Backing up Moodle

Backing up Moodle

by Hans de Zwart -
Number of replies: 9
I would like to back up my complete Moodle site. I can do a dump of the MySQL database and am able to backup Moodle itself.

However I have a problem with the data directories. I have no access to them since I do not 'own' the rights to them (Moodle created the directories).

Would it be an idea to include backing up the data in the admin page on a new release?
I know in the future you want to add the ability to save courses etc., but that is not what I am asking here.

Does anybody know any other short term solutions?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Gunther Dippe -
Check out i.e...
http://www.hotscripts.com/search/?bool=AND&query=mysql+backup&category=all

You'll find several scripts for backing up your different MySQL databases.

I don't think it's crucial to backup Moodle itself (mybe except for your config file) since Martin provides us with excellent access to past versions.

Cheers
In reply to Gunther Dippe

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Greg Barnett -
If your server is running some variant of unix/linux/bsd, and you have the command line version of php installed, and you are using mysql, you might want to try the backup script I put together. It is in the contrib/crown_college/backup directory (available at http://cvs.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/moodle/moodle/contrib/crown_college/backup/backup.php ). I've also attached it. Of course, it won't help with the permissions issue though.
In reply to Greg Barnett

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Abdul Rahman -

clicking on either link creates a dead graphic.

You might want to save it as a text file backup.php.txt. That because the server sees a php file and attempts to run it.

 

In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Martin Dougiamas -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Full backups of the data directory will be in the next version - I've already been looking into it.

I recently found this nice PHP class that does zip and unzip, so there will be soon be a button somewhere to create and download zipped backups.

http://www.phpconcept.net/phpzip/
In reply to Martin Dougiamas

Re: Backing up Moodle

by John Windmueller -

I just wanted to say a big Yay! for integrating data and database backups in Moodle.  As I get more and more instructors to try Moodle, I've been increasingly concerned with ways of doing responsible backups of Moodle.  My host doesn't provide command-line access--at least not without lots of begging and prodding--and so having the functions built into Moodle would be a wonderful addition.

John

In reply to Hans de Zwart

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Ray Le Couteur -

I am struggling with the same problem as Hans -  as my site grows, backup of uploaded files becomes ever more important .....

I can backup database and moodle itself, but not the contents of the moodledata directory - these directories are created by moodle and I do not have permission even to view these files by ftp.

Any way round this?

Thanks

Ray Le couteur

In reply to Ray Le Couteur

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Ray Le Couteur -

>I can backup database and moodle itself, but not the contents of the moodledata directory - >these directories are created by moodle and I do not have permission even to view these files >by ftp.

I have found a workaround - I have changed the file permission values from 750 to 755 in index.php (\files) and moodlelib.php (\lib).

Now I can see, download, delete etc the files (I had to do some deleting/re-uploading to make this apply to current files - but all new file are OK now).

Martin  - are there any issues regarding my changing these values?

Thanks

Ray Le Couteur

 

In reply to Ray Le Couteur

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Dr. Prin Singhanart -
i tried your method but it still doesn't work .. still don't have permissiong to moodle data directory. I changed chmod 750 to 755 to both files.

When you say..

...Now I can see, download, delete etc the files (I had to do some deleting/re-uploading to make this apply to current files - but all new file are OK now)......

could you kindly be more specify of what you did step by step so that I can follow? ie. delete what / re upload what? those two files that had been chmod or the data files ?



In reply to Dr. Prin Singhanart

Re: Backing up Moodle

by Ray Le Couteur -

When you change the permissions in Moodle, these changes will only apply to newly added files. The older resources already have permissions set.

I deleted all the older files (from within Moodle), then manually deleted the empty folders by ftp (couldn't delete the non empty files by ftp).

Then I re-uploaded files in Moodle and the new permissions were set correctly.

I am still not sure how well the backup will work - I will certainly be able to download all the files for safe keeping, but if I put them back via ftp the 'permissions' will not be 'owned' by Moodle - it may not work. I might have to upload the files from within Moodle.

Hope this helps.

Ray Le Couteur