WordPress Support

Database backup and restoration

If you have completed this chapter up to this point, then you already have a backup of your database, and exported it either via phpMyAdmin or via the command line. All you need to do is follow those same steps that we completed earlier to create another database backup.

But wouldn't it be nice if we could automate this process so that we don't need to remember to manually back up everything? We can.

One method is to use the excellent WP-DB-Backup plugin (http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup). This plugin not only allows you to manually back up the database from within the WordPress Dashboard, but it allows you to create scheduled automatic backups, e-mailed straight to you:

Scheduled Backup

Schedule:

© Never Q Once Hourly © Twice Daily @ Once Daily © Once Weekly

Email backup to: your@email.com

Schedule backup

Tables to include in the scheduled backup:

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Just choose a Schedule, select the database Tables to include in the scheduled backup, enter your e-mail address, and click on the Schedule backup button. The plugin will take care of everything else and will send the backup to your provided e-mail account. You can restore that database at any time using phpMyAdmin or via the command line.

That takes care of the database, but we still need to find ways to back up our regular site files.