The Configuration Wizard page allows you to quickly set up your backup application by auto-detecting the connection details to your site's database (or letting you define them when that's not possible) and automatically configuring itself with the optimal settings for your server. The Configuration Wizard settings are applied to the current profile only. If you want to fine tune a different profile, you have to select it from the drop-down list in the main page before clicking on the button. Please note that using the Configuration Wizard has the following effects:
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Your backup type is switched to "Full site backup"
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The archiver engine is switched to "JPA (Recommended)"
If you want to use a different backup type and/or archive type, you can review the configuration changes after the wizard is finished.
If you are using Akeeba Solo (standalone), the detection and validation of the connection details is a semi-automated step. If you are using Akeeba Backup you do not have to enter anything manually: Akeeba Backup always runs inside your site and, as a result, is told by it all the information necessary to back it up! Akeeba Backup will automatically optimise its backup settings when you click on the Configuration Wizard button.
Site root selection in the Configuration Wizard page
First you should enter the URL to the site you will backing up in the Site's URL box. This is optional, but it will help the installer understand if you are restoring on top of the same site you backed up from or if you are transferring your site to a new location / server.
Now it's the most important part: choose the root folder of the site to backup. Click on the open folder button to the far right hand side of the Site Root text box to open a directory browser.
The site root directory browser
Once you are inside the root folder of the site you want to back up, click on the green button to use this directory and close the directory browser. At any point you can close the directory browser without selecting a directory by clicking the small button at the top right-hand corner of the browser pop-up window.
![[Important]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/important.png) | Important |
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Akeeba Solo's directory browser is restricted by your host's configuration. On many shared hosts and virtual private hosts it is not possible to navigate into a directory belonging to a different user account for security reasons. This is not a bug; it is the way web servers work. In this kind of server configurations you will need to install Akeeba Solo in a directory inside each site you want to back up. |
Afterwards, click on the big, green button. Akeeba Solo will scan the root directory and try to figure out what kind of site it is. It is able to automatically detect most sites running on Joomla! and WordPress. If the auto-detection is successful, the database connection and site information areas further down the page will be automatically filled in. This takes place within 5 seconds of clicking on the Auto-detect button. If nothing happens, Akeeba Solo has failed to automatically detect your site type. You can still back it up by entering the rest of the information manually.
The Database connection pane
The next pane is the Database connection which tells Akeeba Solo how to back up your site's database. You need to enter the following information:
- Database type
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Select the database server technology you are using with your site. Akeeba Solo only supports MySQL database servers.
Please note that there are two options: MySQLi and MySQL (with or without the i at the end). Most servers allow you to use the newer, better, faster MySQLi (with the i at the end, which stands for "improved") option. If this doesn't work, you can also try using the one without the i at the end. This is discouraged as that option is the older, slower one which may have a performance impact on your backups.
- Database server host name
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The host name or IP address of your database server. It is usually localhost or 127.0.0.1 which are very different as far as the database connection is concerned. If localhost doesn't work, try 127.0.0.1 (note: these are dots, not commas, between the numbers). Otherwise please ask your host. Some hosts require something different in there, e.g. database123.example.com.
- User name
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The user name you use to connect to your database. This is provided by your host.
- Password
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The password you use to connect to your database. This is provided by your host.
- Database name
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The name of your database. This is provided by your host.
- Database table name prefix
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This is the common prefix of all database tables used by your site. This is usually visible in your site's administrator pages (e.g. in Joomla! it's under Global Configuration) or in your site's configuration files (e.g. for WordPress it's in the
wp-config.phpfile). If you are unsure open your site's database and check the common prefix of the tables in there. It's usually very obvious what the prefix is: most or all of your tables start with the same few letters and numbers followed by an underscore. These letters and numbers and the trailing underscore are the "database table name prefix".
Usually this information is determined by the Auto-detect feature, meaning you won't have to deal with it manually.
The Site information pane
Next up, we have the Site information pane.
First you have the Script type selection box. This is where you can give Akeeba Solo a few more hints about the script / CMS your site is using, allowing it to optimise the backup process. Your options are:
- Joomla!
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Select this if your site is using the Joomla! content management system. Akeeba Solo will automatically exclude its cache, log and temporary data from the files backup, as well as the session and smart search data from the database backup.
- WordPress 3.x
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Select this if your site is using the WordPress blogging / content management system.
- Generic or bespoke PHP script
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Select this for any other type of site.
The next drop-down selection is the Embedded restoration script. Akeeba Solo puts a database restoration and site reconfiguration script (also referred to as "the installer") inside the backup archive itself when it's taking a backup. By choosing the appropriate backup archive for your site's type you will be making your life a lot easier when you are restoring a backup. The restoration script will know what type of site you're using and optimise its restoration process for it. Your options are:
- ANGIE for miscellaneous PHP applications
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A generic restoration script that works with any kind of PHP application.
![[Warning]](/media/com_docimport/admonition/warning.png)
Warning This restoration script DOES NOT reconfigure your script. It only restores the database backup. If you use it to move your site to a different host / location / database you will need to reconfigure it manually.
- Angie for WordPress
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A restoration script optimised for WordPress 3 and later. It will reconfigure your site (the wp-config.php file) and allow you to change your admin user password.
- ANGIE for Joomla! sites
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A restoration script optimised for Joomla! 1.5 and later, including 2.5 and all 3.x versions. It will reconfigure your site (the configuration.php file) and allow you to change your admin user password.
- No installer
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No installation script is included in the backup archive. This should only be used by expert users who know what they are doing.
When you are ready, click on the button. Then, the determination of the optimal configuration takes place. This is an automated process which will benchmark your server's performance and try to fine tune common configuration variables for optimal backup performance.
The Configuration Wizard automatically fine tunes the following configuration parameters:
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AJAX method (use AJAX or IFrames)
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Optimize the minimum execution time to make the backup as fast as possible without your server throwing 403 Forbidden errors
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Adjust the location and/or permissions of the backup output directory.
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Optimize the database dump engine settings to make the database backup as fast as possible, while avoiding memory outage errors
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Optimize the maximum execution time so that as few steps as possible are performed during the backup, without causing a timeout
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Automatically determines if your server needs archive splitting.
Important The Configuration Wizard does not address the archive splitting required when you are using a post-processing engine (such as Amazon S3, Dropbox, etc). If you are using post-processing to transfer your backups to remote storage you will have to manually set the Part Size for Split Archives to a different value manually in Akeeba Solo's Configuration page.
At the end of the wizard process, you can either try taking a backup immediately or review and possibly modify the configuration parameters.