Backing up/Restoring - Yada, yada

[edgeyveggie]

When I backup my vbulletin board should I also back up the entire site via FTP (i.e. copy all of the files to my local drive..?) in addition to backing up the SQL db? I'm worried backing up the database isn't enough. Would I also have to restore every plugin manually, etc.? I'm trying to be proactive in case of a disaster :erm:

Thanks in advance!

[SEOvB]

make sure you are backing up using SSH commands to get database dumps and you can even use it to package the files.

If you backup the entire database, and all files then that also includes plugins and you wont have to manually restore them.

[edgeyveggie]

make sure you are backing up using SSH commands to get database dumps and you can even use it to package the files.

If you backup the entire database, and all files then that also includes plugins and you wont have to manually restore them.

When you say package the files what do you mean exactly?

And when you say backup the files and entire database that simply means running like something MySqlDumper or SSH and then copying everything off of my server via ftp?

[Dismounted]

The only reliable method of backing up and restoring a database is with shell access via telnet or ssh. This is because backing up with a PHP script like that in the Admin CP or phpMyAdmin can result in PHP timeouts errors and an incomplete backup file. Please see the instructions here:

Backup:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_backup

Restore:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_ssh_restore

P.S. If you don't have shell access, some people have also reported success with these scripts:

MySQLDumper:
http://www.mysqldumper.de/en/index.php

MySQLHotxcopy:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134821&highlight=mysqlhotcopy

Bigdump:
http://www.ozerov.de/bigdump.php

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Files only need to be backupped after a change was made to the files (upgrade for example).

If you store attachments in the filesystem then this will also need a regular backup.