Is there any way to backup a site greater than 16Mb? My site is is just under 43Mb without any content whatsoever! Sites with modules that require external data to be imported consume large amounts of database, e.g., Bible module, Koran module, as well as large logs are unable to use this module.
Thanks!
Brian Brown

Comments

ManyNancy’s picture

ManyNancy commented

yeah

seehawk’s picture

seehawk commented

There's a note in the documentation that states:

"Make sure your php timeout is set high enough to complete a backup or restore
operation. Larger databases require more time. Also, while the module attempts
to keep memory needs to a minimum, a backup or restore will require more memory
then most Drupal operations."

However, setting a higher php timeout may not be practical for really large databases. Currently, I can download one table at a time under advanced backup, but on a large database (such as the one on my site), a timeout can happen on a single table, so even that option isn't practical.

It would be nice if the module could allow the user to specify a size limit for backup files (for example 10 mb), and then the module would create multiple downloadable files in 10 mb chunks, instead of one large file. The ability to schedule this kind of behavior through cron would be useful as well (10 mb on each cron run).

ronan’s picture

ronan commented
Status: Active » Closed (won't fix)

I've regularly backed up databases larger than that, but your mileage may vary and for large sites you are probably better off using mysqldump or similar as PHP and the Apache SAPI are not really meant for such heavy lifting and you don't want to affect your site performance.

As for breaking up the dumps, that could be useful, but doing it as separate operations leaves time between the chunks for the database to be come inconsistent and that wouldn't be good. Imagine if a node was added after the content_xxx tables were dumped but before the node table was dumped. Your db dump would be all out of whack. Any chunking of db dumps would have to be in postprocessing and that wouldn't help the performance issue it would just make it worse.

molave’s picture

molave commented

Hi guys,

for large sites you are probably better off using mysqldump or similar

I, too, am concerned about my site data getting too large for the Backup and Migrate module to handle. But I'm not an expert, so pardon the silly question:

How exactly would one go about "using mysqldump or similar" to backup a Drupal site?

Could I simply recreate the exact same site structure/modules/content types in a fresh Drupal install, and then use PHPmyAdmin to dump the MySQL from the old and into the new?

Even if it were a complicated process, I wouldn't mind going through it... so long as it really preserves the site.

dashaver’s picture

dashaver commented

I have been using Backup and Migrate for some time with many sites, however I have one site which has grown to 750mb for the database alone. I have been getting Backup and Migrate to work by putting the site in maintenance mode. I am getting white screen filled with error messages, I just back out of this. What else can I do now? This is a version 6 site. I wish I could continue to use Backup and Migrate instead of other solutions

dashaver’s picture

dashaver commented

Use the command line
http://drupal.org/node/903572#comment-3414626

dashaver’s picture

dashaver commented

1. Put in maintenance mode
2. Clear cache on the performance page
3. try disabling and uninstalling dblog or watchdog module on the optional core modules page
4. see if there are any other modules you do with out

This is what worked for me
thanks also to Ronan for a great module

9:13 AM 11/12/2012
I also found that you need to make sure all items are indexed if you are using search. You may just want to run cron (Home » Administer » Actions > status) before starting back up just to make sure all search items are indexed. (Home » Administer » Site configuration > Search settings)