Web based family history software

Question Backup

  • vhhawk
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13 years 6 months ago #1 by vhhawk
Backup was created by vhhawk
I don't see a backup function in 1.0.1. All the Wiki currently says is that it's a good thing to do. I'm sure the feature is in the works, but I do have one small request: on the MyPage dropdown list, when logged in as Admin, add an item for "backup" to save a few clicks.

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13 years 6 months ago #2 by kiwi
Replied by kiwi on topic Re:Backup
Victor

Sorry to disappoint, but no, there is no backup in the works. We really don't feel it is necessary. All data is now stored in the database only, so there are really no files to backup. Your web server will have perfectly adequate tools (like phpmyadmin) that can be used for quick and easy backups.

Otherwise there are tools like MySQLDumper that are freely available on the 'net that can be run independently.

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13 years 6 months ago #3 by vhhawk
Replied by vhhawk on topic Re:Backup
Nigel...

So I have to go to Lunarpage's webhosting login portal, find my login/password by searching down in the bowels of Gmail for it, go to the Customer Account pages, find the little icon that says Control Panel and click it, find the button that says Go to LPCP and click it, find the button that says MyPhpAdmin and click it, find that particular login/password, wait for the site to come up, click on the correct database, wait for it to load ... wait ... wait ... wait, click on Export, look through all the options I have as to what and how to export it, which are frankly a mystery to me, then click Go. And voila, a backup. That doesn't include media, so I have to pull up Filezilla, log in, find the media directory, and copy it over.

This is the process I have to go through. Does everybody else have such a simple process that automation makes no sense? Is it that hard to automate in webtrees?

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13 years 6 months ago #4 by kiwi
Replied by kiwi on topic Re:Backup
Victor

Have a look at MySQLDumper . It does a far better job than anything we could ever write in webtrees. It can even run as a fully automated cron job on your server, emailing you the backups on a regular basis. If you have other software running on the server, it will do those as well.

Remember - our philosophy is to use existing solutions where possible, rather than cludge our own half-solution.

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13 years 6 months ago #5 by fisharebest
Replied by fisharebest on topic Re:Backup
In phpMyAdmin, you need to

1) click export
2) optionally click ".zip" or ".gz" if you want compression (.gz is better - it doesn't suffer from memory limits).
3) click go

That's it. Restoring is just as easy.

1) click import
2) select your backup file
3) click go

Greg Roach - greg@subaqua.co.uk - @fisharebest@phpc.social - fisharebest.webtrees.net

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13 years 6 months ago #6 by vhhawk
Replied by vhhawk on topic Re:Backup
I hear you guys, and I appreciate the info -- and I know you have great reasons for the decisions you make. But dang! LOL. I know I'm not going to be the first to get floored by this architecture decision. I mean, I can certainly work around it using my existing process, and I will happily check out MySQLDumper. But of course that's only part of the solution. The other part is the 1000+ media files I will have to grab through an FTP tool.

And really, what's the bigger kludge? The backup functionality, or the process an admin will have to go through to safeguard all his (her) data? I really think we owe it to the project's continued growth to incorporate a simple one-click backup function. Of course, I'm speaking largely from ignorance because I don't know what kind of a hassle it is to architect and code it up.

You guys rock. I'm just stunned by this decision.

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13 years 6 months ago #7 by fisharebest
Replied by fisharebest on topic Re:Backup
I was a sysadmin for 2-3 years. My 3 priorities were

1) backups
2) backups
3) backups

The company's most important asset is data, and it was my job to restore it. When you are called upon to restore from backup, you need to be 100% sure that both your backup and restore are going to work.

In these circumstances, which would you rather use. Something written by people whose one focus is backup, and which is widely used and tested.

Or something written in a hurry by a bunch of genealogists who wanted to get back to genealogy, and which is rarely used and tested.

I am reminded of some 20 years ago, when I visited a top-secret goverment establishment and asked them to show me their backup procedures. Oh, we'll do one now, they
said.

Insert floppy
run script
wait 5 seconds
Remove floppy.

Dunno what this did, but it wasn't a backup of 200MB of data. Luckily, they had never needed to restore.......

Greg Roach - greg@subaqua.co.uk - @fisharebest@phpc.social - fisharebest.webtrees.net

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13 years 6 months ago #8 by kiwi
Replied by kiwi on topic Re:Backup
When looking for an FTP tool for the media files, find one that allows incremental copies - or copies ONLY changed and new files. Many have automated features for this. It means once you have a local copy of your media files, you then only need to run it occasionally and then it will only copy new or changed files. faster and easier. In fact, I wouldn't even bother with selecting media files only - keep a local copy of the entire webtrees file system. If you also install xampp, you instantly have a locally running version you can use for testing and so forth.

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13 years 6 months ago #9 by ToyGuy
Replied by ToyGuy on topic Re:Backup
Victor
A good admin should by routinely backing up their data - ALL their data - frequently. And a good host should be offering a similar zero-cost function as further backup. If it is something an admin (or user) has to remember to initiate, likely that's the one time they forget and disaster strikes.

For my own server, we run Apple's time machine, which increments every change to any data, as well as a nightly clone using CarbonCopyCloner from the three-drive mirror (in itself redundant) to an external HD. This all happens without any action on our part.

Surely other admins can devise similar setups. Most of the remote hosts offer 'off-site' backup routines where you could 'clone' your current data to another online server. Again, Apple offers this via its me.com (formerly Mac.com) services, but Yahoo and Google both allow backups to accounts based on their servers.

Santa Stephen the Fabled Santa
Latest webtrees at MyArnolds.com
Hosted by webtreesonline.com , a division of GeneHosts LLC
MacOS 10.6.8, Apache 2.2+, PHP 5.4.16, MySQL 5.5.28

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