly backup for most sites should be good enough depending on how much content gets posted per week and if you would mind having to post it all again if for any reason you had to restore the backup. I always recommend that our clients take there own backups as well, however as you said in your post some people learn the hard way after losing important data.

 

[msk19994]

Yearly maybe
Or half yearly
as the data is too much

 

[DaringHost]

Yearly maybe
Or half yearly
as the data is too much

How much data are we talking here? Have you looking into a server to server backup solution? That way you won't have to download all that data to your home computer. Also the backups will download much faster when going from server to server.

 

[Rox]

Yearly maybe
Or half yearly
as the data is too much

You are just waiting to be pwnd msk, take monthly once atleast and overwrite it if you don't need it.

 

[DJboutit]

Twice a week I run a Mybb forum do not want to lose any posts backups are done through admin panel. When my forum gets more posting I will do a backup a min for 4 times a week

 

[msk19994]

You are just waiting to be pwnd msk, take monthly once atleast and overwrite it if you don't need it.

I got pwned twice :P
Thats why bought my own dedi from a dc

 

[masterbator]

once every two days, remotely via ftp and automatically (cron).

 

[Uzair Umer]

And I Forgot To Make Backups Soo What I Do Now...??

 

[Rox]

And I Forgot To Make Backups Soo What I Do Now...??

Use the last backup you have and re-create all posts after that or wait for them to see if they can give you your backups (chances of this are 0.01%).

Also, start taking regular backups going forward.

 

[Bharat]

2 Times a day ; we have an script which is set over cron to take backup's 2 times a day . We also use comcure which takes backup in every 24hrs ie daily . Not sure why some of users don't take backup if their content is that much important ? Seems irrelevant ?

I still do suggest the comcure types of websites for backup's so that atleast they can be sure that they have their backup with them

Regards
Bharat

 

[Lock Down]

Twice a day for databases and once a week for the files. Once monthly of the vps.



All done using bash script with cron and ftp to store offsite. I keep 3 days of databases and 2 of site files and one of the vps.

 

[Mind Freak™]

Twice a week cause i am lazy to post content on my sites so not much to take a back up of

 

[hullapulla]

Currently, in my blogspot blog, there is a option to download blog. Upon clicking, 4-5 mb of xml file get downloaded which I can use to upload my blog posts + comments on other blog too.

How can I take backup in cpanel and what is normally size of a backup?
How can I take full backup of my website? (posts including images and other files)

PS: I hate those evernote hackers... gurrrrrrrrr }:-)

 

[Ula]

Once a week automatically with database backup plugin.

 

[iRob]

How can I take backup in cpanel and what is normally size of a backup?
How can I take full backup of my website? (posts including images and other files)

Can anybody teach in detail how can I take a backup? i don't wanna loose my data again.It will be better if I can store in online.

Thanks

 

[Yashraj]

I use comcure.com, it works like a charm, backups up my public_html directory and database everyday and also sends a report along with it.
I have been suggesting to all my clients as well and even they like it due to its ease.

 

[shadow.prx]

Using Linux as my main OS i just have a cron script i wrote that logs in via ssh and pulls down everything i need to my external hdd every two weeks.

For anyone who might be interested in this i would recommend rsync makes things easier and can even compress what it pulls for you.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-use-rsync-transfer-mirror-files-directories.html

^Basic guide its very powerful