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As of 24 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.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.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by MonkYZ

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 ?)...

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Automatic Backup > Date Format

(Setting for Backup file date format ).

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

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?

As above - if the generated filename is/are the same, it will simply replace the existing file(s).

[Simon Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Paul M

vBulletin Options > vBulletin Automatic Backup > Date Format

(Setting for Backup file date format ).


As above - if the generated filename is/are the same, it will simply replace the existing file(s).

Hi paul, i currently use this mod and it's already saved me a nightmare!, however i wanted the back-up performed every Sunday, you kindly gave the solution of using a lowercase L, i do now get a backup every sunday but it's a single file where the ones before gave me a dated folder with each component backed up separately, how do i get back to having each element backed up as before but just on a sunday?

[Zylantex]

Great add-on. Thanks OP.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by Simon Lloyd

Hi paul, i currently use this mod and it's already saved me a nightmare!, however i wanted the back-up performed every Sunday, you kindly gave the solution of using a lowercase L, i do now get a backup every sunday but it's a single file where the ones before gave me a dated folder with each component backed up separately, how do i get back to having each element backed up as before but just on a sunday?

Just set the vb cron job to run once a week (on Sunday) using the standard date format.

[GoTTi]

getting this error:

Automatic Database Backup for vBulletin
An error occured during the MySQL backup. Details (Could not open Destination SQL file for writing.)

[Zylantex]

Suggestion:

Daily backups are great but unless I download the backups and delete them promptly they eat up my disk space allowance on my host. The ability to do a backup on multiple selected days of the week would be really useful. It would let users back up weekly or twice a week, say Monday and Thursday, or any other combination of days that suits.

At the moment the only alternative to daily seems to be monthly and thats a bit risky imho.

[melbo]

Thanks for the update with gzip. I also just set my date code to 'l'. I used to go in weekly and delete all but 2 backups and now I don't have to anymore. Truly automatic! It does take up ~ 2.5 GB buts that's a small price to pay

[Simon Lloyd]

Paul, i love this mod and couldn't live without it now but i do experience a small problem more often than not, when using the option to close forum during back up i'll find that i sign on the next day and find that the forums are still closed, i then have to turn off your mod, CLOSE the forums in vboptions (yes i know its already closed) then open the forum again and reinstate your mod, any idea what could be causing the lock up, is there some way of adding an extra check to see if the back up activity has stopped then make the forum closed status time out?

Right now i leave the option off but it could spell disaster eventually as my database is over 2gb.

[Paul M]

That option has always had issues, and as I didnt write it, ive never had the time to look into why.

I suggest you simply dont use it (I dont). It was removed from the 4.0 version.

You can always use the lock tables option, but only do it at a very quiet period as visitors will experince the forum hanging while you do, and eventually you will start to get "too many connections" errors as the mysql process queue backs up waiting for write access.

[Simon Lloyd]

Thanks for coming back to me, i've also turned off the lock tables too now as i don't want to get a barrage of database error emails