Backup and Restore IPS 4

[Reality Capture Experts]

I have IPS 4 with a IPS Focus Theme on It. I host it on bluehost.    I am looking for an automated way to backup the forum and database  IPS 4 is the only program in the folder no wordpress

[AndyF]

Assuming its not too large its not difficult to do a manual backup (small ones are handled OK with Cpanel etc) larger ones you'll want to use SSH or suchlike simply as you'll need 'command line' access to export the database properly.

There are probably some automated scripts around to this but I would guess most will dump the backup on the same box (and account) as the source which is not ideal for disaster recovery, ideally it should go to different physical machine.

You may be able to setup a cron (a task) in your web control panel to do this too. This is probably something to ask your host about.

Generally your 'community' is your database. No database = no community as your posts / messages etc are here. Although the filesystem does play a major role it by default will contain uploads such as post / gallery attachments etc.

Depending on how many attachments or their frequency will determine how often a filesystem backup should be taken. As a rough guide I tend to take a filesystem backup about every third database backup (and do a full one at the start/end of each month anyway) but my current site is tiny so it does not really matter too much.

Although I wrote this article seven years ago ( ! ) its still relevant for a manual Cpanel backup: http://invisionmodding.com/tutorials/article/304-backups-with-cpanel/

 

 

[Reality Capture Experts]

Ok so let me see if i follow.  If i use my  host SSH i can have it copy forum folder on host to lets say an amazon S3  folder diferent from where i already have the forums files being servered from via the forums storage settings.

 

The database  is part of the files in host folder with forum , so being backed up if i do what is mentioned above.

 

I'll review your article thanks.

cron jobs ( i'm lost) lol

 

Thanks

[AndyF]

You're welcome.

Generally the database should be exported not copied by its raw data files (such as .frm and .ibd) as you should really have a name.sql or name.tar.gz / .zip file with the database content itself.

Cron jobs are something to ask your host about, they are more or less automated tasks that can run at a specific time for you.