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mmedia
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Hello, all! I'm trying to avoid the BackupBuddy forums as the search functionality has much to be desired and the website itself is dated...So I'm hoping to get some help from the wonderful members here! :)
I have BackupBuddy installed on our network, however I'm not 100% positive on what exactly it's backing up. I've seen conflicting information posted here in the forums. If I network activate it, and then individually set it up for each of the sites, is the file created only a back up of the individual site? Or, should I only active it on the main site and it will back up absolutely everything?
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Hi mmedia,
As far as I've seen, BackupBuddy is still not multisite compatible, meaning that it can't backup individual sites within a network.
What it does, from what I've seen, is it backs up the entire database and/or various crucial folders like /wp-content/.
Personally, I've used it to backup an entire multisite (network activated in this case), and in that sense I found it "compatible" but I've not used it to backup a sub-site in that network and to my knowledge that's still not possible.
Thanks for the response David. From what I gathered, that is what I thought it did (back-up the entire network). This is fine for our needs. I do need it to do a full back-up. I just wanted to confirm that it's successfully ran a complete backup on a multi-site. I'm having our database developer review and compare the back-up file to actual tomorrow, just to 100% verify, but I wanted input here as well.
If I install this on the main site, it's safe to say that it will backup everything?
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Hiya mmedia,
Just chiming in here as I've used BackupBuddy successfully on multi-site installs as well.
If I install this on the main site, it's safe to say that it will backup everything?
Well, it's safe to say that it has worked for several of us thus far. Your best bet is to always test it out a couple times up front and continually thereafter to ensure the integrity of the backups. Murphy's Law is always in effect and nothing's completely 'fool proof' ya know :)
Still, does work for me and for others, so I'd say give it a shot!
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I've been using BackupBuddy on numerous stand-alone sites and one multisite. I have only tried to restore or migrate a standalone site and it works beautifully for that. It backs up my multisite easily but I have never tried to restore or migrate the multisite. I've just been hoping that it works as they claim it does. Backing up individual sites separately can be done from within the word press control panel by the site user.
My question is whether BackupBuddy will work with Multi-DB?
If there's anybody else interested in this feature, please post it to that forum thread. Enough support might get the attention of their developers to support it.
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have posted on their forum as suggested. Just wanted to ask whether there is any progress on this issue? Did you somehow get BackupBuddy to work with Multi-DB? Thanks!
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Thanks ChuckS for posting at ithemes Backupbuddy Multisite forum. Apparently someone wrote a script to back up Multi-DB and shared it with Backupbuddy. If anyone else would like to see Backupbuddy work with Multi-DB, please let them know at:
In case membership is required to post in the ithemes forum for Backupbuddy Multisite, they have a pre-sales forum where somebody started a thread asking about Multi-DB support at:
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Hello,
I also use Backup Buddy and just moved to multi-db. It seems it is not clear when BackupBuddy will support multi-db. In this case, I was wondering what the best way is to make a full back up of a multisite, multi database platform. Also how shall this backup be restored?
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Using PHP (via BackupBuddy or similar) to backup multiple databases is a major strain on the server and not something you'll find recommended by anyone.
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Thanks. I didn't think that would help me because I only have 400 of my own sites, just enough to want to back up but not enough to hire a full-time server admin.
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Yeah, I understand. There's a sort of "middle ground" where you've got too many not to worry, but not enough to hire your own gunmen :)
How many databases? If it's 16 I'd say you could set up cron jobs to run and back them up wherever you want.
A few years ago I used to backup my installs to a gmail address and set up a filter to mark them as spam. Google keeps spam messages for 30 days and it doesn't count towards your data limit. So I always had 30 days of backups and no cost to worry about ;) Probably wouldn't recommend that now though....
I haven't purchased Navicat myself, but I know several members and staff alike swear by it here. Best of luck to ya. Thanks!
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Hiya @akasya,
I was wondering where do the problems occur about the wordpress installations. Is it largely due to problems with the hosting provider?
What times of problems are you referring to? Security? Backups? Scalability?
I also would like to learn what shall be done to prevent any problems beforehand. Are there any plugins or methods you recommend to prevent problems?
Again, depends on the kind of problems you're referring to. I use http://sucuri.net/ to do regular security sweeps of my sites. One of the main issues I've seen is when users or developers are accessing their site over ftp rather than sftp. Accessing the site in this way leaves the username/password open to being picked up and gives a hacker the ability to access the file structure as well as the database.
Let me know what other concerns you have and I'll help if I can.
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Hi James,
Actually I did not have any problems so far. And since this is my first multisite, I have no idea what problems I might have. Having invested much time in a project, I just want to have the maximum protection and security possible.
