As a couple of my favorite bloggers recently suffered a total data loss on their server and they had no reliable backup plan, I thought someone would be interested in how we do backups for the ScrewTurn website.

For a starter, the SVN repository is hosted at Unfuddle. svn.screwturn.eu is just a read-only mirror.

The backup is done this way, daily, via a set of batch scripts:

• a comprehensive backup of the MySQL database (used for phpBB and WordPress) is generated using the integrated scheduler
• the database backup file and all the other data (websites, SVN repository, etc.) is packed in a ZIP file
• the ZIP file is downloaded via FTP from a remote machine; the latter runs in Italy while the server runs in New Jersey, USA.

The most important part: how can we make sure that the backup works? Because we used it to migrate the site to a new server, and it works. The backup is all-inclusive: even scheduled tasks are backed up. The only thing that is not included is the IIS metabase, but for that I have a copy stored on my PC (also backed up daily).

Trivia:

• daily backups are preserved for an entire month offsite and for a week on the server, in case we need to restore something that’s been accidentally deleted (or hacked)
• the ZIP file containing the backup is roughly 465 MB, growing 1.5 Mb a day
• backups take up to 25% of our daily network traffic.

I’m personally a bit paranoid about backups, but I think they’re worth the time and money spent.

Bottom line: in case the whole datacenter blows up, we would only lose a day worth of data, which consists of a dozen forum posts, on average. All the other data is either a copy itself (SVN) or does not change very frequently (content of the wiki, the blog).

As Joel says, and he’s right, the more options or choices you offer to the (average) user, the more he needs to think about them. Many times, the users don’t actually knows what to do, so when you prompt him to confirm an operation, they just click OK without even reading the message you’re displaying. Or, worse, they mess things up in the configuration, creating security breaches here and there.

So, since even I have problems remembering what each configuration options does in ScrewTurn Wiki, we’re going to add a nice Configuration Wizard, for who don’t know very much about the wiki’s configuration or simply who don’t want to spend more than 30 seconds setting their wiki up.

The wizard will basically ask to type the title of the Wiki, its Main URL, the email addresses and the SMTP Server, then something like the default language, time zone and date/time format, just with drop-down lists. All the “complicate” options will be configured automatically behind-the-scenes, allowing the user to chose between “profiles” like Public Wiki, Intranet Wiki and the like. Allowed file types will be asked with a small set of high-level checkboxes, like Images, Documents, Compressed Archives, and so on. All the fine details must be decided yet, but you can figure it out.

This way, I think users will be able to install and configure their wiki really in a matter of minutes, without the need to read pages of documentation and, above all, without the danger of saving bad configurations. Of course, all the “fine-grained” options will remain accessible in the administration panel.

So, yesterday we installed on our website an interim Alpha build of ScrewTurn Wiki. After fixing a couple of minor problems, it seems that it is working like a charm.

After a few days of “real world” testing, we’ll release the Alpha version (probably on November 24 or 27), and a Beta will follow in a month or so, I hope. Final version should ship in late January.