Disaster Recovery

Due to the unlikely event of a disaster that causes harm to the system, precautions are to take place to return to a working state as close as possible to the state before the harm takes place. This is done via system backups to the database and website when major changes occur.

Backup System:
The backup system follows two main stages. The UTS servers are known to be regularly backed up, as well as being stored on RAID formation harddrives allowing for high levels of reliability. A final level of backups can be triggered manually when major changes occur, ie. creation of additional tables in the DB or additional web pages. Due to the fact that these two stages store their backups on a separate servers within the UTS systems, the standard UTS backups to one location and the manual backups to another, they can be recalled from either to the live servers should the need arise.

Manual Backup:
A manual backup of the database system can be completed via the phpMyAdmin tool.

From the main page of phpMyAdmin, select the database and select "export" from the navigation bar.

The recommended format for exporting is SQL, however other database formats can also be used if required.

Specific tables can also be exported using this method, however this is not recommended in many cases as importing an old table individually can cause errors with the overall structure of the DB.

Reloading Backup:
A manual backup of the database system can be loaded into the system via the phpMyAdmin tool.

From the main page of phpMyAdmin, select the database. Down the bottom of the "structure" page is a select all button, with a dropdown list next to it. Select all tables and select the "drop table" option, then select the "go" button. WARNING: THIS WILL EMPTY THE DATABASE. BACK UP IS RECOMMENDED.

From the navigation bar, select "import"

Import the most recent reliable backup of the database, generally a SQL file.

Specific tables can also be imported using this method, however this is not recommended in many cases as importing an old table individually can cause errors with the overall structure of the DB.

Backing up Web Files:
access the public_html folder using either the cpanel administration tool provided, or if using your own servers, access it directly with a file explorer.

copy all the desired files (recommended the entire public_html folder)

store these files in a new location. Recommended to use winrar or 7zip, or other archiving programs to reduce the filesize and maintain the file structure.

Backups can be restored by deleting the existing files and copying files in from a backup.