Comments on: Testing Your Blog Backup

By: Keurig Coffee Maker

Keurig Coffee Maker — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:37:33 +0000

You are so right, I was doing regular back ups and it turned out when I needed it, the files were corrupt.

By: Justin Brooke

Justin Brooke — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:00:28 +0000

I have never tried testing my blog’s backup so I see your post very interesting. You got me pondering for a moment. Thanks for the tips and suggestions.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:46:28 +0000

I’ve been blogging for about 10 months and currently have three blogs. On my first blog (A Caregiver’s Journal) I had backed up my site. A few days later there was a database problem on the server. I thought I was safe because of the backup. Not so, it turns out my backup files were empty. As a newbie, all I knew to do was start over.

Thanks for this info.

By: Christian Lin

Christian Lin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 06:50:15 +0000

Oh my, I have just started and yet to implement anything like this yet. I back up images etc but as far as full blog backup, I’ve got a long way to go.

Thanks for bringing it to attention, this is very important! Especially if one is to attempt making a living full time out of this.

Cheers

Christian
http://www.comfort-breeze.com

By: Todd

Todd — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:26:32 +0000

You mentioned that you could set up “apache, php, and mysql” on your own computer and test your backup there. I just wanted to chime in that XAMPP (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html) is by far the easiest way to do that. It contains all three of these in one (for the most part) pre-configured package.

I also would recommend doing this on your own computer rather than your webserver. It’s much faster to deal with. No waiting for uploading and communicating with the server. It’s great for all kinds of blog development.

If you go ahead and do it on your webserver, make sure that the second install isn’t publicly viewable.

By: Weight Loss Products

Weight Loss Products — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:07:48 +0000

What I do is that I use the worpress backup plugin and I also export my files from wordpress admin section.

I would take your advice and test my back up. I don’t want to be disappointed when I need the back up.

By: Jarrod - Warrior Development

Jarrod - Warrior Development — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 04:05:03 +0000

I wouldn’t use the easy but risky method. Because simply it is risky.

I have my blogs set up in Git version control system. Which I have a hook to pull in the database whenever I make commits. (I wrote about it here: http://www.wayofsoftware.com/blog/2009/01/02/managing-wordpress-with-git/#more-5)

Then on my mac I have xampp running to do any theme development work and trying out of knew problems.

Having an easy backup process is very important. Otherwise you will be hard pushed to use it.

By: cindy k

cindy k — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:59:52 +0000

i’ve just started reading problogger and had no idea about blog back-ups. thanks so much this article and the link to the article about blogger. phew!

By: Hilmy

Hilmy — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:37:32 +0000

If you’re on WordPress, an easy way to backup is using “manage > export”. However this is restricted to posts, pages, images and comments only which in most cases is good enough. The drawback is – this have to be done manually.

If you’re looking for an automated plus scheduled database backup, go here:

http://klikr.net/how-to-backup-all-your-mysql-databases-in-one-go/

It’s PHP scripts and free and Installs on your server.

By: Rob McGuire

Rob McGuire — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 04:26:04 +0000

A while back I worked for a company that hired a guy to handle a few of their blogs. He unfortunately did not maintain any kind of backup system and when the unfortunate server malfunction happened, years of blogging went down the drain! We were able to restore most of the blog through the cache that Google had, but that still isn’t what I would call an acceptable backup plan.

That experience taught me a valuable lesson and I always make consistent backups of the blogs I now operate.

By: Melinda

Melinda — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:15:52 +0000

I have regular backups, twice a week, but I had never thought of actuallly testing them! And now that you’ve mentioned it, I have no idea of how to upload the backup file.

While I have all my posts in Word format, I wouldn’t want to have to re-post them and lose my comments as well.

Testing is now on next week’s to-do list, thanks for pointing out this gap in my systems!

By: Binny V A

Binny V A — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:10:58 +0000

My advice is to have a local version of your site - with the web server, database server on your system. Every time you create a backup, sync the online version of the site with the local version. Now visiting the local version will show you how reliable your backup is. You can use the Remote Database Backup and the associated automating script to do this easily.

By: Make Money Online Tips

Make Money Online Tips — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:55:38 +0000

I was thinking about how back up is done since quite a few days. Fantastic post there by Neil. He knows his stuff.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:01:16 +0000

This was a much needed post, but I do not see many benefits for bloggers who are not currently using Wordpress platforms or related plugins. I use blogger and would like to back up my blog but have no idea how to do so or what methods to use that will make sure all of those posts, comments, uploaded host content, etc. can be recovered if necessary.

The only way that I have tried backing up the posts is basically by saving them to external drives or to CDR discs. Another way was by publishing the same content on another blog to be used as a backup blog, but these may not be worthwhile backup methods.

Can someone give me a few suggestions on how to backup a blog that is not hosted by Wordpress (such as Blogger) ?

By: Alan

Alan — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:59:13 +0000

I’m glad this post about back-ups is featuring on such a prominent site.

I consult across a number of industries, primarily in IT/ICT-related disciplines. Too often I hear that back-ups are being performed on nightly basis and the onsite staff go into great detail about what’s included and how the backups are run. This is for systems on server-farms with several thousands or millions of customer records.

They never like the next question/answer round which usually goes like this:

My question: When was the backup procedure last tested?
Their answer: Never (or maybe when it was first installed on a test system.)

My response: Ok, then you don’t have any backups. Nor do you have a back-up procedure.

I don’t even consult in backup processes so I’m not looking for any extra work. In fact it gets in the way of me doing my own job. However it’s important enough that my clients understand the thin ice they’re skating on before they rely on the assumptions once too often.

The other great point you’ve alluded to is that software and routine don’t constitute a back-up process. It also requires technical knowledge and more importantly, business knowledge. For a small blog, it shouldn’t really matter if the blog platform is down for a day or two, you could write on paper or in a word processor and then transfer later. But for a multi-blogging platform, it’s essential that everyone knows their role and how they’ll be working when the platform is down. This moves more into the realm of business continuity, but the two are heavily inter-related.

By: Robby G

Robby G — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:10:41 +0000

Thanks, but I’ll play it risky. I don’t feel like playing around with all that stuff now (just because I’m not tech-savvy or whatever it’s called) and I’ll just stress it once the damage takes place… which is hopefully never.

By: Andrea Kalli

Andrea Kalli — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:55:53 +0000

This post couldn’t come at a better time for me. I’ve recently converted/transferred my business website to a Wordpress platform. Backup and restore is high on my list of things I need to make sure I know how to do and that all is working as expected.

Andrea

By: Agent SEO

Agent SEO — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:21:26 +0000

I’ve never tested any backups, although I’ve had some hiccups in the past when upgrading some of my other Wordpress blogs.

If you take your blog seriously, then it is almost a must to have it backed up…

Thanks for the info…

By: ocwlounge

ocwlounge — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:03:13 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with your entry under “Why test your back up – knowledge” and “How to test your back-up”. I personally use a stand alone Apache, MySql, PHP set up on my windows computer.

Before upgrading to wordpress 2.7.1 on my live blog, I made a back up of my existing blog and upgraded that on my test set up, then I tried out the new version of wordpress from the safety of my computer.

It helps to see if there are any small details that might change, before implementing the update on your live blog.

Anywhere from themes breaking seams to plug ins misbehaving.

I think every blogger should have a test set up on their PC for update purposes.

By: Mr. I

Mr. I — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:12:00 +0000

I take regualar backups but never tested any! Thanks for reminder!