The Importance Of Backing Up Your Blog
Author: Danny Wirken

Backups in every computing endeavor just make good sense.
Without your good, reliable backups, you're likely to go
through the hell of data loss and the frantic rush to recover
everything at least once and probably more than that in your
lifetime. Data loss can happen for many reasons: the
degradation of a hard drive, an upgrade, a hostile hacker, even
a catastrophic power surge. Whatever the reason, it happens even
to the best systems.

According to a recent poll sponsored by Maxtor, though, almost
half of U.S. computer users don't back up data to external
devices. Most don't do it because they aren't sure about how to
back files up. Another large group doesn't think it's important
enough to worry about. Others don't want to spend the time on
it, or think that backup devices cost too much money. These
aren't good reasons; you can back up to your own computer or to
a different one, not a device; or you can burn data to CDs
(replacing these every year or two, as we now know they degrade
over time). And backing up is simple as well as easy to
automate.

While there are online archives and caches that can help you
recover your blog data if you work fast, it's still a better
idea to ensure that you have the backup to begin with. For one
thing, recovering blog data from other sources can never
replace your file structure or any of the alterations you may
have made to your blog system. For another, your most recent
posts and comments will still be lost. In some cases, this can
be a major blow.

Once you get into the habit, backing up your blog becomes
second nature, not a hassle. You should back up at regular
intervals, making it a habit or finding a way to automate it.
You should also back up everything just before you do an
upgrade or otherwise work with your blog system directly. This
way, if anything goes wrong, it's not hard to restore your
database and other files from the backups.

There are a variety of things you can do to create a backup.
For instance, phpMyAdmin is a popular choice for many bloggers,
including those who use WordPress. phpMyAdmin uses a simple
menu-driven system to back up your WordPress databases (though
it may not catch your special modifications and certain
standalone files, and your file structure and images are also
high and dry).

For very large databases, straight MySQL code may be necessary;
phpMyAdmin can't handle the largest databases. This involves
using a special command, mysqldump, or going to the graphical
interface MySQL Administrator, provided by many blog hosts. For
MySQL solutions, you'll need to know what you're doing with that
program as well as with WordPress, and you will almost certainly
have to download some extras from the MySQL website.

In one other case, you may need a different solution. If you're
using Mac OS X, you should consider using Cocoa MySQL as your
MySQL client; this version of SQL is specifically designed to
work with Mac computers.

The WordPress Database Backup Plugin

The above solutions are inelegant and often complex to use.
Fortunately, Skippy has created a plugin for WordPress users
that will do the backup work for you on WordPress databases.
This plugin is included in all WordPress versions from 2.0
forward, or you can download it from the http://Skippy.net
plugins page from the wp-db-backup files.

If you need to download the plugin, be certain to follow the
directions in the included text file so you're certain of
installing the plugin properly. To activate it, make sure that
the CHMOD is set properly on your wp-content folder so that you
can write to it with the server, and then go to the
Administration | Plugins | Plugins Panel to activate the
plugin.

Backing up your files with this plugin is simple. You navigate
to the Administration | Manage | Backup Panel. Then select all
tables in addition to your main WordPress tables that you want
backed up. Select the option for where to back up; your choices
will be to save the backup to the server, to download the files
to another computer, or to email the backed up files somewhere
else.

Once all your options are selected, click the Backup button to
perform the backup. If you've got the wp-Chron plugin
installed, you can even set it to backup your files every day,
or at an interval you prefer. The backup you will have created
is a standard SQL file. It should be simple to follow
directions for restoring your SQL database from backup.

Backing Up – More Information

The frequency of your backups should depend on how often you
blog and how much irreplaceable data you could lose in case of
failures. If you only post once a week and don't really care if
you lose a week's worth of comments on your posts, a weekly
backup should be fine. If you're more worried about losing
daily data, you should back up every day. If at all possible,
automate your backups so you don't have to worry about missing
one.

When you back up your databases, be certain you back up
everything possible. Special modifications done to your
WordPress files of any sort may be as irreplaceable as a dozen
posts, but may not be captured when you back up databases.
Check with your administrator if you're not certain what else
should be protected; he or she will have a very good idea.

Sometimes you'll find that you have enormous database backups;
this can be a real problem if you email your backups to
yourself and sometimes even if you just download them or pay
for that server space. Statistics plugins and anti-spam plugins
may be your culprits. These plugins gather data constantly, and
may increase the size of your backup beyond what is acceptable.
Because this data is not usually critical, try skipping these
tables when you're backing up and see how your size comes out.


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