This is just a quick note to say there is a new version of the Cloud Backup extension now available on Magento Connect and also for direct download and manual installation – it is version 0.2.2. Our Magento Offsite backup beta progam has been great so far with many participants offering useful feedback and being very willing to help us debug issues.
In the first week we have been able to determine that:
- Different hosts have very different security settings that make taking full tar archive backups quite tricky.
- Windows hosting users cannot rely on a command-line tar application. If you are a WAMP or WIMP user please try it out and let me know if it works ok on your host.
As a result I have changed from a system call to tar to using the PHP class Archive_Tar to tar the files in a what will hopefully prove to be a platform independent manner.
I have also added the ability to exclude certain root directories from the backup. This is mainly as a way for users where web server permissions prevent access to certain Apache owned files by the user. For example you could exclude var if all of the session and cache files are Apache owned and unreadable.
The way to exclude files is to list them comma-separated in the exclude text field. Leave it blank to exclude nothing. If you notice backups failing due to files in a certain directory, try excluding it. You could always petition your web host for relaxed permissions in order to include the directory again. (Or move to a better Magento host!).
As always please feel free to let me know if you have any ideas for the development and report any issues – we’re happy to look into them. If you’re not already backing up your Magento store, why not try our cloud backup?
“WIMP user” – how appropriate 🙂
This is so awesome Ash,
Came across this extension – http://www.magentocommerce.com/magento-connect/edmondscommerce/extension/4440/edmondscommerce_lightbackup#overview which modifies the backup routine so that it doesn’t include the logging tables…which I thought was a good idea…
Thanks for the link Graham – it’s hard to imagine the log tables making a big difference (especially when gzipped) compared to the media and other items in the backup. In any case, I’ll put it on the list of possible features to exclude certain tables (or all log tables).
The log tables can get reasonably big on a high traffic site – easily 100MB gzipped.
I tried this on WIMP, and it doens’t quite work.
When I click on the create backup, it seems to be working. I wait a while, but nothing happens.
So I go back, and then I see that a backup has been created according to the admin screen:
Bucket: myBucket
Created: Sep 8, 2010 3:28:25 PM
In Use: Yes
View: View
Delete: Delete
But when I click on View I get
“No records found.”
Should I enable some logging, and send append this information here somewhere?
I’m not experienced with magento yet, which is why I find this feature so useful.
/Jonas
I have run into an odd issue on our Magento 1.3.2.4 site (with the latest code via the Magento Connect). I sent an email – if you could review and send a few hints that would be fantastic.
Hi Ashley,
Trying to get this going with 1.6.1 magento.
I just installed the Cloud backup module and cleared all cache, but when I go back to the admin and log out and back in, the admin page is gray. I see that I am in the admin, but just gray page.
Any ideas?
Daniel
I’ve been looking for a “Backup Buddy” for Magento. Have you ever heard of Backup Buddy for WordPress by iThemes? It’s awesome. I can restore a backup to any server or even a new domain. I have many choices where I can store my backups. I renew my Backup Buddy for WordPress Developers license yearly. I need a Magento version. iThemes doesn’t do Magento. That’s where you come in.
Thanks,
Tina