NML staff keep regular backups of the full server, but those are saved only as a precaution in case of server-wide problems. You should save your own backups, both to occasionally create an off-site record of your work and before making any significant site changes, such as site software upgrades.
Save your files and your database
To backup your site, you need to save both your files and your database. You can download your files using FileZilla. Simply navigate to the top-level directory for your site on the server, and download it to your computer.
The easiest way to backup your database is to export it using phpMyAdmin on the NML server. Access to phpMyAdmin requires your site’s database username and password, which are saved in your CMS configuration file, as discussed on the software installation page. If your MySQL account can’t login there, ask NML staff for help.
Once you login to phpMyAdmin:
- select your site’s database from the list in the left column (which will likely include only your site’s database and another named “information_schema”);
- Click the “Export” tab at the top of the window;
- Review the export settings, making sure that, near the bottom of the page, “Save as file” is checked, and click “Go” to download a .sql file.
The file includes all the MySQL code needed to recreate and repopulate your database.
Safe storage of your backups
It’s safe to rename the top level directory that contains your files and folder as well as the .sql file, but it’s generally better practice to create a new folder on your local computer and put both the directory and the database export into that, without renaming either.
Use a naming convention
To keep track of your backups, it helps to standardize how you name them. For example, a name such as “Site-backup-2014-04-22” will keep all your backups together alphabetically and will allow you to easily sort by date, since years are sorted first, months second, and days last (be sure to use leading zeros for months and days 1-9).
Archive your backups
We also recommend that you consider archiving your backups in a format such as .zip. On a Mac, right click the folder containing your backup and select “Compress [folder name]….” On a Windows PC, right click the folder, and from the “Send to” submenu select “Compressed (zipped) folder.” Creating a .zip archive will prevent accidental changes to your files. It will also prevent your files from appearing in searches, which can be good for reducing clutter but problematic if you need to search your backups. If you want to be able to search the full content of your backups, you might want to keep both the original folder and a .zip of it.