Administrative and Maintenance Tools - vBulletin Cron Based Database Backup

As of 23 Nov 2017 this modification has been withdrawn.

This is a cut down version based on a backup system written by Trigunflame for vb 3.0. It is a simple vBulletin cron trigged php system that does a dump of your database - either as one complete file, or as one file per table. Especially useful now that IB removed the old ACP backup option in vBulletin 4. Files can be (G)Zipped to save space.

All the options are located in the ACP in vBulletin Options >> vBulletin Automatic Backup

To install, download and unzip the files, and follow the instructions in the text file.


History:

v4.0.1 : 28-Dec-2009 : Initial release for vb 4.0.0 Gold.
v4.0.2 : 29-Dec-2009 : Added ability to block process larger tables.
v4.0.3 : 27-Jun-2010 : Added Gzip option.

v4.1.0 : 04-Dec-2010 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.0.

v4.1.7.0 : 16-Oct-2011 : Updated for vBulletin 4.1.7.

v4.2.0.0 : 24-May-2012 : Updated for vBulletin 4.2.0.
v4.2.0.1 : 17-Mar-2013 : Removed vboptions from backup call..
v4.2.0.2 : 25-Nov-2013 : Fix php 5.3 deprecated warnings, added mysqldump backup.

[Paul M]

There is no limit to the size it will process, if you get timeouts then you need to check php timeout settings and also mysql timeout settings.

That said, with a database that size, I would not rely on just this mod as a backup method.

[washingtonboise]

I have tried some other scripts like mysqldumper, and they are all timing out, probably mysql timeout.

I find it surprising that people are telling me I can log in to SSH, run a few commands (like five), and the server will make a perfect, fail-proof copy of the database.

Are scripts limited from using the same kind of commands like 'wget' that work so reliably in SSH? It's starting to look like I'm just going to have to buy a book and learn the shell commands.

[Paul M]

Originally Posted by washingtonboise

I find it surprising that people are telling me I can log in to SSH, run a few commands (like five), and the server will make a perfect, fail-proof copy of the database.

This is correct, read up on "mysqldump"

[Hostboard]

Back in 08ish I wrote a Perl script that not only backed up the database but also the physical files. I ran it via CRON but it could also be manually envoked. You can use the single line in the code below noting the mysqldump as Paul mentioned. The code below will give you an idea of what you need to read about (mysqldump switches) to get a proper backup.

#!/usr/bin/perl
# System Backup
#------ Variables ------
$backupdir = "/usr/local/DirectoryOfBackUpLocation"; # "." for current
$other_dirs = "/usr/local/DirectoryToBeBackedUp1 /usr/local/DirectoryToBeBackedUp2";
#-----------------------
print "Backup Initiated...\n";
@timenow = localtime(time);
$newfilename = sprintf("%02d",$timenow[4]+1) .
sprintf("%02d",$timenow[3]) . ($timenow[5] + 1900);
print "Using Filename: $newfilename.sql \n";
print "Starting database backup... \n";
system "mysqldump -qce -r $newfilename.sql -u root DataBaseName";
print "Starting Compression... \n";
system "tar czf $backupdir/$newfilename.tar.gz $other_dirs $newfilename.sql";
unlink "$newfilename.sql" || print "Error: Cannot delete file specified: $newfilename - $_ \n";
print "Done. \n"


I use Paul's modification on ALL my sites and am surprised it is not a default VB option. As backups are critical if you run a site.

If I had any requests it would be to have an option to also include the physical files and auto purge backups X days old.

[cameraguru]

What a life saver a good backup can be!

Thanks

[grasshopper1983]

hi paul

someting wrong here

It make a date folder in my backup folder... but its not wrinting the .sql files...

and still getting the Backup Error : Could not write to destination file

what i'm i doing wrong?

thanks

[Paul M]

That would be a permissions error.

[Hostboard]

Originally Posted by grasshopper1983

hi paul

someting wrong here

It make a date folder in my backup folder... but its not wrinting the .sql files...

and still getting the Backup Error : Could not write to destination file

what i'm i doing wrong?

thanks

CHMOD the backup folder to 777 Also make sure the backup folder is NOT in your websites directory but rather off of the root of your account.

[BadgerDog]

This may sound silly, but to get it to just backup every day of the week and overwrite the previous weeks files so it doesn't keep growing, do I change the field Y-m-d and put a lower case letter "L" l in that field?

Thanks ..

Regards,
Doug

[Paul M]

Yep, that sounds about right.