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Author Topic: Backing up  (Read 13439 times)

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steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #50 on: September 04, 2013, 20:03 »
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One thing I discovered talking to support of UpdraftPlus is that currently it is a full backup every time you run it - not incremental. They are working on an incremental solution right now. Hence, we need to be careful how often we run the full backup - database is fine as that is small, but there isn't really a need to run a full backup of all the images every night.

Steve


« Reply #51 on: September 04, 2013, 23:58 »
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It looks as if the rush of excited Symbiostock folk was too much for the UpdraftPlus website!

We've just run a basic backup with the free plugin, which seemed to work OK. We already have a Rackspace Cloud account associated with PicturEngine, so we're backing up to that. Quite good value at $0.10/GB/month.

We'll be adding the 'More files' option when the shop is open again, to see what they can do with 23.5GB of original files.
« Last Edit: September 05, 2013, 00:17 by Travelling-light »

ShazamImages

  • ShazamImages.com
« Reply #52 on: September 05, 2013, 05:30 »
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One thing I discovered talking to support of UpdraftPlus is that currently it is a full backup every time you run it - not incremental. They are working on an incremental solution right now. Hence, we need to be careful how often we run the full backup - database is fine as that is small, but there isn't really a need to run a full backup of all the images every night.

The fact that you don't need to backup the same images multiple times is what led me to break up my backups to only backup my uploaded images once.  So I only backup each original image, watermark, and thumbnail once.  The way I do this is to backup images in groups.  Since the images are renamed by Symbiostock, I use that to my advantage.  Images are renamed and prepended with a number.  So I backup images in sets.  The first set of images I backed up were images with numbers between 1 and 100.  Once that was done, I then did the next set (with images numbered from 101 to 200), and the next set (with images numbered from 201 to 300), etc.  I kept backing up sets of images until I arrived at the most current set.  I then let that backup run for multiple days until I have uploaded enough images so that it is full and move onto the next set.

It works great because I don't have to download 100s of MBs every day and my downloads to my local PC now only take about 5-10 minutes each.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #53 on: September 05, 2013, 08:05 »
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Shazam

Good idea - I can do one big backup now of the images in the RF folder and then incrementally back them up when I have had a major upload of images. That would make my daily backups of the rest of the site much more simple.

Steve

« Reply #54 on: September 05, 2013, 10:47 »
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I am an idiot!

I have just realised what I could (probably have done) instead of reuploading and seo'ing etc all the images.  If I could have worked out their numbers I could have uploaded them straight to symbiostock_rf then edited the numbers as the rest of the data was still intact  :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X :-X

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #55 on: September 05, 2013, 11:09 »
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Yes, I didn't think about that, but you could probably read the appropriate table in the database and work out the numbering plan. I think you would still have to processed all the images to get the different sizes though? It would have been quite complex...

steve

« Reply #56 on: September 05, 2013, 11:42 »
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that was going to be more complicated than I thought, not just a case of replacing the files - probably because other things have changed since they "disappeared".  I just wish I had realised earlier but because the thumbails and watermarked previews were still there I had no reason to suspect exactly what was wrong.

« Reply #57 on: September 06, 2013, 03:59 »
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I just skimmed through all the backup problems here in this thread and want to recommend using blogVault as WordPress and Symbiostock backup solution.

blogVault not only backups all of your Wordpress, you can also request to backup another folder outsite of the WordPress installation.

Try it for yourself: http://blogvault.net?src=amosnet and please get back to me after the 7 day free trial to get your exclusive special offer!

I'm affiliated with blogVault because they backup all my websites as well and i run their german sales team. We at blogVault have discussed to give Symbiostock users a excluive discount and i strongly recommend that you try our backup solution for free.

We have backuped very large sites with gigbytes of data without any issues. I know that vaultpress is also an OK service but they have had several problems with my host, where slow and do not have a test-restore feature. This test-restore feature will let you test the backup blogVault has created and see if all your Symbiostock is fully and properly backed up.

Looking forward to your questions.

« Reply #58 on: September 06, 2013, 04:26 »
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Hi Amos, thanks for joining in

I looked at lots of options, including yours over the last few days and eventually settled on backing up to external hard drives via ftp download so I can see exactly what I have and replace, in future, individual files as required and if anything goes wrong it is now totally down to me and I am not relying on anyone else

Does blogvault provide the dropbox space or is that an extra cost?
Can you see and restore individual files?
30 days is not long, are files automatically deleted after this time or can it be extended?
No size is given for the standard plans, even with the $99 a month for 50Gb I think this could soon be filled with larger sites ?


« Reply #59 on: September 06, 2013, 04:32 »
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Thank you very much for your questions, i try to answer them as good as i can below:

Does blogvault provide the dropbox space or is that an extra cost?

All the storage space is included in the plans we offer. There is no need to have a Dropbox account, but we offer Dropbox support to "copy" a version of the backup into your personal Dropbox account as well.

