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Author Topic: Backing up  (Read 13381 times)

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« on: August 30, 2013, 09:24 »
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I have just learned the hard way -

1. DO NOT rely on your host to back up your site

2. DO NOT trust the back-ups you can download from your host

If a file is to big they may well skip it

I think the only way would be to ftp everything to your chosen back up area.

Other people will can let you know the most important files to back up but in my case it is currently

Symbiostock_rf

As most of my files (over 1,100.00 ish) somehow disappeared from this folder a few weeks ago I have a lot of work to do re-uploading/editing/seo-ing/publishing.  I do not know how it happened and it took me a while to work out the full extend and reason for the problems I was having.



ShazamImages

  • ShazamImages.com
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2013, 09:36 »
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I have just learned the hard way -

I'm very sorry to hear that.

If a file is to big they may well skip it

I'm not sure why this happened on your site, but on GoDaddy they will kill a process that runs for over 30 seconds (give or take).  I guess that they feel that if a process take over a certain amount of time, then it is a runaway process.  In addition, you have to remember that they have thousands if not tens of thousands of websites on one server, so they don't want one website hogging resources.  When I was starting to schedule my backups at night, they were failing every day for the first few days.  I found that they were killing the jobs after a certain amount of time.  So that is when I decided to break up the backup into smaller pieces that could get done within their timeframe.  This also resulted in smaller downloads.


Other people will can let you know the most important files to back up but in my case it is currently

Symbiostock_rf

You also want the following:

files in your web root directory
symbiostock_ipn
symbiostock_network
wp-admin
wp-content
wp-includes

and a bakckup of your MySQL database.

stockphoto-images.com

« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2013, 10:08 »
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Oh wow this sucks. Sorry to hear that. Did you lose all your images?

Any explanation what happened?

« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2013, 10:16 »
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I tried to do an ftp backup of my site last night from bluehost. After 2 hrs i went to bed and let it run. The server timed out, of course, so not all files were copied. So i have to sort thru tonight and copy what didnt get copied. I just think, with all the high rez image files, i (we?) are going to have to find a better solution.


Sorry you are having problems Christine.

« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2013, 10:19 »
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ShazamImages - thanks, useful to know which files. 

For those of you who have not come across it ShazamImages started this useful thread - http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-technical-support/tips-on-how-to-administer-a-production-symbiostock-website/ .  I added this one as the words back-up are words everyone understands.

No idea why it happened - maybe during the downtime the host had if they were doing something to my files at the time?  I don't think even I would be daft enough to delete those files .

Thanks stockphoto-images, no, no explanation but at least I know why some of my images were uneditable now and I will be doing more regular back ups, straight from ftp.  I have some spare external hard drives so will get sorted and rotate them off site

Cathy, I agree, we need to find out HOW do do back-ups without everything timing out

marthamarks

« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2013, 10:25 »
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Oh, Christine, I am so sorry to hear about this! It's everybody's nightmare. Very sad to hear it happened to you!

My marthamarks.com site was hacked and destroyed a few years back. At the time, it was a lot more complicated than it is now, with lots of custom-built commercial pages. I had no backup other than that supposedly provided by the host, and it was never restored. I never bothered to go back and recreate it. Too much work for too little gain. Nowadays, I keep that site extremely simple, just pointing in different directions... like to my new SYS site!

Based on that nasty experience, I subscribed to VaultPress about a month ago, when I realized how much work I was going to put into my new SYS site. It may be overkill, but it doesn't feel like it. For $15 a month I feel quite confident that if something bad happens, I won't have another disaster on my hands.

VaultPress is built and operated by the same people who created Word Press, and it's well reviewed. I feel quite confident that the *hourly* backups it provides will do the job for me if I ever need that service.

Good luck in getting all those images back up!

« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2013, 11:20 »
+1
I think the problems with the server timeouts are based on the slow FTP transfer.
When I moved my entire site from Bluehost to All-Inkl I did an SSH wget between the two servers. I believe my 11GB took about 2 hours without any interruption to get copied. You can read about it here (7.): http://picturebreeze.com/stock/photos/how-to-move-your-wordpress-site-to-a-different-webspace-host/

Now I'm backing everything up to Bitcasa. The interesting part about it is that you can "download" stuff directly from one web server to your cloud drive. Which means you don't have to store it on your computer and you don't need to use your internet connection. And of course this is way faster than your regular FTP client transfer.
However, Bitcasa is not free. It costs $10/month or $99/year but you get unlimited cloud storage. Here's my referral link if somebody is interested: http://l.bitcasa.com/VnzNTTXb

Ron

« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2013, 11:20 »
+1
I tried to do an ftp backup of my site last night from bluehost. After 2 hrs i went to bed and let it run. The server timed out, of course, so not all files were copied. So i have to sort thru tonight and copy what didnt get copied. I just think, with all the high rez image files, i (we?) are going to have to find a better solution.


Sorry you are having problems Christine.


I am not sure what FTP client you are using but you should set the Keepalive Command. Even when a transfer is running a server can time out due to passiveness, weird but true. A keepalive command will ping the server and keep the connection live instead of timed out.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8682127_fix-timeouts-filezilla.html

Maybe that can help.

« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2013, 11:47 »
0
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« Last Edit: August 30, 2013, 16:39 by cathyslife stockphotos.com »

Ron

« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2013, 11:55 »
+1
The link is instructions to set the keepalive command on FZ. But I am happy with Filezilla.

« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2013, 12:58 »
+1
I think this thread should be a sticky.

« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2013, 13:33 »
+1
Christine, I'm really sorry to hear that happened to you.

Since our discussion about best practices the other day http://www.microstockgroup.com/symbiostock-technical-support/tips-on-how-to-administer-a-production-symbiostock-website/msg340841/#msg340841 I've looked for services to provide the proper backup for my site. 

I ended up choosing a company called Backup Machine https://www.backupmachine.com/a/72482iudjs/ (affiliate link, remove everything after .com if you'd rather). They offer three different price points: Free, $4.99 & $9.99 a month. Because of some additional databases and storage I have on my server I needed the additional space so I went for the $9.99 plan. I just had to provide a couple of pieces of info to access my server and that was it. So now I'm having my site backed up completely and automatically every night at a time of my choosing. The site should be able to be restored easily with just a button push. I just had my 1st full backup last night and today I definitely feel better about the all the work I'm putting into this security wise.

stockphoto-images.com

« Reply #12 on: August 30, 2013, 13:46 »
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I tried to do an ftp backup of my site last night from bluehost. After 2 hrs i went to bed and let it run. The server timed out, of course, so not all files were copied. So i have to sort thru tonight and copy what didnt get copied. I just think, with all the high rez image files, i (we?) are going to have to find a better solution.


Sorry you are having problems Christine.

Cathy, did you actually try to drag and drop the folders the way they are on the server to your hard drive via FTP?

Those will be many tens of thousands of files to transfer - way too much risk for some getting "lost" AND so much longer to transfer!!!

In my Hostgator File Manager I can ZIP individual files or selected files which then are much easier (and faster) to download.

Maybe you can do that too on BlueHost - I'm fairly sure they have that ZIP feature as well.

Maybe you already knew that though. Just trying to make sure. :)

« Reply #13 on: August 30, 2013, 14:02 »
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I tried to do an ftp backup of my site last night from bluehost. After 2 hrs i went to bed and let it run. The server timed out, of course, so not all files were copied. So i have to sort thru tonight and copy what didnt get copied. I just think, with all the high rez image files, i (we?) are going to have to find a better solution.


Sorry you are having problems Christine.

Cathy, did you actually try to drag and drop the folders the way they are on the server to your hard drive via FTP?

