Bloggers of the World Backup!
While toying with the idea of upgrading WordPress to version 2.0 today I came across an answer to something else I’ve been wanting to know for a while: how to perform a reliable backup of my blog’s SQL database. The implications of backing up the database (as opposed to the blog’s files—the application itself) had taken a while to dawn on me. That was until the first time DR stopped working and I realised that although I had a backup of the application, I did not have a copy of any of the content I had painstakingly added since November. Oops.
Fortunately, no harm done. Anyway, Podz has posted some very clear instructions on backing up WordPress MySQL databases. (Although the relevant application is WordPress, the instructions on backing up database files themselves should not, I think, be overly application-specific, at least for MySQL-based blogs. They are, however, specific to the database management control panel, in this case phpMyAdmin.) To put a finer point on it: if you blog, you need to backup your database; if your publishing application uses MySQL databases and you don’t know how to back them up, you need to read this document. WordPress users may also find Podz’ WordPress Guides to be a helpful resource. For a guy that “doesn’t know how to code,” he’s pretty knowledgeable about blogware administration and fine-tunery.
If you’re reading this and have any wisdom to add, please leave a comment. I’m still learning the ropes with PHP and MySQL in general, and WordPress in particular. Every little bit helps. (Sidenote: I decided not to upgrade to version 2.0, at least not today. It seems as though the benefits do not yet outweigh the hassle and possible negatives. So for now, DR is proudly brought to you by WordPress version 1.5.2, tried and true.)