Can you see and restore individual files?
Absolutely, you can even see the different versions we have and download a older version of a particular file.

30 days is not long, are files automatically deleted after this time or can it be extended?
Yes there is a (non official) option to expand this period. No files will get deleted so far but you will be only able to access 30 day old backup or restore versions of a file which are max. 30 days old. This is not a big issue because because you have different versions as well as a live version on your server. You are also able to download a full backup file anytime you want and store it locally on our harddrive.

No size is given for the standard plans, even with the $99 a month for 50Gb I think this could soon be filled with larger sites ?
At the moment there are no real limitations, we might introduce these limitations for later customers. Another reason to join now

« Reply #60 on: September 06, 2013, 11:22 »
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Thank you for your reply, definitely something to consider once everything starts paying its own way

« Reply #61 on: September 06, 2013, 11:59 »
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Thanks for posting about blogVault. I looked at your site and pricing and there a couple of things you didn't answer (at least that I could find).

1) Where is the primary backup data stored and could I get at that independently (e.g. with my own account credentials) if for some reason your company stopped operating one day?

2) I didn't see any details about how the backup is handled. I have shared hosting with Bluehost and it seems important that any process for backup is able to resume after the process is shut down by the server (for whatever reasons). Do the WordPress site owners have any configurable parameters for how the backup is done if for some reason their hosting provider is causing difficulties for blogVault?

3) There don't appear to be any screen shots or demos of the dashboard interface to see what sort of controls the customer has or how things work. Do you have that somewhere (I know there's a free trial, but I don't want to spend time on that if a quick look at an interface, some documentation or a video would tell me that this product is for me or not)?

« Reply #62 on: September 06, 2013, 13:13 »
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Thank you very much for your questions. I answer them below your questions in bold.

1) Where is the primary backup data stored and could I get at that independently (e.g. with my own account credentials) if for some reason your company stopped operating one day?

The primary backup is stored on our servers and on Amazon S3. We are not supporting your own account or credentials. You can download a copy either directly to your harddrive or to Dropbox anytime. If our service stops one day (which i never hope ;-)) you will still have your copy on harddrive as well as the live copy on your website/server.

2) I didn't see any details about how the backup is handled. I have shared hosting with Bluehost and it seems important that any process for backup is able to resume after the process is shut down by the server (for whatever reasons). Do the WordPress site owners have any configurable parameters for how the backup is done if for some reason their hosting provider is causing difficulties for blogVault?

Our backup works with any host and via a very slim backup. We do not store any backup (like other plugins and solutions) on your website. We move them directly onto our servers no matter how big they are. After the initial backup, we only do incremential backups.
Let's say Bluehost goes down (which just recently happened) you still have a full backup on our servers and can "restore" your site to any other host within minutes. I even "clone" websites with this function and move it to another host and even automaticaly change name of the website if i like.
If you want to restore, there is a very easy to understand restore process, just enter FTP credentials and we will recognize your WordPress credentials and restore your website within minutes (depending on the size of course). At any time you can create a test-restore on our servers and see if your site is completely backed up and running smoothly.


3) There don't appear to be any screen shots or demos of the dashboard interface to see what sort of controls the customer has or how things work. Do you have that somewhere (I know there's a free trial, but I don't want to spend time on that if a quick look at an interface, some documentation or a video would tell me that this product is for me or not)?

You are right, sorry about not having a lot of screenshots yet. There is a video about the migration here:
Migrate a Wordpress Site to a New Domain
and i have attached another screenshot from my dasboard. Feel free to ask for more help.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #63 on: September 06, 2013, 16:01 »
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I don't want to hijack this thread, but I finally wrote my process/instructions for using Google Drive as your backup location in the "Updraft" posts.

Sorry for the interruption!

Steve

« Reply #64 on: September 07, 2013, 04:21 »
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I have never had my own website before, and I feel lost in all the technically stuff. I know backup is important, but I can't do it myself. So I decided to go with blogVault http://blogvault.net?src=AF4E64
I got 25 % discount, now paying $ 14,25 each month. They are backing up all folders as described in http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-general/backup-vaultpress/

blogVault really have an amazing support, only one second after paying to Paypal I was contacted by one of blogVault's staff. He did everything, he added all the directories that needed to be backed up.
For me personally this was the best option. I have to pay more than people doing itself yes, but for me it is good to know the backing up it's taken care off!

Amos Struck sent me a link so I got the 25% discount.



« Reply #65 on: September 07, 2013, 05:08 »
+1
Glad you like blogVault and thank you very much for your kind words. We now have everything in place to backup every Symbiostock-Site and the folders automatically.

All Symbiostock users will get 25% off any plan. If you have a website with less than 5GB you can go for the $9 plan (Rebate only for yearly payment) if you are over 5GB like Christina then you need to go for the $19 Plan minus 25% = $ 14,25.

1.) Register via this link: http://blogvault.net/?src=amosnet
2.) Send me a private message and i will send you the 25% rebate link

You are able to test blogVault for 7 days for free.

