Support

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the tickets before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: (Joomla! 2.5.14 Stable)
PHP version: (5.3.26 )
MySQL version: (5.5.32-cll )
Host: (Beachcomber)
Akeeba Backup version: (Akeeba Backup Professional 3.8.1)

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach a ZIP file containing your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue. If the file is over 2Mb, please upload it on your server and post a link to it.

Description of my issue:

What i would like to accomplish is to do a full site backup on the first of every month.
After that i would like to do an incremental backup 2x a week that picks up added or changed files as well as a current backup of the database.

I have read in the documentation that incremental backups back up files that are changed added or modified after the date of the last profile backup. So if Mean Mr Mustard hacks my site i need to extract the full backup from the first of the month and then extract each subsequent incremental backup and then finally run the restore. Is that correct?

What is confusing is that we have a date filter in the configuration that logically if i set it for the 1st of each month each subsequent backup would includes files from that date forward, no matter how many incremental backups were made in between.

If that is correct i would need to restore the full site backup from the first of the month and then the last full backup using the date filter to capture files from the 1st on as well as the latest database dump.

Once i understand the best way to accomplish my goal i need to setup the cron jobs to automate the process. and then start sending the output to dreamobjects with which i have successfully connected.

I am going to store remotely at dreamobjects and i have that working fine.

You are correct about how the "files modified since" date would work. You would need to restore your beginning of month backup and your latest modified files backup. The disadvantage of this is that the modified since date won't update automatically. You would need to change that date every time you do a full backup.

I personally do not like incremental backups. Complexity is the enemy of security. You are planning to do this via CRON job, does it really matter how long the backup takes? The difference between a full backup and a modified files backup at 3am is usually not significant. That being said, for a very large site, there are time and storage considerations for doing and storing multiple full backups. If you are in that situation, Akeeba has your back. :-)

Dale

So for the first of the month i use the full backup profile which captures everything , then after that is complete set the date filter in that same profile to only backup files created or modified since the first of the month, as well as the most current snapshop of the db

If i understand this correctly, as long as i use the same profile , on the first i capture everything, on the 5th i capture only modified files after the first and on the 8th i capture everything from the first and the backup from the 5th is no longer needed. Because i have everything backed up until the 8th.

The full backup is 21gb so incremental are necessary. to keep backup storage lean.

Yes, your analysis is correct. I see why you need the incremental backups. :-)

You can't have too many backups or have them stored in too many places. My paranoia has served me well over the years. I would recommend that you keep two sets of backups, It gives you one more fall back position in case of disaster. You need to balance your security needs with your storage requirements.

Dale