Those will be many tens of thousands of files to transfer - way too much risk for some getting "lost" AND so much longer to transfer!!!

In my Hostgator File Manager I can ZIP individual files or selected files which then are much easier (and faster) to download.

Maybe you can do that too on BlueHost - I'm fairly sure they have that ZIP feature as well.

Maybe you already knew that though. Just trying to make sure. :)


Unfortunately, bluehosts backup broke a couple of months ago and i dont get the feeling that they are even going to restore the service. Even the paid pro backup is broken. They had no useful info when i called 2 nights ago and even said that it was a discretionary service and they were under no obligation to provide. But prior to that, it worked exactly like you said on hostgator.


Yes, i did drag and drop. Its the only other way i knew how, but these threads have offered some possible solutions.  :)

« Reply #14 on: August 30, 2013, 16:20 »
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Given how much time I'm putting into getting my portfolio into my Symbiostock site, it's a little unnerving to read that Bluehost's backup isn't reliable (or isn't even being done).

I'll look into VaultPress and Backup Machine. I already use Backblaze for my offline backup of my local work, one of three legs in my backup stool, so I'm OK with online services as long as they have a decent reputation. I don't care about the images themselves, but all the work put into cateogrizing and doing the SEO who-ha, menus, etc. etc. I wouldn't want to do this again. Something that is automatic is a big win in my setup.

To that end, would other people who use a paid backup service for their Symbiostock site care to say what they use and if they'd recommend it?

« Reply #15 on: August 30, 2013, 16:40 »
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I am not sure what FTP client you are using but you should set the Keepalive Command. Even when a transfer is running a server can time out due to passiveness, weird but true. A keepalive command will ping the server and keep the connection live instead of timed out.

http://www.ehow.com/how_8682127_fix-timeouts-filezilla.html

Maybe that can help.



I did have FileZilla already set up. I forgot about that. I guess that means I went too long between backups.  :( Anyway, fixed the keepalive setting, so will use this until I find another, better solution.

« Reply #16 on: August 30, 2013, 16:40 »
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...I ended up choosing a company called Backup Machine https://www.backupmachine.com/a/72482iudjs/ (affiliate link, remove everything after .com if you'd rather). They offer three different price points: Free, $4.99 & $9.99 a month. Because of some additional databases and storage I have on my server I needed the additional space so I went for the $9.99 plan....

I just checked my cPanel and I have 4.5GB of storage used right now plus 50 MB in a MySQL database. I have only 260 of my images uploaded so far (I have a family website and my husband's blog elsewhere on my site, but that accounts for only 1.5GB storage).

I have a portfolio of about 2,500 images. By the time I'm done uploading, I think I'll be way over the maximum Backup Machine supports even with the 9.99 plan (10 GB).

As far as I can tell, VaultPress doesn't have a maximum file size.

ShazamImages

  • ShazamImages.com
« Reply #17 on: August 30, 2013, 16:50 »
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I just checked my cPanel and I have 4.5GB of storage used right now plus 50 MB in a MySQL database. I have only 260 of my images uploaded so far (I have a family website and my husband's blog elsewhere on my site, but that accounts for only 1.5GB storage).

I have about 380 images and I am using about 1.4 GB of space (which includes a 4 MB MySQL database).  I'm not sure why your usage is so much higher.

« Reply #18 on: August 30, 2013, 16:54 »
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Here is another solution that someone PMed to me. I have not looked into it yet. It is a wp plugin called UpdraftPlus Backup/Restore. They tried it out, its free but you can pay for advanced options. Said it was fast, and she linked to her Drop box account so it backed up there, then she can copy to wherever. It looks like it backs up the DB too and has a Restore function.

« Reply #19 on: August 30, 2013, 17:32 »
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I just checked my cPanel and I have 4.5GB of storage used right now plus 50 MB in a MySQL database. I have only 260 of my images uploaded so far (I have a family website and my husband's blog elsewhere on my site, but that accounts for only 1.5GB storage).

