Backing Up Forum Help

[WOEBOT]

Subsequent to warnings about vulnerabilities in 3.0.3 Ive been trying to BackUp my forum.

My effing Host have dragged their feet in getting back to me over whether SSH is supported (whether I can use the terminal under Mac OS X to instruct a back-up) so this avenue seems impossible.

When I try to back up from the control panel, huge amounts of data spool into the browser window, causing it to eventually crash (there are also some Error Messages at the front of the text/code).

Aaaaaaargh! Help!

What do you suggest I do? What am I doing wrong with the Admin CP backup?

[Dennis Olson]

How large is your forum's database? Do you know Linux/Unix well enough to issue the correct backup commands? Do you know what they are?

[WOEBOT]

How large is your forum's database? Do you know Linux/Unix well enough to issue the correct backup commands? Do you know what they are?

the forum is only a few months old, some 7,000 posts only. very small is the answer i guess! i know that the SSH approach is important mainly for larger databases.

the mysql database is largely managed by the host.

my unix skills are non-existant. i can tell you alot about rare records though

[Dennis Olson]

There's a product available (for free) called "PHPMyAdmin", which is a web-based MySQL administrative tool. Have your host install that and you'll be a lot better off. For a database as small as yours, you COULD backup through the vB AdminCP (Utilities section). Just be aware that as you database grows, it will eventually become impossible to backup except via an SSH/Telnet session.

The basic structure of a MySQL backup command is:

/path/mysqldump -AF > /path/destination_filename

The ">" character denotes the fact that you are sending data OUT from the database to "somewhere else". If you ever need to restore, the arrow would point the other way.

Hope that helps.

[WOEBOT]

I'll be sure and get my host to install PHPMyAdmin when they answer my support queries. Ach these wretched people!!!!

For a database as small as yours, you COULD backup through the vB AdminCP (Utilities section).

Hmm. Yeah I tried this, and as (as I mentioned earlier) I just got a ridiculous spooling dump of data into my web browser, and no file saved to my webspace :-(

Any idea what I could be doing wrong Dennis? Anyone?

[Dennis Olson]

Well, since my db is over 10 Gb, I have to backup via SSH (so I've never used this incarnation of vB backup). If it's a SQL query, you'd need to add the "> path/filename" in order to send the data to a file (as opposed to being sent to your browser, which may be the default). One of the staff guys here will be able to answer that for you.

For example, if I go into an SSH session and issue the mysqldump command WITHOUT the redirect (the little arrow), the entire database will dump TO MY SCREEN. You need to tell the dump exactly where to go...

[WOEBOT]

Well, since my db is over 10 Gb, I have to backup via SSH (so I've never used this incarnation of vB backup). If it's a SQL query, you'd need to add the "> path/filename" in order to send the data to a file (as opposed to being sent to your browser, which may be the default). One of the staff guys here will be able to answer that for you.

For example, if I go into an SSH session and issue the mysqldump command WITHOUT the redirect (the little arrow), the entire database will dump TO MY SCREEN. You need to tell the dump exactly where to go...

thanks dennis. i shall linger around here and try and get someones attention. the message i get before the data dump is this:

Warning: fopen(>/backup/forumbackup-01-10-2005.sql): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /admincp/backup.php on line 172
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS access; CREATE TABLE access ( userid int(10) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', forumid smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', accessmask smallint(5) unsigned NOT NULL default '0', PRIMARY KEY (userid,forumid) ) TYPE=MyISAM;
Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /admincp/backup.php on line 177
Processing: access


......followed by reams of data in the browser

[Dennis Olson]

Sounds like either a permissions issue, or you don't have a "backup" directory created.

[Dennis Olson]

Actually, if the path really IS "/backup", that's a problem. That means that vB expects to find the "backup" directory right off the root (equivament of c:\"). It's unlikely that the backup directory (if it exists) would be located there. Let me dig around a little and get back to you. I would think the first thing to do would be to lose the leading "/" character.

[Dennis Olson]

Okay, more. When I go to that function, my backup path is:

./forumbackup-01-10-2005.sql

The "./" is just like for a DOS command. It means "the current directory". (A double-dot - ".." means the parent directory, for example.) I suggest (if you DO have the "backup" directory created and permissions set properly, that you add a dot to the front of the path. That way, your file system won't expect you directory to be off root.

[noppid]

Use an absolute path. /home/YOUR_ACCOUNT_NAME/backup/backup_file.sql

That assumes that you have created a backup folder off your home-root folder.

./is the current working folder and admincp would need to be writable for that to work. I don't think you want your backups in a public folder though.