Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vB Database Backup (Lite)

As of 24 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.

Note: I did not write the original version, but rather have modified & adapted it.

When vb 3.5 first came out I was using this backup system on my vb 3.0 - and having nothing better to use - I converted it to work on vb 3.5 (here) and since then I have cut it down and adapted it, first for vb 3.6, 3.7 and now for vb3.8.

The original version was by Trigunflame and the rights to the code were bought by Zoints (David Chapman) in January 2007. Later in 2007 David gave me permission to release my adaptation.

I have stripped out much of the extra stuff that I do not use (or indeed, could not get to work). This is a simple (Lite) version that does a php based dump of your database either as one file, or one file per table.

As of version 3.8.002, most of the options have moved to the ACP in vBulletin Options >> vBulletin Automatic Backup

Notes:
* I will not be adding anything new to this modification.
* This is a Lite version to allow people to use the basic backup functionality on 3.8.


History:

v3.8.001 : First version for vB 3.8.
v3.8.002 : Moved most of options to ACP.
v3.8.003 : Moved more options to ACP.
v3.8.004 : Gzip option backported from vb4 version.
v3.8.005 : Split option backported from vb4 version, close option removed.
v3.8.006 : Fix php 5.3 deprecated warning.

[silentdub]

I installed it, I did not modify the config files.

I created a backups directory under the /public_html
I set the permissions to 777

When I click "Run Now" I get the following error:

I set the permissions to 777

Automatic Database Backup for vBulletin

An error occured during the Backup :

I changed the path to ././backups/ as defined in a previous post and still get the same error.

I do have the backups directory right under public_html Do I need to specify the entire path?

I know I am screwing something up, not sure what though.

[Paul M]

The path would depend on what path your forum is - but on a typical setup, from the info you have given, I would suggest you try ../backups/

[silentdub]

Originally Posted by Paul M

The path would depend on what path your forum is - but on a typical setup, from the info you have given, I would suggest you try ../backups/

Thanks, the forum is located under /public_html/forums

So should I create the directory under forums or public_html?

[silentdub]

Originally Posted by silentdub

Thanks, the forum is located under /public_html/forums

So should I create the directory under forums or public_html?

Thanks man, I got it working.

the backups directory needs to be under the forums directory when you use the ../backups/

Thanks again!

[MonkYZ]

Great mod ! Btw, how can i set it up so it doesn't keep anything but last 3 backups or so ? The database is really big and if i forget about backups, it takes too much space Thx in advance !

[romeo12]

Using the vB default "database backup" causes error frequently. Does this hack also ends up in error or this is safe to use?

[MonkYZ]

Originally Posted by MonkYZ

Great mod ! Btw, how can i set it up so it doesn't keep anything but last 3 backups or so ? The database is really big and if i forget about backups, it takes too much space Thx in advance !

We really need a way to change how many backups to be kept on server. I just got my drive full... and when i checked, it was filled with sql files made by vB Database Backup... Please, can you find a way for this ?

[Paul M]

This has already been posted before - but you can change the backup date options to limit the number of files - for instance I use a lowercase L, which means they are called Monday, Tuesday etc, so you only ever have 7 files - after that they overwrite each other. You can use other options (such as the day of the month).

[MonkYZ]

Originally Posted by Paul M

This has already been posted before - but you can change the backup date options to limit the number of files - for instance I use a lowercase L, which means they are called Monday, Tuesday etc, so you only ever have 7 files - after that they overwrite each other. You can use other options (such as the day of the month).

I don't understand what you mean. If i go in my Scheduled Task Manager and look for Automatic Database Backup for vBulletin i can only set what day of the week, day of the month and hour i want to backup. I don't understand how can i limit the number of files (what lowercase L means ? where do i find that ?)...

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Paul M

This has already been posted before - but you can change the backup date options to limit the number of files - for instance I use a lowercase L, which means they are called Monday, Tuesday etc, so you only ever have 7 files - after that they overwrite each other. You can use other options (such as the day of the month).

Paul, i'm also interested in doing this, i have my cron job set to every sunday, how do i get it to overwrite the previous weeks entry?