I have about 380 images and I am using about 1.4 GB of space (which includes a 4 MB MySQL database).  I'm not sure why your usage is so much higher.

I think it has to do with the differences in the types of images we each have. Most of my recent stuff (since early 2009) is from my 5D Mk II and is 5616 x 3744 at full size. Photographs often take up more space as JPEGs than renders because of the many small variations. I also have a number of composites and panoramas that are bigger than the camera maximum. So my typical JPEG size is from 5-7 MB and the composites and panoramas can be up to 25MB

marthamarks

« Reply #20 on: August 30, 2013, 18:04 »
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Given how much time I'm putting into getting my portfolio into my Symbiostock site, it's a little unnerving to read that Bluehost's backup isn't reliable (or isn't even being done).


That's exactly why I took the plunge with VaultPress. I don't have to do anything, remember to do anything, and still it's working, doing its thing every hour. I know it's working because every hour I can see the numbers of images, files, plugins, etc, change whenever I've done something to the site.

Since I've been working almost full time on this project for almost 2 months and expect to keep going at that rate for a good time to come, I'm glad for that frequent backup.

If I had a major crash without a backup, would I pay $15 or $150 to get the whole thing back without having to repeat months of work?

You betcha!!!
« Last Edit: August 30, 2013, 18:07 by marthamarks »

« Reply #21 on: August 30, 2013, 18:24 »
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I just signed up for a free 15GB cloud service with copy.com . You can use my referral link below, to get extra 5GB so you'll end up with 20GB space.
That's a lot of space. Depending on your file sizes, it might accommodate a few thousands of images.

https://copy.com?r=v7M1IK



Les
 

« Reply #22 on: August 30, 2013, 19:00 »
+1
I just signed up for a free 15GB cloud service with copy.com . You can use my referral link below, to get extra 5GB so you'll end up with 20GB space.
That's a lot of space. Depending on your file sizes, it might accommodate a few thousands of images.

https://copy.com?r=v7M1IK

Les

I took a look at their site, but it appears (they are a big short of "Learn more" links and rather oversupplied with "Sign up" ones!) this only handles files you upload to them - like Dropbox - and not automatically backup up a web site's files. I don't want to copy files down from the server and up to a different server if I can find a cloud-to-cloud backup option.

Did I misunderstand how Copy works?

Ron

« Reply #23 on: August 30, 2013, 19:38 »
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I dont know, I bought the back up pro pack for 9.99 and it seems to back up my site daily.

I have 10GB on my site in use in total, and 32mb MySQL

« Reply #24 on: August 30, 2013, 20:00 »
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I think, you are right, Kathy - it should work like Dropbox, you just get more storage space

If you schedule the backup process overnight or handle it in chunks, it should work. I can accept that.
 

« Reply #25 on: September 04, 2013, 04:10 »
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I have looked at lots of different back up systems but cannot find any that suit my pocket (not spending more money till site pays for itself) and patience.

Current plan is to back up to external hard drive, duplicate back up and then redownload after changes telling Filezilla to only download/overwrite new files.  Then duplicate that and repeat.

Does this sound reliable?   I have already downloaded to one hard drive and am downloading again (with lots more images added) to another one at the moment with full backups.

This just leaves the MySql backup.   I have four of these (maybe for my three wordpress installations and a spare)  does anyone know how can I tell which one goes with my main symbiostock site?  (I also have test symbiostock site)

ShazamImages

  • ShazamImages.com
« Reply #26 on: September 04, 2013, 06:03 »
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This just leaves the MySql backup.   I have four of these (maybe for my three wordpress installations and a spare)  does anyone know how can I tell which one goes with my main symbiostock site?  (I also have test symbiostock site)

You can tell by looking in the wp-config.ini files for each of your WordPress installations.

