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r3df.com lumostech.training
Rick Radko
WordPress website backups
Ottawa WordPress Meetup May 4th, 2016
– They’re not optional!
© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
A little bit about me
Rick Radko – R-Cubed Design Forge: r3df.com Software, website and app developer/designer,
trainer & speaker. Creating custom web sites since 1996, and
WordPress sites since 2008. WordPress enthusiast. Co-organizer of: WordCamp Ottawa: 2013, 2014, 2016 The Ottawa WordPress Group.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Goal
Answer the questions: Why back up? What to back up? When to back up? Where to back up? How to back up? Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/r3df
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Why back up?
Hardware failures: Disk drives fail.
Accidental deletions & damage: Who makes mistakes? - Everybody!
One of the makers of Backup Buddy talks about both of these issues happening to him, in this talk: http://wordpress.tv/2011/01/29/matt-danner-why-
you-need-a-wordpress-backup/
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
More reasons you need a backup
Hacking/Malware/Virus: Can completely trash a site. May have all your files deleted. Every single file could be altered. Over 1000 files in an empty WordPress install. 2-5000 files in typical small active sites. 10,000+ files in large sites with complex plugins
Database can be infected.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Even more reasons you need a backup
Updates: Bugs Incompatibility Update fails to complete
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
If you lost your WordPress site, how long would it take you to rebuild? a) Minutes – because I have reliable backup. b) Hours. c) Days. d) Weeks.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Reconstructing a site without a backup
Even small sites take significant effort to rebuild: Reinstalling & reconfiguring: WordPress. Plugins. The theme Customizations?
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Reconstructing content
Recovering content: Google, Bing etc. may have cached copies. Get them immediately!
A lot of cut and paste and editing work. Re-uploading images.
Rebuilds cost: $$ and lost uptime.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
What to back up?
2 things are needed to completely back up a WordPress website: 1. A copy of the database - Which stores: All of your site content. Settings and config for WordPress, plugins and
themes. 2. A copy of the files: WordPress files, plugin files, theme files Could be re-installed - but takes a lot of effort!
Most important: UPLOADS!!! wp-content folder - images & other added data
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Database only back ups
If don’t do any file or media uploads*, then only your database is changing and you can: Back up your database regularly. Only back up your files when they change.
Each database backup will pair with the last file backup, until changes are made to the files.
* Embeds (Youtube etc.) are not uploads.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Partial back ups
Some back-up systems will let you take a ”partial” or “incremental” backup. Only saves the changes since the last backup. Reduces data to save. Increases restore complexity. Higher risk of a corrupted backup.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
When to back up?
For regular backups consider: The amount of data being added routinely: Your posting frequency. Visitor contribution frequency.
How critical your site is. How big the site is. Amount of data that needs to be moved and stored.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
When to back up continued?
Extra backups for: Significant change. WordPress, plugin or theme updates. Site overhaul or new content launch.
Plan for the unexpected.
Whether you back up daily, weekly or monthly depends on your data change and how much you are willing to loose…
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Where to back up
Off of your server! A backup on your server: Does not help with most of the issues for needing a
backup. A file on your server could be a security issue.
Other points: Off site (not in the same location as the server). Keeping 2 or 3 separate copies is recommended. Backup history – a period of older copies. Week of daily backups + 2 monthly backups.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Getting the backup off of the server
Backups can be pretty big: A complete backup of: An empty WordPress install is about 6 MB Average sites are 50-100 MB Large sites in the 100’s of MB.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
FTP it off the server
FTP is an option, but you need a place to FTP to: A common idea is to use another hosting account
somewhere. Most shared hosting does not allow data storage on
their servers (read the fine print in your TOS). Some hosting services offer storage, expensive
unless you have volume. (large corporation)
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Send it to the cloud
Many plugins will let you store your backups on one of the many cloud services. Amazon S3 Dropbox Google Drive +More
This is a reasonable option for most sites. Cloud storage fees are quite low. Off site.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Backup compromises
Ultimately the decision of : what when where to backup your site will involve assessments of risk and possibly compromises.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
How to back up
Lets look at some tools/methods to do backups. I’ve grouped them into 4 rough categories: Manual backups Backup plugins Backup services Site managers
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Manual backups
Hosting control panel Most hosting control panels offer a backup option. Usually not automated. May not be very granular. (entire account only)
You likely will also be able to backup by: Compressing (zip/archive) your files into an archive. Dumping (exporting ) your MySQL database.
