it says all the options are in vbulletin options > vbulletin automatic backup...

but i see no option to backup the database! just the backup path ect..

how do i initiate the backup?

Its done each day by a cron job mate

k ill see how it goes then.. thanks...

im hearing mentions of a "run now" button?

and comments like these:

"Processed Database in 3.74 seconds

Backup Completed Successfully
Done"

were would it display this information???

nevermind i found it in scheduled tasks....

right i have another question..

i need to allow write access to the backup directory..

but if i allow read & write access to everyone it could compromise the site...

any idea's on a safe way to allow write access for apache?

Either find out what userid apache is using and just allow it access (not sure how easy that is in linux), or use a directory outside of the web root, so only you have access via ftp.

Okay... I got several questions...

When I "Run Now", it takes 237 seconds, thats a little under 4 minutes. During this time, is my forum closed? The old version of this mod would close my forum, and I liked that. I would like to have my tables locked while this is running; but if the forum is not closed, then that would create an issue...

Next, the file it created was 415mb in size... according to PhpMyAdmin, my database is 490mb in size; why is there a difference? I am not using GZIP. If I use GZIP, it brings the file down to 108mb... wow...

If I enable "Repair Tables" option, it adds a whopping 12 minutes to the backup process! Is there a reason why repair and optimize would take this long? Is there a reason NOT to auto repair and optimize with each backup? Usually doing an R&P will remove 100mb of overhead from the database. (I backup once a week)

And is there a reason NOT to use blocked backups? It just seems like a great "in case shit happens" feature.

1. No, this does not close the forum. That option was removed as it was unreliable (on re-opening).

2. Database size and backup size are completely different things. Gzip will reduce the size greatly.

3. You do not normally need to use those options, in fact, if you did repairs daily it could possibly be detremental.

4. There is no reason not to use them if you prefer it - on most systems it will make very little difference.