I will work on sucuri.net and I set up my sftp. I was just connecting with ftp before. Thanks a lot for the warning.
I am trying WPMU snapshot for making backups of individual subsites. I seems more practical than BackupBuddy but I am having this warning in the third table (wp_7_comments) and it never completes fully. The subsite is actually not open to comments.
Unknown: errno:2 fopen(pclzip-4fffedcda1963.tmp): failed to open stream: Permission denied ..../public_html/wp-admin/includes/class-pclzip.php on line 2203
Can you please let me know what to do about this?
I also installed Word Fence pro which seems to work fine. What do you thin about this plugin.
However I am still getting the following in the third step, wp_blogs. I will really appreciate if you let me know what the problem is
Unknown: errno:2 fopen(........../public_html/wp-content/tmp/pclzip-5006b2601b7df.tmp): failed to open stream: No such file or directory ......./public_html/wp-admin/includes/class-pclzip.php on line 2203
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Hiya @akasya,
Ok then, we need to debug that with you. Could you open a new thread on it (you can link back to this one if you like).
This one's been going for over a year and has a lot of stuff not relevant to your issue. Starting fresh will allow us to pull in a developer or other support reps more quickly and easily.
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WPMU DEV Fanatic (joined October 2009) Likes (0)
Hi mmedia,
As far as I've seen, BackupBuddy is still not multisite compatible, meaning that it can't backup individual sites within a network.
What it does, from what I've seen, is it backs up the entire database and/or various crucial folders like /wp-content/.
Personally, I've used it to backup an entire multisite (network activated in this case), and in that sense I found it "compatible" but I've not used it to backup a sub-site in that network and to my knowledge that's still not possible.
Cheers,
David
Member (joined November 2010) Likes (0)
Thanks for the response David. From what I gathered, that is what I thought it did (back-up the entire network). This is fine for our needs. I do need it to do a full back-up. I just wanted to confirm that it's successfully ran a complete backup on a multi-site. I'm having our database developer review and compare the back-up file to actual tomorrow, just to 100% verify, but I wanted input here as well.
If I install this on the main site, it's safe to say that it will backup everything?
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya mmedia,
Just chiming in here as I've used BackupBuddy successfully on multi-site installs as well.
Well, it's safe to say that it has worked for several of us thus far. Your best bet is to always test it out a couple times up front and continually thereafter to ensure the integrity of the backups. Murphy's Law is always in effect and nothing's completely 'fool proof' ya know :)
Still, does work for me and for others, so I'd say give it a shot!
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
I've been using BackupBuddy on numerous stand-alone sites and one multisite. I have only tried to restore or migrate a standalone site and it works beautifully for that. It backs up my multisite easily but I have never tried to restore or migrate the multisite. I've just been hoping that it works as they claim it does. Backing up individual sites separately can be done from within the word press control panel by the site user.
My question is whether BackupBuddy will work with Multi-DB?
Member (joined October 2008) Likes (0)
At the moment they do not support Multi-DB. Argh!
http://ithemes.com/forum/topic/20682-using-backupbuddy-with-wpmudevs-multi-db/page__hl__databases__fromsearch__1
If there's anybody else interested in this feature, please post it to that forum thread. Enough support might get the attention of their developers to support it.
Member (joined December 2011) Likes (0)
Member (joined December 2011) Likes (0)
have posted on their forum as suggested. Just wanted to ask whether there is any progress on this issue? Did you somehow get BackupBuddy to work with Multi-DB? Thanks!
Member (joined March 2009) Likes (0)
Any word yet on using Backupbuddy with Multi-db? They just released 3.0 with updated multisite use.
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (1)Liked by: 
Thanks ChuckS for posting at ithemes Backupbuddy Multisite forum. Apparently someone wrote a script to back up Multi-DB and shared it with Backupbuddy. If anyone else would like to see Backupbuddy work with Multi-DB, please let them know at:
http://ithemes.com/forum/topic/21483-req-support-for-using-multiple-databases-multi-db-or-hyper-db-plugins/
In case membership is required to post in the ithemes forum for Backupbuddy Multisite, they have a pre-sales forum where somebody started a thread asking about Multi-DB support at:
http://ithemes.com/forum/topic/29824-backup-buddy-multi-db/
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Hello,
I also use Backup Buddy and just moved to multi-db. It seems it is not clear when BackupBuddy will support multi-db. In this case, I was wondering what the best way is to make a full back up of a multisite, multi database platform. Also how shall this backup be restored?
Thanks
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (1)Liked by: 
Using PHP (via BackupBuddy or similar) to backup multiple databases is a major strain on the server and not something you'll find recommended by anyone.
