How to properly make backups?

I´m asking this, because I was doing backups (both files and database) from cpanel at my reseller hosting account.

cpanel>backup> option for files/other for database;

but I was told recently that this is not the best way to do it; but to be honest,I didn´t understood what the other person was saying.

So:
1- how should we do it?
2- how often? right after each new post? (for longer posts such as galleries?)
3- since to post galleries, I already have the files (hardrive, CD/DVD), is it enough to backup just the database?
4- do you usually overwrite the older databases?

Thanks for any help you could provide.

 

1. You should most likely look into a 3rd party script rather than utilizing the internal cPanel backup script. It's heavy on CPU so your provider might have issues with you running it frequently.

2. Well, depending on how often your site changes nightly might be your best bet. The real question to ask is how much are you willing to lose say, if your hard-drives crashed right now. A week? A day? A few hours?

3. If you already have the other files the database should be sufficient. I assume most of your content is dynamically driven so backing up the files once a week should be good.

4. I generally do but remember if something goes wrong and your backup still manages to 'occur' you might overwrite your own good backups. Be very careful about not having secondary backups in place.

I normally duplicate my own backups at least twice and slap them on DVD in some situations.

 

Use cPanel backup option. Its best unless your site is 20 gigs large...

As David said, if you have the files, then rather backing up full account, its good to have just the database backup.

Though, ask your host if they do make backups, if yes, how often?

Change your backup interval according to that...

 

If the info to backup (web data + databases) is hundreds of gigs cPanel backup will probably take more than 5-6 hours and your server will be overloaded. In such case I would suggest to add a second disk and setup a cronjob that rsyncs all the data on a daily basis.

 

Normally, on Dual Core server on Dual processor server, it takes about 2-10 minutes to backup a 1 GB account...