« Reply #27 on: September 04, 2013, 06:42 »
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I could not find that file but worked it out by going in and finding the list of users

Next problem - all I want to do is make a back of of mySql - not learn a whole new language - hot backup, warmbackup, cold dump ??
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-backup-excerpt/5.5/en/backup-methods.html

Maybe I will have to trust the Justhost on this one and use their version
~~

Just finished downloading so about three hours to download all files recommended by Shazam - now I have it twice on different drives I feel a little more relaxed about it

ShazamImages

  • ShazamImages.com
« Reply #28 on: September 04, 2013, 06:51 »
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I could not find that file but worked it out by going in and finding the list of users

It should be in the web root folder for each of your WordPress installs.

« Reply #29 on: September 04, 2013, 08:16 »
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I have looked at lots of different back up systems but cannot find any that suit my pocket (not spending more money till site pays for itself) and patience.

Current plan is to back up to external hard drive, duplicate back up and then redownload after changes telling Filezilla to only download/overwrite new files.  Then duplicate that and repeat.

Does this sound reliable?   I have already downloaded to one hard drive and am downloading again (with lots more images added) to another one at the moment with full backups.

This just leaves the MySql backup.   I have four of these (maybe for my three wordpress installations and a spare)  does anyone know how can I tell which one goes with my main symbiostock site?  (I also have test symbiostock site)


Why don't you just use the backup options via SSH as described here?
I'll actually update this article today since you don't even need a WP plugin to backup your database via SSH very easy and fast.

« Reply #30 on: September 04, 2013, 08:46 »
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Mostly because I did not understand it, terminal app and unix shells are not in my vocabulary and I have reached the stage where things need to be easy to understand so I can get on , without spending a few days learning a new language before I can start  :-\

« Reply #31 on: September 04, 2013, 08:50 »
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Mostly because I did not understand it, terminal app and unix shells are not in my vocabulary and I have reached the stage where things need to be easy to understand so I can get on , without spending a few days learning a new language before I can start  :-\


I agree. Messing around in terminal is dangerous if you dont know what you are doing, and i dont. I have used it for simple commands, like changing host files, but prefer to find another way to do things.

« Reply #32 on: September 04, 2013, 09:00 »
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OK, understood. But it's really simple and I've just updated the step by step tutorial. If you follow it exactly, you can't do anything wrong. And it's less than 5 minutes of work.
If you're not on Mac but on Windows, then you don't have the "Terminal" app. You can use Putty instead.

« Reply #33 on: September 04, 2013, 09:45 »
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OK, understood. But it's really simple and I've just updated the step by step tutorial. If you follow it exactly, you can't do anything wrong. And it's less than 5 minutes of work.
If you're not on Mac but on Windows, then you don't have the "Terminal" app. You can use Putty instead.



I will look through it tonight. I am looking for a simple, fast way to back up, so its worth a shot. Thanks for putting the time into it!

« Reply #34 on: September 04, 2013, 09:58 »
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OK, understood. But it's really simple and I've just updated the step by step tutorial. If you follow it exactly, you can't do anything wrong. And it's less than 5 minutes of work.
If you're not on Mac but on Windows, then you don't have the "Terminal" app. You can use Putty instead.



I will look through it tonight. I am looking for a simple, fast way to back up, so its worth a shot. Thanks for putting the time into it!


Depending on your host, you might have to activate SSH access (and maybe create a user ID). I believe on Bluehost it's not activated by default.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #35 on: September 04, 2013, 10:24 »
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I've used Updraft Plus on a different site and it seems to work very well. It ties in with a Google Drive automatically. I just checked my own Google drive and I get 15G for free, and 100GB is $4.99 a month.

I'm going to set that up now and see how it goes!

Steve

« Reply #36 on: September 04, 2013, 10:44 »
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I've used Updraft Plus on a different site and it seems to work very well. It ties in with a Google Drive automatically. I just checked my own Google drive and I get 15G for free, and 100GB is $4.99 a month.