Looking forward to any questions here.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2013, 03:06 by Amos Struck »

« Reply #66 on: September 07, 2013, 06:56 »
+1
Just to put the backup issue into perspective, I've been with my host (all-inkl.com) for over 10 years now, running several websites on shared hosting. I've never lost a website or a single file within this time due to server outages or hosting malfunctions.
Don't get me wrong, backup is important and makes you feel safer. But backup shouldn't be the center of your universe and it shouldn't cost more than hosting your entire website, IMO.

« Reply #67 on: September 07, 2013, 07:00 »
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Bah. I've just bought Leo's upgrade to install and sort out this weekend but JustHost's backup system is down the pan.

The last backup I downloaded is from the middle of August and I wanted to d/l my most recent site/DB backup from their server (should have been from overnight last night).

I paid 20 GBP for their "Backup Pro" package when I opened my account with them. Today, clicking on my cPanel Backup link, takes me to the "Upgrade to Pro" page rather than my backed up files.

/irrelevant rant on/ Plus they owe me a 15 GBP refund after I paid in full for their recommended Sitelock security upgrade but are blaming Sitelock for not letting them know soon enough and now won't honour it because it's "outside the window for refunds".  So this rant is vicariously directed at Sitelock too. /irrelevant rant off/

It seems an almost universal truth - there do appear to be one or two exceptions - that web hosts don't cover themselves in glory.

So I'm off to read all the other MSG posts on backing up via FTP/SSL/whatever and if that works, maybe I'll save myself 20 quid next year and forever more. So maybe this is a good thing. Right I'll stop rambling. Just needed to vent.

« Reply #68 on: September 07, 2013, 07:19 »
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Bah. I've just bought Leo's upgrade to install and sort out this weekend but JustHost's backup system is down the pan.

The last backup I downloaded is from the middle of August and I wanted to d/l my most recent site/DB backup from their server (should have been from overnight last night).

I paid 20 GBP for their "Backup Pro" package when I opened my account with them. Today, clicking on my cPanel Backup link, takes me to the "Upgrade to Pro" page rather than my backed up files.

/irrelevant rant on/ Plus they owe me a 15 GBP refund after I paid in full for their recommended Sitelock security upgrade but are blaming Sitelock for not letting them know soon enough and now won't honour it because it's "outside the window for refunds".  So this rant is vicariously directed at Sitelock too. /irrelevant rant off/

It seems an almost universal truth - there do appear to be one or two exceptions - that web hosts don't cover themselves in glory.

So I'm off to read all the other MSG posts on backing up via FTP/SSL/whatever and if that works, maybe I'll save myself 20 quid next year and forever more. So maybe this is a good thing. Right I'll stop rambling. Just needed to vent.

Sounds like JustHost went the same way as BlueHost (both owned by same company) with the backups. As in there aren't any anymore. Not sure what they are doing. On BlueHost I noticed they have added a new landing page that separates out free backups from BackupPro so maybe they will bring the ability to backup back online. It's been months now, tho.  ::)

« Reply #69 on: September 07, 2013, 07:51 »
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Hi Russell - Justhost told me that even if I had had their pro-backup they would not have backed up the files any differently!

I now download to external hard drive (or rather two external hard drives so I can keep one out of the house) .  I plan then to duplicate the download and use Filezilla to just download changed/new/updated files
The files in symbiostock_rf I will not download (to save on time and bandwidth, but will copy from my file on computer to the backup area and rename them with their numbers as per symbiostock files.
The MySql database I download as per Mark's tutorial - http://www.picture5479.com/backing-bluehost/

« Reply #70 on: September 07, 2013, 09:08 »
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Yes Christine, I'm just producing a queue (again) in Filezilla as per Mark's tut. My first attempt failed - I think because of permission problems.

Unfortunately, I've signed up to JustHost for two years. Unless they dramatically up their game, I think I'll cut my losses and just shift to a more reliable host. I doubt they'll refund me anything pro rata despite not delivering on their promises.

Sorry to see you're having an even harder time because of JustHost too.

« Reply #71 on: September 07, 2013, 11:41 »
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Hahaha. That's priceless JustHost. Your backup system that I pay for is stuffed so I have to FTP my files instead.

What do you do? Why you throttle my account, that's what you do. Customer service-tastic.

Muppets.

« Reply #72 on: September 09, 2013, 11:17 »
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The fair-minded man in me feels obliged to offer a small apology. JustHost support have informed me that even though I can't access my Pro backup package through the normal clicking route, I can access my backups by clicking the free backup icon instead.

But why I had to contact support for them to tell me that rather than them sending out a group email to all affected users, I don't know. I mean it's not like it's important or anything...

So there we are. Unfortunately, that doesn't help to Christine of course but it may be of use to someone else here.

Russell

« Reply #73 on: September 10, 2013, 02:32 »
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deleted
« Last Edit: September 10, 2013, 03:27 by MicrostockExp »


 

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