On having backups and test sites, this is good, we both agree on it.

There are a wealth of tools to backup databases that have communities around them that are superior to anything that could be included in core could be. Some of the issues that came up several years ago was that ‘through drupal backups’ (dba module in 4.5-4.6) had a lot of issues scaling. PHP memory limits on the server causing failures or white screen of death. So there went the save through your website to your desktop. Email… file to large, blocked. Save to your server file system…. space issues or the server crashed and no local copy. Security vulnerabilities and the fact that your site could be dead with such database access configured.

These are some of the challenges I remember others going through in attempting a solution. Does it support MySQL and PostGRE and can it be extended to support MS-SQL should that support get in?

I wouldn’t trust a built in solution myself anymore when using tools designed by the various database communities and vendors themselves do a much better job.

If you implement Drupal sites, then you need to make sure you leave your users with proper instructions, documentation and tools to protect their sites because there is other database maintenance that should be going on at regular intervals as well. If you run a site, you should have some technical ability especially if your business relies on it. I am not saying that making things more accessible is bad, I am saying that Drupal already makes very technical things easy and always hiding that is not always good.

All that said, propose a feature in the project tracker, get a developer behind it and some advocacy going (code is gold). It is possible to get features in if people work on it. The very module you are using could probably serve as a base entry point so you should definitely bring that up with the module maintainer. Maybe just get the base API in with a GUI interface being contrib for one more version.

Non-techies aren’t often sensible about technology.

Best of luck, glad you like Drupal.

Steven Peck

The first person any sensible business person with a web presence will do is ask about backup and recovery. If I install a Drupal site for a client and they’re running a shopping cart off it – it’s pretty critical to have a backup for two reasons.

One is that if there is a problem with the host, the site can be brought up elsewhere in a relatively short space of time with minimal loss and no need to spend hours rebuilding the database.

The other is to guarantee (as I did) that you won’t damage your database during an upgrade and ruin your site. The ability to import the database locally and perform tests on it is crucial.

I take your point about the complexity of site configurations Drupal is capable of. However, that shouldn’t stop a basic backup utility being included as part of the core with a recommendation for other backup methods for more intricate installs.

I’m thinking of the non-technical Drupal user here, as well as something which I think would encourage the adoption rate of the Drupal platform.

Drupal is a flexible system that has a multitude of configuration options/setups and uses. It makes a predictable/automated one size fits all solutions more complex and better suited as an add on for those who desire it integrated.

Drupal sites can easily scale to comprise multiple front end and back end servers and other complex configurations. The addition of multi-site setup where multiple sites share a same code base just add to the complications. The overhead cost of code that is applicable on a small percentage of sites just doesn’t seem worth including in core to me. (feel free to supply patches and advocacy in the issue tracker if you disagree, it is after all how features get added

On my site I automated the back up of 10-15 sites that are split between three root code bases.

I will point out that the best practices (http://drupal.org/best-practices) encourages you to back up your site and to not start updates with your live site (http://drupal.org/node/29161).

You might want to look at the drush project for command line automation tools. I haven’t had time and have other methods in place already myself.