Hi I have a few bigger websites that I need to back up, is there an easier way than FTP-ing all the files back to your hard drive. Thanks
Some web hosts do nightly back ups (mine included - hostedfx.com). You could just ask them how to get access to the backups.
Well you should always be making backups of crucial data it's just a matter of how often. Most try to do it on a weekly basis in a shared environment. if you're managing your own dedicated server then you can always get backup service and use rsync to keep things up to date every day at say 3am.
I usually make a nightly SQL backup with a bash script I write.. weekly backups of the directory itself with a bash script, and a mirror of the sites files (basically a live backup of the current live site) every 5~ minutes using rsync. Also it's nice to have a host that does nightly backups. Check out HowToForge for tutorials on rsync / backup methods
It's all handled automatically. I have set up a script that backs up the database every 2 hours locally (on the server). I have a linux machine at home running 24/7 that fetches the database backups every 6 hours via rsync. rsync is a fantastic tool, as it only downloads things that aren't on the linux box yet, so I also use it to keep an update of all the files (if I upload a bunch of pictures, they will end up on my linux box in a matter of a few hours). Then I have a script that deletes database backups on the server that are older then a week (so I have a weeks worth of backups on the server for quick fixes and I keep backups dating back longer periods of time at my linux box at home). All scripts are called via cron. Edit: I use rsync via ssh with strong encryption (2048 bit RSA) so it should be fairly safe. Minor crashes can be fixed right away and in case the entire server gets wiped clean the Linux box holds backups not much older then 6 hours.
Appreciate the answers, two of my hosts provide cpanel, thats a great option for back up and not to technical. Cheers
There are various scripts available for free of charge. These backup your entire database/files and store it locally or remotely.
your host must be providing backups but still its your responsibilty to maintain them if something goes wrong as you said you are using cPanel, use its backup feature
I have a cron job that tars up /var/www and the output of mysqldump once a week and scp's it to my home machine. Another script tars /etc/ and /home/*/Maildir daily to protect system files and e-mail.
1. I do as andre75 said below via rsync 2. having a larger site as well - of course its time to move to a dedicated server. my very affordable root server package ( about half a day adsense revenue for one months root server ) includeds a SW RAID 2x300GB since i have no data-change that would justify a full raid usage - I use my second HDD as a backup drive again using rsync hence i have at least 2 full backups - one online and one offline in my linux laptop
for my part, I have a mysql slave server that replicate in realtime the master one, in case of crash, I have a realtime image of the master! the slave is there to take continiously snapshots of data. For the filesystem, I use RSYNC ans it works welle because it syncronize only the changes of changed files, it makes it really fast!