I'm going to set that up now and see how it goes!

Steve

But the problem is that with UpdraftPlus or Snapshots you won't get your entire site backed up. Which means in case of a crash you will have the database dump and some additional Wordpress files and folders but the Symbiostock site root folders (especially symbiostock_rf) will not be part of your backup. Which makes it useless.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #37 on: September 04, 2013, 10:48 »
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No, I don't think that is right. I'm setting it to back up my entire site daily, and keep one additional version, and then separately to backup the database on a different schedule - perhaps twice a day.

I've just gone through the setup to Google Drive - it is OK if you closely follow the instructions AND open the instructions and the API to Google Drive in separate tabs (right click to do that)

Steve

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #38 on: September 04, 2013, 10:50 »
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Although to add to my answer, I think I need to do more. So far, it will backup everything in my wp-content folder. I don't think my images are there - there are other things in the root folder that I think I need.

There is an add-in files extra that I need to investigate!

Steve

« Reply #39 on: September 04, 2013, 10:59 »
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I've used Updraft Plus with the More Files addon ($15; this lets me include other files and directories so I can get the symbiostock_ stuff) and it seems to be working OK with my setup - Bluehost and Dropbox for the cloud storage.

I haven't tried the scheduling (I just did the "backup now" option), but I did download one of my zip files and unpacked it to be sure that the files were intact. I made a summary of the log file entries to cover the interesting bits in case anyone wants to take a look:

http://digitalbristles.com/temp/UpDraftSummary.txt

I had the chunk size cut down to 400MB for each .zip file - the default is 800MB - because yesterday's trial run took forever, I think because the process got killed a lot and had to restart, and Dropbox kept stalling or throttling or something. I can't see any major downside to smaller chunks and if it increases the likelihood of both my host and my cloud storage being happy, then that seems like the way to go.

There is an option to encrypt the backup with a phrase of your choosing, but I didn't see any need to encrypt this.

One other note: when talking over my strategy with someone else - asking if there was anything else I should be thinking about in planning how to do this, a couple of key points came up. The biggie was that wherever you place the backup files, (a) should be somewhere other than your hosting company for the site and (b) should be one of the major cloud storage vendors, or some company with enough of a track record that you trust them to be there - and your files to be there - should something go amiss.

I looked at amazon s3 (and a couple of their partners) and Google's paid cloud storage, and the pricing is so complicated (storage, plus bandwidth, plus fees for access) that I can't be dealing with it. I need to know what I'm going to pay.

I may grab a copy of the zip files for local storage on an external drive on a shelf at my house as well (at least once the site is set up).

I set 2 copies of the backup as how many to retain for testing, but I probably want to up that a bit once I'm really live.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #40 on: September 04, 2013, 11:04 »
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I didn't use Google cloud storage (assuming that is a separate offering), just the google drive storage option that you probably already have if you use Gmail. I then extended that to 100G for $4.99 a month.

I need to get that extra plugin next to back up all the files as you have done.

steve

« Reply #41 on: September 04, 2013, 11:11 »
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I didn't use Google cloud storage (assuming that is a separate offering), just the google drive storage option that you probably already have if you use Gmail. I then extended that to 100G for $4.99 a month.

I need to get that extra plugin next to back up all the files as you have done.

steve

You're right - the complicated pricing is for their cloud storage. The Google Drive add on is a bit cheaper than the Dropbox add on, so unless there are any other gotchas with bandwidth or access, that might be the best deal. Both are supported by Updraft Plus

« Reply #42 on: September 04, 2013, 11:44 »
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No, I don't think that is right. I'm setting it to back up my entire site daily, and keep one additional version, and then separately to backup the database on a different schedule - perhaps twice a day.