(phpMyAdmin, and other tools) FTPing the files off the server.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Manual backups continued
The archive and SQL dump - pros: Very granular – any site/part of a site you want. Very reliable, .zip + sql dump is very portable, no
special software/tools needed to restore.
Tip: Including the date, 2016-04-16, in the names of
both the .zip and .sql files, helps keep backup files together.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Manual backups continued again
The archive and SQL dump - cons: Need some knowledge: Database imports/exports. Some GUI tools: phpMyAdmin.
How to archive/un-archive (compress, .zip, gzip etc.) Comfortable with file systems on the server Often Linux, or Unix variant.
Need additional scripts for site migration. Simple "search and replace" does not take into
account serialized data. No automated backups. (unless you script it)
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Making sure it happens
Regular backups, daily, weekly or monthly, should be automated, or they will not happen regularly. It’s not a fun task! We forget, or “don’t
have time”
© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Back up plugins
There are a lot of choices in plugins for back up. Many are free. (wordpress.org) Some are paid.
Key features to look for: Automated/scheduled backups. A must if you want reliable backups.
Manual backups (on demand) Using the same settings as your automated
backups.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Plugin features continued
File/directory exclusions. You may have some files you don’t want backed up.
Allows backing up database only, files only or both. Flexibility in your backup strategy.
Schedule multiple back ups on different timings. Offers choice of backup locations: Backups to cloud: Dropbox, Amazon, Rackspace, Google Drive, Others?
FTP to other servers/computers Email
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Restore and migration features
Restore features: No install restores. Don’t need WordPress installed. May need a supporting script.
Malware scans. Database optimization/repair.
Site migration: Important only if you want to move your site to a
new domain.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Multisite issues
If you have multisite enabled, consider whether the backup plugin can: Backup sites individually? Backup a sub-network?
Restore sites individually? Restore a sub-network?
Migrate a single multisite site to/from a single site install?
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Some plugins (no order, or recommendation given)
On wordpress.org: BackUpWordPress http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backupwordpress/
BackWPup (has $ version too) http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backwpup/
WordPress Backup to Dropbox http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-backup-to-dropbox/
BackupBuddy - $ http://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Back up services
When considering a service: Most of the same features as for plugins need to
be considered. One item that stands out is: Where are they storing your files? Secure – encrypted?
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
More on back up services
Unlike plugins: Most of the services cost. But they include storage.
Threat and malware scanners are common in the services.
Some offer incremental backups. Only backup what has changed instead of the whole
site. Most don’t store files on your server.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
A couple of services (no order, or recommendation given)
VaultPress From the people who make WordPress Starts at $9/month http://vaultpress.com/
BlogVault Starts at $9/month http://blogvault.net/
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Site managers
Manage multiple WordPress sites from one central admin panel. Offer a bunch of features for managing sites: Remote updates Add plugins themes Bulk postings Site analysis Backups
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Two site managers (no order, or recommendation given)
InfiniteWP, MainWP Download core software - free Add-on options for many features - $ Backups to cloud http://infinitewp.com/, https://mainwp.com/
ManageWP Online service - $ Backups to cloud http://managewp.com/
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Automated backups and cron
To automate backups, plugins need something to tell them to run, cron does that.
Unix/Linux Cron: Runs at set time, or on regular intervals based on
the server clock. Reliable. Not easy to use. Set using Unix/Linux commands.
Most backup plugins use "WordPress cron", not the server cron.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
WordPress cron – not the same!
WordPress cron: Triggered by visits to your site, NOT a clock! A WordPress cron job, set for 1am, may not happen
until hours later.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Test your backup flow!
Test your backups! Backups only work if you can restore! Back up a test site and try restoring it.
Make sure that automated back-ups are actually running.
Periodically check that you can actually restore your backups.
Try new backup plugins on a test site, not your live sites.
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
One final note on backups
Backup is often not spelled correctly, a bit of Googling reveals that: The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup. Did you back up the hard drive? Where did you store the backup?
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© 2016 Rick Radko, r3df.com
Contact
Rick Radko email: [email protected] twitter: @r3designforge
Websites: r3df.com lumostech.training
Slides at: www.slideshare.net/r3df
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