You could setup a shell script to run a cron job to backup the databases. Something like this would work:
http://www.edwardawebb.com/web-development/simple-shell-script-backup-multiple-mysql-databases
Alternatively, I know many server admins who are fans of navicat and it should also be able to backup multiple databases:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xon3bp_how-to-backup-whole-server-and-multiple-databases-using-navicat-linux_tech
Either of the above will get it done and is much better in terms of multi-database backups.
Thanks!
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (1)Liked by: 
Thanks! I will look into Navicat. Do you know what Edublog does for backup?
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
I also wonder how Edublog is doing the backup.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya,
We employ 2 full-time server admins ;)
Edublogs is a completely unique beast. We have the binary logs and monthly DB dumps that we store as well as using S3 versions for file changes.
It's incredibly complicated and top secret (mostly because I don't understand all of it).
Hope that helps, though. Thanks!
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Thanks. I didn't think that would help me because I only have 400 of my own sites, just enough to want to back up but not enough to hire a full-time server admin.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (1)Liked by: 
Yeah, I understand. There's a sort of "middle ground" where you've got too many not to worry, but not enough to hire your own gunmen :)
How many databases? If it's 16 I'd say you could set up cron jobs to run and back them up wherever you want.
A few years ago I used to backup my installs to a gmail address and set up a filter to mark them as spam. Google keeps spam messages for 30 days and it doesn't count towards your data limit. So I always had 30 days of backups and no cost to worry about ;) Probably wouldn't recommend that now though....
I haven't purchased Navicat myself, but I know several members and staff alike swear by it here. Best of luck to ya. Thanks!
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Hello,
@masonjames
Thanks a lot for the help masonjames. I am setting up a cronjob according to instructions in codex.
I was wondering where do the problems occur about the wordpress installations. Is it largely due to problems with the hosting provider?
I also would like to learn what shall be done to prevent any problems beforehand. Are there any plugins or methods you recommend to prevent problems?
Thanks
Member (joined November 2011) Likes (0)
Thanks! Nice idea with Gmail. I think I will try Navicat.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya @akasya,
What times of problems are you referring to? Security? Backups? Scalability?
Again, depends on the kind of problems you're referring to. I use http://sucuri.net/ to do regular security sweeps of my sites. One of the main issues I've seen is when users or developers are accessing their site over ftp rather than sftp. Accessing the site in this way leaves the username/password open to being picked up and gives a hacker the ability to access the file structure as well as the database.
Let me know what other concerns you have and I'll help if I can.
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Hi James,
Actually I did not have any problems so far. And since this is my first multisite, I have no idea what problems I might have. Having invested much time in a project, I just want to have the maximum protection and security possible.
I will work on sucuri.net and I set up my sftp. I was just connecting with ftp before. Thanks a lot for the warning.
I am trying WPMU snapshot for making backups of individual subsites. I seems more practical than BackupBuddy but I am having this warning in the third table (wp_7_comments) and it never completes fully. The subsite is actually not open to comments.
Unknown: errno:2 fopen(pclzip-4fffedcda1963.tmp): failed to open stream: Permission denied ..../public_html/wp-admin/includes/class-pclzip.php on line 2203
Can you please let me know what to do about this?
I also installed Word Fence pro which seems to work fine. What do you thin about this plugin.
Many thanks for your attention.
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya,
As to your error, we had a similar topic recently discussed here:
http://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/permission-denied-wp-adminincludesclass-pclzipphp-on-line-2203
I haven't used WordFence, but seems like they've been in the industry awhile so looks good. Let us know how you find your experience with them. :)
Thanks!
Member (joined February 2012) Likes (0)
Hi Mason,
I am really satisfied with WordFence, really nice plugin as far as I undersand.
About snapshot, I had a look at the link you mentioned and add the following to config
define('PCLZIP_TEMPORARY_DIR', ABSPATH . 'wp-content/tmp/');
However I am still getting the following in the third step, wp_blogs. I will really appreciate if you let me know what the problem is
Unknown: errno:2 fopen(........../public_html/wp-content/tmp/pclzip-5006b2601b7df.tmp): failed to open stream: No such file or directory ......./public_html/wp-admin/includes/class-pclzip.php on line 2203
Thanks
Member (joined April 2009) Likes (0)
Hiya @akasya,
Ok then, we need to debug that with you. Could you open a new thread on it (you can link back to this one if you like).
This one's been going for over a year and has a lot of stuff not relevant to your issue. Starting fresh will allow us to pull in a developer or other support reps more quickly and easily.
Thanks!
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