Have you ever lost your database of forum? Have your ever suffered the worry of your forum been hacked? Or you corrupted the database while in upgrades? Some young boys make fortune online with their enthusiasm and youth power but this passionate Geeks forget importance of backup. Just read following transcript to see what someone feels after loosing all that was earned through hard work :
User: hi mrak, im in big problem , i can not enter my website hosting, even the FTP i cant enter it also Mark: when did this happen ? User: there is somthing i can not figure it User: www.domainname.com User: just now User: may be i did some thing wrong User: i dont no Mark: ok User: can u chek it for me please Mark: let me look into it User: what happen, did every thing erased ?? or what Mark: nope User: so Mark: seems like your IP got blocked in firewall User: where is the site User: ??? Mark: website hosting is working for me User: can u fix it Mark: do you know what is the SSH port for your server ? Mark: http://domainname.com/ User: SSH ====> the server details is : ip:http://xx.xx.xx.xx:2086/ port : xxxx password : xxxxxxxxxx Mark: right now your website hosting is showing directory listing User: so, everything is erased User: the files User: where is the website hosting content User: the forums User: the download section ? Mark: have you done something on the server ? User: i think i did Mark: it has no database, no accounts no sign of anything Mark:User: so every thing erased User: oohh my god User: u can not return it Mark: Mon Nov 20 13:47:03 2006:CREATE:root:root:domainname.com:xx.xx.xx.xx:domainname 1164052197:REMOVE:root:root:domainname.com:domainname Mon Nov 20 13:51:50 2006:CREATE:root:root:domainname.com:xx.xx.xx.xx:domainname 1164052387:REMOVE:root:root:domainname.com:domainname Mon Nov 20 13:56:12 2006:CREATE:root:root:domainname.com:xx.xx.xx.xx:domainname Mark: you deleted your account from WHM User: so User: u can not return it User: im gona cry User: oh my god Mark: wait Mark: let me see if something can be done User: please User: do it Mark:
Let me tell you the biggest nightmare of all is loosing your database of forum. Forum community inherently rely on storing the data to the database with every activity at your community. It’s not just the threads/posts that are important for your community users, but activity like who’s online number of views of a particular threads are also very important. And all the activity is stored in one or the other table of your database. If you loose any activity, you loose your community which you nurture day in and day out.
Once I had installed the chat client integrated into my forum database which had vulnerability and my website was infected by ‘SQL Injection‘ attack, and the attacker took out the whole database. I was left with nothing except to start my community from the beginning, which included users and posts. Asking every member to come and register was so painful. Only 10% actually returned. On that day I decided to use the backup facility.
Forum Backups are integral part of any standard forum software be it vbulletin, IPB, Phpbb, Mybb e t.c. You should make a backup any time you wish to add a mod, hack or attempt to change your forum installation. Backups should also be made simply to keep your forum safe should anything go wrong. You have multiple options of taking forum database backups:
- Automatic: Many of the shared/VPS/Dedicated host provides the facility of taking full site and database backup. Please avail that facility. Ask your host before you buy the hosting. A good host generally bundles his package with the backup facility.
- Manual: Apart from server host which always put the disclaimer that they are not responsible for the backups, it is important to take manual backups preferably at two locations i.e. Local computer and FTP location. Kindly search in the search engines about how to take these type of backups. If you still are not sure, feel free to write to me at kushal@officers.in
Now next important thing is the frequency of database backups.
- For the forum community with >10000 Posts/Members: Daily Server Backups and weekly Manual Backups
- For the forum Community with >100000 Posts/Members: Daily Server Backups and daily Manual Backups
From this page you can create a backup. There are a number of options available to you:
- Backup type: A full backup will include both the data (topics, forums, posts, users etc) and the database structure (the tables, fields, etc). A data or structure only backup will, of course, only contain the data or structure information
- File type: gzip will result in a compressed (and hence smaller) file whereas a text backup will contian the raw data which will mean a much larger file
- Action You can either store the backup on the server, download it to your computer, or both.
- Tables If you are making a full backup simply click the Select all link, otherwise just select the tables you wish to make a backup of.
If you are using cpanel as your server back end you have an option of taking weekly running backups over cron. On next week the same database is over written. Kindly contact me if you like to know more about cron based backup. One of the good backup utility is Mysqldumper available here!
Once you have downloaded and taken the database backup, make sure you have password protected your directory.
