By hardieas on

Most/all of the suggestions for site backups are either manual (phpMyAdmin) or rely on modules or scripts being able to do a system call to mysqldump and tar (backup module). However, some [insert adjective of choice] hosting services run very restricted environments with no access to Linux binaries like tar or mysqldump or, even, to cron facility. All you get is phpMyAdmin and FTP access (no matter how many times you tell them scp would be better/safer) and something like a Plesk control panel (which is how you get to phpMyAdmin)...

So, the only backup option is phpMyAdmin to manually backup the MySQL database and then fetch all the files with FTP (OK, that could be automated with wget).

Before I start to try and roll my own solution, thoguht I would check and see how other people have handled this.

Please *don't* suggest "use another hosting service" - for various reasons the person I am helping with this can't (issue to do with domain name).

⋅ Categories: Drupal 5.x

Comments

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

For the backup part I would consider the demo, backup, and backup_migrate modules. I like the backup module myself. I use mutt to send the files, but you could just as easily use wget. I've been wondering myself if php offers any email functionality that could be used to add to backup module.

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz

hardieas’s picture

hardieas commented

The backup module won't work, for the reasons I stated.

The demo module doesn't really seem to be about backups.

The backup_migrate module looks more promising, does not seem to depend on any external binaries and allows offsite download of the sql file (albeit via a form). However, when trying it on the site in question, it fails because of safe mode restrictions being in effect.

    * warning: fopen(): SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid is 10221 is not allowed to access /tmp/tmp_cVtIA6 owned by uid 48

So, thanks, but none of your suggestions are suitable directly, but backup_migrate looks like the code could be modified to have a tmp directory in the site 'files' directory.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

Sorry, I hadn't looked at the code I wasn't aware of the backup modules depedencies.

Though the demo module doesn't look like it's backup related, that's exactly what it does--- create a full backup of the drupal db with the click of a single button. It also adds code to restore the db on a timed basis, but it makes backups. Only thing is you have to click the button, it's not timed.

Hopefully backup_migrate will prove useful for you. If you do get it working for your site, post back a patch to the module's issues queue-- I'm sure there are plenty of others in a similar situation that would be very grateful.

===
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." -- Lao Tzu
"God helps those who help themselves." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Search is your best friend." -- Worldfallz