FTP backup

squibs

Anybody know a good program that won't break the bank for doing backups? It should have the following characteristics:
Should have a scheduler that can handle different jobs
Should be able to do incremental backups (only copy new or updated files)

I'm also looking for something to do the same thing with databases.

Thanks.

ron_darrell

Hi Squibs,

I've the same problem as yourself and have looked at several solutions with little success. The solution I am using at the moment (while far from ideal) is WSFTP Professional. It allows you to create scripts that can then be activated by the windows scheduler (so backups can work away automatically at set times). It works fine for small files (zips throw image folders and can upload several megabytes of such files in pretty short time), pretty slow on bigger files (our databases are running at 50-100MB and it takes up to 30 mins to upload files of this type). I have run into difficulties where the webserver has restarted during an upload (pretty messy consequences - WSFTP not able to handle this event - corrupts files on both sides of the upload) but other than that it works fine. The cost is approximately €50 for a 1 year licence.

-RD

squibs

Thanks Ron - I will look into that. The license only lasts for a year though? I really hate renting software!

I'm still holding on to the hope that there's something better than that solution. It must be a common enough problem for webmasters so surely some enterprising programmer has solved it

colm_c

If you're site is running on linux, you can use rsync to make automated backups - both full and incremental.

steve-hosting36

Some hosts have such a feature built into their control panels too, might be worth contacting yours to see if that's the case.

squibs

The control panel doesn't offer much in the way of backup, rsync may be an option though - time to do some reading

Thanks.