Backing up your Drupal site with the Demo ModuleBacking up your Drupal site with the Demo Module
I probably don't have to tell you how important it is to keep your Drupal site backed up. However, if you don't know some of the methods that are commonly used to accomplish the task, chances are that you are not backing up your site.
In this VIDEO I show how to take SNAPSHOTS of your website's database with the DEMO module. I also discuss how to copy your website's FILES so that you can use them if you need to do a total restore of your site.
Here's What We Did:
- Downloaded and enabled the DEMO module
- Checked out the default settings and discussed the security implications
- Created a snapshot of the DATABASE using the DEMO module which placed the entire database into a single file and stored it among the other Drupal webfiles.
- Used an FTP client to copy the whole site over to a local machine [This can take hours on some sites]
- Showed a NON-FTP option using the Linux TAR command
- tar cvf backup_filename.tar .
- "tar" in this case, compresses every file and directory into a single file.
- "backup_filename.tar" is whatever name you want to use so lang as it ends with ".tar"
- "." the final period tells the tar command to compress ALL of the files and directories that are in the directory you are in where you ran the command.
- tar cvf backup_filename.tar .
- For SECURITY REASONS we immediately took this compressed file and moved it UP one level to avoid having anyone download our file and create a clone of our site.
- Then we went to our FTP client and showed that you could [if you wanted to] download the single file and keep it for a archive.
This can be some pretty CRAZY stuff. But if you stretch yourself a little bit you can accomplish some pretty amazing things with out pouring over Linux Manuals and Database Admin books. :-)
- Doug Vann's blog
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yes, Backup and Migrate module is doing great now - lots of features like manual and schedule backups, restore, encryption, and support to Backup and Migrate Files module. you'll gonna love it! ;)
It's very important that people backup their site so I'm glad to see this tutorial. I did want to ask though why the Demo module was used instead of the backup and migrate (http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate) module?
Good question Craig.
I've only used the Backup and Migrate module once and for many of the tables it did save the schema but none of the data. Now, that was for a Drupal5 site and it was a multisite at that. But when I want to backup the site before doing some risky development AND want an easy mechanism to restore the database, I can think of no easier way to get the job done than DEMO.
For my needs I NEVER need to select or DEselect specific tables within the database. Therefor, the DEMO module is perfect for me. I know that I know that every backup is a carbon clone of the database and I'm all good.
It's quite possible that I need to give Backup and Migrate another chance. Perhaps I'll do a video on that very soon. I will warn you, I just hope that it doesn't fail me again. I know many people who love the module so I'm sure I had a one time fluke.
- DV