Manual/Backing up Convention Master

How to back up existing files and the database

While the upgrade scripts are well-maintained and robust, things could still go awry. Before proceeding to update Convention Master and the database schema, make a full backup of Convention Master, including both the database and the files:

Convention Master's database

• MySQL, do a SQL dump with the mysqldump command:

mysqldump --user=db_user --password=db_userpassword convention_master_db > file.sql

( replacing the "db_user" with your valid database username, "db_userpassword" with the database user's password, "convention_master_db" with your Convention Master database name, and "file.sql" with the desired output filename. The output file name can have a full file path included if you want it to go to another folder.)

• Make sure you move that backup file to a safe location where it won't be deleted or accessable by web.
• You do not need to use any extra flags with mysqldump. The stored procedures and triggers are always automatically rebuilt when you login to the Convention Master console if they are missing or the database user has changed.

Convention Master's files

• tar, compress all files into a backup file with the tar command:

tar -cvpzf backup.tar.gz --exclude=/backup.tar.gz /path/to/your/installation/ 

• Make sure you move that backup file to a safe location where it won't be deleted or accessable by web.
• Generally any user edited files will be new files that are not tracked by svn, and thus would not be overwritten by an upgrade. The most common changes are:

• configuration of database settings: .../shared_php/db_connect.inc.php
• configuration of kiosks via steps files: .../kiosk/{kiosk_name}/steps.inc.php
• addition of custom theme folders in .../themes/