UESPWiki talk:Backup Plan

Binlogs vs mysqldump

I'd rather not rely on binlogs for a backup plan. Binlogs are harder to use, they provide incremental changes rather than a snapshot, and any binlog contains all databases, rather than a single database. Furthermore, there are effective ways using mysqldump to deal with the size of the wiki database. In fact, the new dbbackup script I wrote (as described here, and re-uploaded to db1 post-crash) already contains such an approach, including both the commands to create the backups and notes on how to restore the database. Basically, only a single table (uesp_net_wiki5.text) is overly large, and entries in that one table are never edited (new entries are added, but then they never change), making it possible to ignore 90% or more of the database in daily backups. --Nephele^Talk 00:12, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

If binlogs are anything like transaction log backups (they sound roughly similar) then I'd agree. Tx logs are for keeping track of changes between backups rather than as backups in themselves. They mean that you only lose an hour or so's information if your system dies rather than everything since your last backup. If they aren't too processor- or disk-intensive it might be worth making a binlog every hour so less information is lost if anything goes wrong, but if Nephele's solution works I'd go for that instead of using binlogs as a primary backup solution. –rpeh^{•T•C•E•} 06:11, 7 August 2009 (UTC)