How to use SiteVault - Backup FTP & MySQL - 1 Site

How to use SiteVault - Backup FTP & MySQL - 1 Site

What is a "Site" from the application's point of view?
A Site is defined as a folder on your FTP Account and a database (or a collection of tables) in an SQL Account. Any one of these two is optional. You can have a Site without an SQL Account or you can skip the FTP Account if you are only interested to Backup/Restore your database.

What do I need to start a backup?
Once you have setup your Site(s) you are just one click away form Backup. Go to the main menu select "Backup" and select the Site you wish to backup. Another way to start the backup is to right click on a site object (from the TreeView or the ListView) and select Backup from the menu that appears. Note: To prevent data corruption only one of these tasks, Backup/Restore or Cleanup, is allowed per site at a time.

How do I restore a Site from a backup?
To restore a site from a Backup: go to the main menu select "Restore" and select the Site you wish to backup. If some sites are disabled they do not have any Backups. Select a Backup from the list that appears. Another way to start the Restore task is to right click on a Backup object (from the TreeView or the ListView) and select Restore from the menu that appears (like shown in the image).

There is some red text in the Restore confirmation window. What does that mean?
Please do not rush to confirm the Restore. If some text appears in red it means the Backup is incomplete (user Aborted) or it has errors. If this is the case please read the logs, it will be very helpful as it tells you what files/tables have not been downloaded successfully. You can restore a damaged Backup with low risks because the files/tables that exist in the backup are intact. This means that SiteVault will only keep successfully and completely downloaded items.

How do I remove backups I don't need?
Over time you might find that your hard drive is full of old backups that you no longer need. Due to the fact that SiteVault doesn't keep duplicates of identical files you can not just delete the old folders. Use the Cleanup task instead. You can do this by selecting from the main menu "Cleanup" and then the site for which you wish to make the cleanup. Select the Backup(s) you wish to delete and press the "Ok" button. Another way is to select the backup(s) you wish remove from the Tree View or the List View right click and select "Delete" from the menu that apears.

How do I setup a FTP account?
Just click on the "New FTP" in the main toolbar to get started. In order to access your site's files SiteVault contains a FTP client. You may create as many FTP accounts as you want and can have them connected at the same time as well. Note: Some site hosts will not allow multiple connections from the same IP address.

How do I setup a SQL account?
This can be a bit tricky until you understand how it works. But after that it will only take you a Copy/Paste (or Backup command) to Export/Backup your databases. So here's how: - In order for SiteVault to backup your database(s) some scripts must be uploaded to your FTP account (because most hosts will not allow connections to the SQL server from another IP). - Then SiteVault will use them to Backup/Restore your database(s) through the HTTP protocol. - We recommend you to create a special folder for them ex: "/public_html/backup-scripts". - You must make sure that the scripts will be visible for the Web. Ex: http://www.your-site.com/backup-scripts

I don't have enough free space on the partition where SiteVault is installed. What can I do?
If you discover that the partition on which you have installed SiteVault has insufficient space, you can change the Backup directory. To open the "Change Backup Folder" dialog go to the main menu and select File->Change Backup Folder. All the files will be moved to the new specified location. Warning: please make sure no other tasks are running. No Backup/Restore or Cleanup tasks.

I only work with one FTP connection at a time and the other items in the browser disturb me. How do I set the root folder to the FTP I want?
The second button near the address bar is the "Browse" button for choosing the Root element. The selected FTP connection will become the Root element of the Browser and all the other elements will be hidden. You can also use the arrow near it for pedefined connections.

How can I upload the scripts for the SQL connection?
The scripts that will Export/Backup/Restore your databases can be placed automatically to your site by specifying an FTP account and a folder where to place the scripts when you setup the SQL account.

How do I export one or more databases (or just tables)?
After you have created an SQL account a virtual SQL connection will be created. Each SQL database is presented as a folder and a table will result in a text file containing SQL statements. You can select a number of databases, right click, and press Copy from the menu. Then you can "Paste" on any folder on your hard drive, network folder, FTP folder or another storage device. And due to the fact that data is read in chunks size doesn't matter. You can successfully export huge tables.

How do I set permissions for an entire FTP folder?
You can change permissions for a folder from the "Properties Window". Right click on the folder and from the menu select "Properties".

How do I hide the browse tree?
The first button near the address bar is the "Show/Hide tree" button. I get an "Too many connections from the same IP" error when trying to FTP. Most servers will limit the number of times an IP can connect to it. So please disconnect the FTP connections to the same server. This usually happens if you have more sites on the same hosting.

What does "Redirect not enabled" or "Error 320" means?
It usually means the SQL connection files weren't uploaded correctly and your server redirects the 404 errors to a custom error page.

I see way too many MySQL databases when trying to select them. Some hosting will show you the databases the server hosts, but won't let you access them. If it's a big server and searching for yours is a challenge, just check the "manual" option and "add" your databases.