Are You Sure Your Website Can Be Recovered From Your Backups?
Not that long ago, WordPress released its version 3.0. There have been many changes associated with this release and its subsequent updates and its release prompted a major overhaul of this blog. What I learned from this overhaul will help me to ensure that should a major disaster occur with my web hosting provider, or should it be maliciously attacked, I will be able to re-establish my WordPress blog in a timely manner. If you do not have an adequate recovery plan for your website or blog, making a full recovery may be a very frustrating experience for you.
Most of the online marketing training that I have been exposed to makes a point of mentioning the importance of backups at least once. The main backup that is mentioned is the database backup, and yes, this is important. With the availability of the WordPress Database plugin, which is free to use, and a free Gmail account, you have the ability to send a copy of your database to yourself on a daily basis. Once setup, this is virtually a hands free and cost free process, so there is no excuse for not having your database for your WordPress blog backed up.
Another needed backup that is frequently mentioned is that of backing up the files on your actual website. More than one online business has faced irretrievable loss when a hosting provider has gone out of business or suffered a major server side glitch and all files have been lost. Does this take time? Of course it does. But it is nothing compared to the time you would spend trying to recreate your website or blog from thin air. So, if you are not already familiar with using your ftp, it is time to learn how to work with it and take a full copy of the files that make up your website.
So now we have covered the database and files, what about the settings? If you manage your website yourself as many of us do, you have invested a significant amount of time in how your site has been setup. Would you be able to easily recreate those settings? Or would you have to once again go through the process of investigating what each means before implementing? Do you know what is all listed under links? Have you made reciprocal link deals with any other sites? This information will not necessarily be available on a restore. It should, but what if it is not? Do you have another means of recovering this information?
As I mentioned above, the release of WordPress 3.0 prompted an overhaul for this blog. This happened for two reasons:
1) The theme I was currently using did not migrate well. And…
2) I had too many blogs with too many different themes, which effectively doubled the work load.
So, I decided to use the Magazine Basic theme as the default for all of my blogs.
To do this effectively, I set up a testing site, (with search engines blocked), under my default blog and installed WordPress 3. I also took this opportunity to setup clean databases and name them in a manner that reflected which blog they referred to. So, importing the database was not an option here. Fortunately, there is a plugin called WordPress Importer that allows you to export all of your posts and pages and re-import them to a new installation. I had to do some tweaking with the Categories and Tags, but overall, this was a definite plus as my intention was to wipe out the original blog once the test one was setup to my satisfaction.
It was at this point that I realized just how much was missing. All of the links had to be manually redone, as well as the basic settings, user accounts, specialty settings, plugin setups, analytics settings, menus, and of course any redirection links that had existed in the original blog.
Now most of you will be able to re-establish your website without having to do all of this , simply because you do have a valid database backup on hand and a copy of your website files. If you are not techy enough to restore it yourself it should be relatively easy to find someone to help you with it. However, if for any reason your database backups are unusable, having a listing of your website settings and an export of your posts and pages will help you to get back up and running.
A further unseen benefit occurred for me just a few days ago. Having setup the testing site for one of my blogs, I had thought to remove it at a later date when I was comfortable with the new setup. Of course, there never did seem to be the time to do this, and in this case, that was a very good thing.
You see, I added a new plugin to this other blog and upon activation, my customized home page disappeared. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I realized I still had my test site running and was able to use it as a reference while troubleshooting the effects of this new plugin, which did not disappear when the plugin was deactivated.
After a bit of time and a great deal of head scratching, I found that a new redirection had been implemented when the plugin was activated and so everytime I tried to go to the home page, it redirected me to the page associated with the plugin. Once this redirection was removed, I confirmed that my customized home page was the one set in the Settings areas and all was back where it needed to be.
This is just one small example of how having a testing environment available saved the day. And I admit, had I used the testing environment to test the addition of this plugin instead of my main blog, a lot of grief could have been avoided. I have learned my lesson with the above experiences and I hope that what I have learned will benefit others in the future.
To Your Success,
SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com
I suppose that websites are to be found and uploaded online i.e. over the internet. Also a particular website can be accessed only when the internet is in use. So how is it that a website can be recovered from the backups? I am unable to understand the concept of recovering the website from the backups that you have installed in your computer.
It is actually more simple than many assume Terry. A website is a collection of files. Many also have a database. In the case of WordPress, the database holds the information on how things are configured, such as how you want a plugin to work on your site and information such as the name and location of the site. If you have a copy of the database and a copy of the files that make up your website or blog, then you would be able to restore it. If it is beyond your own capabilities, you would be able to outsource the restoration. At least you would not have to start again from scratch.
Yes I agree that websites is a collection of many files. Than I don’t think that there will be any issue in recovering the files if in case they get lost or are misplaced. And it would be good if we have a copy of all the files that are made. Then it would actually become very easy to get those files back. Having a database would be a good option as it would help in saving time.
Yes, website is a collection of files and pages which gets uploaded on the internet and we see it as a complete site. You need to check whether you have a complete backup of them all. I always used to wonder what people do if they do not have a backup? But yes now it’s always possible to have a backup even if you do not have your own.
Yes now even the websites can be recovered from all your backups. The only thing that you need to take care of is that you have a backup of everything. Every time it’s not possible for everyone to have a copy or a CD of all the data that they have on their computer. It’s just not convenient for everyone to continuously keep storing all of the information. And so I think having a backup in your computer itself would be very good.
You can always outsource all your work and get all your sites stored as they will have a complete backup of all your files and websites that you upload over the internet. It’s a very nice idea. I think everyone who should have a backup for sure as it will ensure a complete safety for all your files and folders.
Even if you have a back up of your websites in your computer you will still miss over some of the files and folders of the website. It does not happen always but yes at times we do loose out some of our files and folders. So it would be better if we have a backup in a Compact Disc or so which would help us to have the content with us even if we loose it someday.
Back ups are absolutely important and we definitely need them, we do not know what will happen when our web hosting companies or WordPress or any hosting update, so it is essential to have back ups. We are also not into viruses, so we should be armed in fighting these kinds of traitors running around the Internet, we need to backup our files and our websites.
The only thing that you need to take care of is that you have a backup of everything. Every time it’s not possible for everyone to have a copy or a CD of all the data that they have on their computer.
Now you no longer need to be afraid of whatever is happening in your computer. You can have good backups now as they are now available in the market. Even if you have by mistakenly lost any of your websites, you can still recover them. Yes it’s possible now to get your lost websites back. I would really appreciate if I get to read more on such topics.