Forum Back-ups for a Non-techy

[Fergal C]

My tech knowledge is very basic - I can use cPanel and WHM and I know my way round the VB Admin CP. But I don't understand how Databases work, I don't know MYSQL and I don't know what SSH and Telnet are.

Whats the best way for me to make regular backups of my important VB databases?

And what databases should I be backing up?

Thanks!

[Angel-Wings]

Whats the best way for me to make regular backups of my important VB databases?

Isn't phpMyAdmin preinstalled or another Database management tool that can export databases ?

And what databases should I be backing up?

All of them would be the best, maybe except the MySQL database itself.

[ubcforums]

If you have cpanel..go to backups and then select mysql databases and then click on the desired database and save the file

[Fergal C]

Thanks for replies.

Isn't phpMyAdmin preinstalled or another Database management tool that can export databases ?

I'll ask my host about that.


If you have cpanel..go to backups and then select mysql databases and then click on the desired database and save the file

Done thanks.

All of them would be the best, maybe except the MySQL database itself.

In cPanel on my forum hosting account I go to;

Backups - Download a MySQL Database Backup - and click to make a backup of the database. However, there is only one DB shown, is it normal for a forum to have only one DB?

Is there any way for me to check that I'm doing this correctly?

Is there any way to automate this procedure?

--------------- Added 1244636876 at 1244636876 ---------------

Sorry, just to add, how can I tell which DB's my forum is currently using?

[Angel-Wings]

Backups - Download a MySQL Database Backup - and click to make a backup of the database. However, there is only one DB shown, is it normal for a forum to have only one DB?

Yes it is.

Is there any way for me to check that I'm doing this correctly?

Try to setup a test forum with another database and import the backup - if it's working like expected, everything's ok. But do not import the backup and overwrite the existing and used DB.

Is there any way to automate this procedure?

Hmm, maybe. You can setup a cronjob and do an automatic backup every 24 hours as example, still you need to manually download the backups.

Sorry, just to add, how can I tell which DB's my forum is currently using?

Check includes/config.php - it's written there which DB is used.

[Fergal C]

Thanks a lot for that Angel-Wings, that's exactly the info I was looking for.

[mac-warez]

If you have SSH access use this command
mysqldump --opt -u replace_this_with_Database_username -p replace_this_with_Database_Name > /directory/to/place/backup/in