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Online Website Backup Options?
pdcull writes "I can't be the only person on the planet who has this problem: I have a couple of websites, with around 2 GB of space in use on my hosting provider, plus a few MySQL databases. I need to keep up-to-date backups, as my host provides only a minimal backup function. However, with a Net connection that only gets to 150 Kbps on a good day, there is no way I can guarantee a decent backup on my home PC using FTP. So my question is: does anybody provide an online service where I can feed them a URL, an FTP password, and some money, and they will post me DVDs with my websites on them? If such services do exist (the closest I found was a site that promised to send CDs and had a special deal for customers that had expired in June!), has anybody had experience with them which they could share? Any recommendations of services to use or to avoid?"
Rather than "posting DVDs" I'd go for something like Amazon's S3 and just dump the backup to them. Here is a list of S3 Backup solutions that would do the job.
I've personally moved away from hard-media as much as possible because the issue on restore is normally about the speed to get it back on the server and its there that online solutions really win as they have the peering arrangements to get you the bandwidth.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
It seems like the only problem with your home computer is FTP. Why not use rsync, which does things much more intelligently - and with checksumming, guarantees correct data?
The first time would be slow, but after that, things would go MUCH faster. Shoot, if you set up SSH keys, you can automate the entire process.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I 100% agree with NerveGas on the rsync suggestion. I use it in reverse to backup my laptop to my hosting provider.
Here's the one thing to remember in terms of rsync. It's going to be the CURRENT snapshot of your data. Not a big deal, except if you're doing development and find out a week later that changes you made to your DB have had unintended consequences. If you've rsynced, you're going to want to have made additional local backups on a regular basis so you can roll back to one of those snapshots prior to when you hosed your DB. Apologies if that was obvious, but rsync is the transfer mechanism. You'll still want to manage archives locally.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Wow! So you are asking somebody to download your website's home folder and database, look at the password and private information of members, and deliver you dvd that is ready to be restored with rootkit along?
rsync to get the data, cp -al to keep snapshots. I've been using this for years to manage TB of data over relatively low-speed links. You'll take a hit first-time (so kick it off at night, kill it in the morning, and the next night just execute the same command and it'll eventually catch up, then cp -al it, then lather rinse, repeat. This page: http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/ has been about for years. Use it!
Send me your FTP details and some cash and I'll...backup...your data.
This strikes me as a really dumb thing to do; as both a) using it for data storage rather than primarily email storage and b) signing up for multiple accounts are both violations of the gmail TOS, you are just asking for your backups to not be available when you most need them.
NSA.gov?
NSA: We backup your data so you won't have to!
How it works:
First, edit each page on your website ab add the following meta tags: how-to, build, allah, infidels, bomb (or just any of the last three, if you're in a hurry).
On the plus side, you don't need to give them your money, nor your password.
On the minus side ... there is no minus side (I mean, who needs to travel anyway?)
Posting anonymously as I have moderated in this thread (that, and they already know where I live).
Hi everyone, I didn't mention in my question that where I'm living (Rio de Janeiro slum) there aren't that many options for internet access. Also, as all my sites are my very much not-for-profit, I'm limited as to how much I can spend on my hosting plan. I've been using Lunarpages for a number of years now, and generally find them very good, although if I stupidly overwrite a file, or want to go back to a previous version of something, I'm out of luck. As I am a lazy (read time-challenged) individual, I tend to use Pmwiki and maintain my sites online, hence my need for regular, physical backups. Anyway, thanks everyone for your help, I still can't help thinking that somebody must be able to make a pile of cash offering such as service to non-techie site owners...