Overview
to create a automated advanced backup and restoring wizard to prevent unexpected errors and to make easy the backup and restore process
Description
this is my idea
when manage a system like drupal, mistakes can be happen. also after installing a module what happen if some error occurs? also if the website is a critical one, creating backups in timely basis is needed. so my suggestion is to create an advanced backup and restore module for drupal. it's a partially automated one which can detect new critical change of the website, and automatically backups the website and database
it may contains following features
triggers automatically when installing a new module or doing a change to the database-> create full backup automatically and create a restore point
allows admins to schedule backups(may or may not run as cornjobs)
this backup and restore mechanism will not affect to the functionality of the system, and it may be light weight
it may backup both database and files
allows admins to specify and skip files to backup (large files like videos,etc)
one click restore wizard (allows to restore to the whole website by one click, database and files)
Comments
There are several solutions
There are several solutions which does backup and restore:
I like the idea, of automatic backup on module installation etc. Perhaps this could be integrated in one of the existing solutions.
Most of this is already
Most of this is already implemented by Backup & Migrate module. I do agree with dereine, having automatic backups initiated before module installs/updates is a good idea, but I'm not sure if it's a three month project.
Senior Drupal Developer for Lullabot | www.davereid.net | @davereid
yes integration is possible
thank you very much for your comments. i have been through the backup and migrate module. i think the automatic backup part is more critical. and it may be possible to integrate with it. also i think this can be implemented within 3 months
Backup and Migrate
The Backup and Migrate module already supports automatic database backups on a cron schedule. I don't think there's a way to schedule things in Drupal without using cron, or that it would be a good idea to introduce a new scheduling mechanism outside of Drupal cron.
I think you're suggesting that when you enable a module, before the module can be enabled, you create an automatic backup point? That's an interesting idea.
I also see a suggestion to back up files (presumably the sites directory, minus wherever the backup files themselves are stored), which is also very important. It looks like the author of Backup and Migrate is working on Backup and Migrate Files, which proposes to do that.
http://drupal.org/project/backup_migrate_files
So if you do something with backing up files, I would suggest integrating it there.
Drupal programmer - http://poplarware.com
Drupal author - http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920034612.do
Drupal contributor - https://www.drupal.org/u/jhodgdon
RE
yes my target is to do the backup process without corn jobs. one of my main target is to backup the website when doing a critical change to it. so it cannot be done by using a corn schedule. i also wonder if i can integrate this feature with Backup and Migrate module as a google summer of code project.
Extension to backup & migrate
As others said, Backup and Migrate (BM), with BM Files extension does most of the data lifting anyway, so all that remains would be scheduling, which seems a limited scope.
However, BM still has some significant limitations:
Regarding the first issue, this is typically not a problem during backup, but can be a problem during restores: LOAD DATA INFILE, when it exists, or its equivalent on other servers, can be orders of magnitude faster than SQL inserts, even using insert "extended" syntax.
If the project is to include some of these additional points, it seems worthy to me. Also, if you're looking for a mentor or co-mentor for this, I can help.
Also note the SaaS version at http://nodesquirrel.com/
3rd Party Tools?
Would there be any market for a 3rd party tool for this? I do lots of tools for Wordpress and was wondering if such a backup and restore tool for Drupal would be of value to anyone, particularly non-technical folks.