Do you close your forum when making a backup?

Discussion in 'Security and Legal' started by Kaiser, May 26, 2011.

  1. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Do you close your forum when backing up? I always do because its not a good thing leaving your forum open while backing up because it can create problems in the database such as ruining it and corrupting contents.

    I will go into more details why its a bad thing to do later on.

    ---Posted from iPod Touch
     
  2. Ashley

    Ashley Regular Member

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    I don't think we do, but I'm not 100% sure though. Even if we do end up losing posts, it's not a lot and those posts can be very easily made again.
     
  3. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    I don't see the need to, I'm sure members can understand if a backup had to be restored and a few posts were missing, etc.
     
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  4. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Do you have an off-site backup system implemented like r1soft? I tend to close down my forums if I'm making a backup, that way nothin messes up/
     
  5. Ashley

    Ashley Regular Member

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    I don't know. Ashley.S. handles the technical end of things on CT so you'll have to ask him that one.
     
  6. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Here is why leaving your forum open when creating a backup can be bad thing:

    Say you have a large and active forum, and members are posting and engaging in activity every second, and when you create the backup of a forum while members are doing just that it can cause certain areas of the database backup to be incomplete and can ruin certain things in the database, so if you ever need to use it and restore your forum there might be some problems with your forum so its always best to close your forum when doing it just to be on the safe side. I am not exactly sure on how to explain my point :P
     
  7. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    No, cos my host just discontinued it and want me to pay for their FTP backup system, I'm going to speak to the CEO about it, because I'm not happy at all, and submitting a ticket won't help at all.

    I can understand it for large forums, but for small/medium forums, I don't see the need to
     
  8. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Well if you at least have 5-10+ users online its best to close it..
     
  9. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    If they are online and actively posting, I'd wait until they had finished, as I don't see the point in driving them away by closing the board for a backup...
     
  10. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    A backup takes like a minute, and I do wait for them to stop posting which I check by viewing who's online.
     
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  11. SpacewardAsh

    SpacewardAsh Lurking From Space

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    I know it takes like a minute, but if you were in the middle of posting something and the board went off-line, would'nt you get pissed off by it?
     
  12. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Yea I know thats why as I mentioned I use the Who's online feature.
     
  13. lucasbytegenius

    lucasbytegenius Regular Member

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    I have my forum's database backed up automatically every day using MyBB's task manager, so it's not that big of a deal for me.
    I always tend to run full backups during the middle of the night when nobody's on, though I never close my forum for that.
     
  14. Ashley

    Ashley Regular Member

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    I'd be pissed. Especially if the board went offline without prior explanation, I'd be wondering if I didn't in fact get banned from the site... It would make me wonder if I'd broken a rule that I didn't know about or something.
     
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  15. Kaiser

    Kaiser Regular Member

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    Guys lets not get off topic.

    Do you close your forum when making a backup? Why or why not?
     
  16. cpvr

    cpvr Regular Member

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    Ya, that's why there usually should be a warning made before shutting the forums so users can have the chance to backup their posts[if they're making posts and such]
     
  17. Seahunter

    Seahunter Regular Member

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    I think best practices would demand that you close when doing a backup. I think a huge site with many posters all night long may lose some posts during a backup. A small site that backs up at 3 in the morning, I don't think it's a big problem.
     
  18. dojo

    dojo Regular Member

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    NO! The server can backup without me putting my community on-hold. I close the forums when I move to another domain (which happened yesterday for instance) so that I don't lose members/posts during the move. And also when I update the script, since it's not 'healthy' to run the update otherwise. If there's just a backup to be made, I don't close the forums. I get crazy mad when the host is giving me even 2 minutes of a downtime, will surely not do it myself :D
     

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