How to backup website automatically using PHP

[Tony]

Here is a php script that will create a compressed backup of your website files, creating a different file each day for a month (then start over) so you have 30 days of backups. It will email you with a backup confirmation. Run it every night using cron to kick it off. You should download the backup files from the server on a regular basis.

Code: Select all

<?php
$emailaddress = "[email protected]";
$path = "/full_server_path_to_file_goes_here"; // full server path to the directory where you want the backup files (no trailing slash)
// modify the above values to fit your environment
$target = $path . "/backup" . date(d) . ".tar.gz";
if (file_exists($target)) unlink($target);
system("tar --create --preserve --gzip  --file=".$target." ~/public_html ~/mail",$result);
$size = filesize($target);
switch ($size) {
  case ($size>=1048576): $size = round($size/1048576) . " MB"; break;
  case ($size>=1024);    $size = round($size/1024) . " KB"; break;
  default:               $size = $size . " bytes"; break;
}
$message = "The website backup has been run.\n\n";
$message .= "The return code was: " . $result . "\n\n";
$message .= "The file path is: " . $target . "\n\n";
$message .= "Size of the backup: " . $size . "\n\n";
$message .= "Server time of the backup: " . date(" F d h:ia") . "\n\n";
mail($emailaddress, "Website Backup Message" , $message, "From: Website <>"); 
?>

If you want to exclude a directory, add the --exclude parm to the tar command as shown in the example below (which will exlcude the public_html/audio directory):

Code: Select all

system("tar --create --preserve --gzip --file=".$target." --exclude ~/public_html/audio ~/public_html ~/mail",$result);  

Please note that this script is very resource intensive. Do not run it more than once a day, and do not run it at peak times. If you have a large site the script may timeout depending on the server settings, but the backup may still be created.

• Before using cron, run the script from your browser to make sure it works as anticipated.
• Set a cron job to run the script once a day (at an odd time - like 4:23am - to minimize server load issues).
• This example backs up the public_html and mail directories.
• The backup file (named backup.XX.tar.gz) will be created in your root directory (above public_html).

When you run this script you will likely get the message "tar: Removing leading `/' from member names". This is normal, the script is using the settings that most people would want to use. You can read more about this message, what it means, and alternatives here