This page was originally set here last year, but I have updated it and added it back in as a forum post (as is the currently accepted procedure for new topics).

I took a backup of the site again today (Aug 19, 2007) and came across a couple of new issues due to the new modules that have been installed over the last few months.

The process of backing up the site goes as follows:

Move a copy of the entire tdbcelts.org directory structure to the laptop. This will include drupal core files, as well as custom graphic images or code 'snippets' that make up that skeletal framework. This is a 'complete' backup, and really only necessary once in a great while. I only did a partial backup this time.

1. Log onto the server and access phpmyadmin
2. Export the tdb476 database to a gzipped SQL file with all structure and data (I like to make sure compatibility to 4.0 is checked)
3. If I copied *everything* in the tdbcelts directory I will have a complete copy of the files folder (and all subdirectories) on the local machine. This is the directory with all user submitted images and files. If I didn't do a complete backup, at least grab this. Drupal itself and the modules can always be reinstalled from source.
4. Import the dumped SQL file into my mysql 4.0 database on my laptop and load the site locally as it was on the outside server.

Running the site on my powerbook

Since I gzipped the SQL file, the resulting file was only 1.6 meg, well under the 7 meg where there might be a problem.

Other problems I had included: I had to disable Captcha and textimage since I couldn't get the ImageMagick module working properly on the laptop (I have upgraded to a newer OS), and had to do this through phpmyadmin, by going to the system table and setting captcha and textimage modules to '0' (disabled) directly in the database. Then I had to empty the cache table manually. I eventually got ImageMagick installed and working, but I messed up my http.conf file (Apache) and now .htaccess files just cause server 500 errors all the time, so I had to delete the protecting one in the files/images directory on the laptop.

The .htaccess file I use on the live site doesn't work on the laptop (yet?) and was causing a server error 500. To get around this I had to change the general setting to not use 'clean URLs' - the site on the laptop runs so that this page looks like this: http://tdbcelts.org/?q=node/718 instead of what it normally looks like. Not a big deal, but it is different.