I've just gone through the setup to Google Drive - it is OK if you closely follow the instructions AND open the instructions and the API to Google Drive in separate tabs (right click to do that)

Steve

Excuse me but I think you are wrong. The original image folder is not part of a Wordpress backup. If you do a complete backup, then the size of it should be significant. A Symbiostock site with 1000 images (photographs) should have a size of about 10 GB. And images can't be compressed a lot to make the size of a backup archive much smaller.
So you might want to check what size your backup archive files are.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #43 on: September 04, 2013, 11:47 »
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Hi Redneck

You are right - the basic free installation of UpdraftPlus does not copy the main folders that include our images (which is 10G on my site). You need to buy some add-ins to cover the remaining folders as jsnover explained.

The Google drive storage of 100G should be fine though.

Steve

« Reply #44 on: September 04, 2013, 11:48 »
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Although to add to my answer, I think I need to do more. So far, it will backup everything in my wp-content folder. I don't think my images are there - there are other things in the root folder that I think I need.

There is an add-in files extra that I need to investigate!

Steve


I looked into this. You have to pay a fee to get the ability to add more files to back up. In other words the basic free plugin backs up the wp-content folder. If you need to add other files/folders, as SY sites do, you have to pay a fee.


Edit...we posted at the same time

Spectral-Design.net

« Reply #45 on: September 04, 2013, 12:32 »
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I currently backup the entire Server directly into the Amazon S3 Cloud (using Virtualmin). Definitely cheaper than usual hosting storage and a full symbio site is too big to just download. This includes the databases, apache configs, php.ini etc. I am not sure if there are solutions for the Amazon Cloud if you use a webhosting package though....

Edit: ...found a S3 plugin for WHM users :-)
http://applications.cpanel.net/whm-s3-backup-whm-plugin-that-backs-up-your-server-to-amazon-s3/
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 12:52 by Spectral-Design.net »

« Reply #46 on: September 04, 2013, 13:12 »
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Looking at the link you provided and then going to whms3backup, it appears that in addition to paying them for the cpanel app (35 GBP) you also need your own amazon s3 storage to store the backup? It's the uncertain and complex pricing model of buying amazon s3 storage that turned me off.

Did I miss something?

Spectral-Design.net

« Reply #47 on: September 04, 2013, 13:27 »
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Looking at the link you provided and then going to whms3backup, it appears that in addition to paying them for the cpanel app (35 GBP) you also need your own amazon s3 storage to store the backup? It's the uncertain and complex pricing model of buying amazon s3 storage that turned me off.

Did I miss something?

JS, many hosting companies hand out their webspace with a free (or included) cPanel/WHM license. Therefore I provided the link. If you got provided with another backend or installed for yourself another product you should check if there are solutions for you. Virtualmin is free and no plugin is needed for S3 if you want to go this route.

There is a pricing calculator for the Amazon cloud somewhere on their site. Currently it costs me about 10% of what a usual hosting company would charge me.
« Last Edit: September 04, 2013, 13:35 by Spectral-Design.net »

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #48 on: September 04, 2013, 14:36 »
0
Hi JS

I bought the add ins (the full package!!) and installed nicely. When you selected folders, did you select the choice "Wordpress Core" and excluded WP-admin and WP-includes?

I think that choosing that option would pick up all the image folders.

steve

« Reply #49 on: September 04, 2013, 15:11 »
0
Hi JS

I bought the add ins (the full package!!) and installed nicely. When you selected folders, did you select the choice "Wordpress Core" and excluded WP-admin and WP-includes?

I think that choosing that option would pick up all the image folders.

steve

I picked WordPress Core and excluded symbiostock_xml_cache only. I am not very WordPress savvy, so I didn't know to exclude the other two, but I believe you can make a comma-separated list of locations. If you look at the text file I posted above it has all the directories it caught

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #50 on: September 04, 2013, 20:03 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
Thank you for your reply, definitely something to consider once everything starts paying its own way

« Reply #61 on: September 06, 2013, 11:59 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
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 »
0
deleted
« Last Edit: September 10, 2013, 03:27 by MicrostockExp »


 

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