Trying to backup webiste via FTP - Please post any ideas... Thank you.

[KeenR1214]

Hello,

I am trying to set up Retrospect to backup my websites when it runs scheduled backups. My websites are on other servers that I can only access via FTP. I have the newest Retrospect 6.5 Pro.

 

Here is what I tried:

I have tried installing programs that "mount" FTP sites as network drives. It works when I open my computer because there they are - mounted network drives. However Retrospect dosn't recognize them.

 

I would also like to be able to backup the MySQL Databases on these servers. I think the best way to do that though is to schedule the server to create a file backup of the Database automatically before the Retrospect backup occurs - thus it would be downloaded as a file and saved in the backup.

 

If you have any ideas whatsoever post them so I can give it a try.

 

Thank you,

Ryan K.

 

[Arsenic]

I would like to have this functionality as well. I have the exact same issues with a couple of sites that I host. I wonder if you can schedule a retrospect backup but have it run a command before execution. For example, do an "xcopy /e *.* <somepath>" to first copy these files from the virtual FTP drive to your local disk. Just a guess.. I'll try some things this weekend and report back if anything works. It would be nice though to have an FTP client for retrospect, wouldn't it?

[KeenR1214]

I did find a way to do what I wanted, however, not in the way I wanted. I set up a schedule with WS_FTP Pro to automatically connect and download each site a couple of hours before the scheduled retrospect backup. This will work but is has its drawbacks.

 

<I started rambeling here>

 

If it was somehow directly integrated with retrospect - ie. the mounted network resources mentioned earlier - Retrospect would provide error funcationality. The way I have it set up now - it will backup the folder on my hard drive that should contain the downloaded site. If there was an error with the FTP transfer to my site Retrospect would never know - nor would it know if the download was still in progress.

 

<End rambeling>

 

So anyway, I would really like to have it directly accessable through retrospect so it can be part of my selector. Any ideas would be most appreciated.

[KeenR1214]

Figured it out... Here is what I did...

 

Installed a program called WebDrive (webdrive.com) and established drives for all of my sites. (They appear as mapped network drives so retrospect dosn't see them). I then Configured Volumes in retrospect and added network places for each of the sites. To add the sites I clicked My Network then Advanced and typed in the Custom UNC - See WebDrive Custom UNC configuration under advanced tab... (UNC: \\site\resource\ )

 

It is terriably slow (.1 MB/sec), but that is ok for me. I will have it automated in the morning so it dosn't matter to me now long it takes.

[Arsenic]

Awesome! Thanks for the info. I'm going to try this out myself.

[awnews]

This was also discussed in another couple of threads:

 

http://forums.dantz.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=clients&Number=31957&Forum=All_Forums&Words=Internet%20Neighborhood&Match=Entire%20Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=1year&Main=31844&Search=true#Post31957

 

I had to deinstall INP on my XP SP1 PC because it kept causing it to blue screen (*very* binary==> install == BS, uninstall == no BS). This would always happen in the same .sys module, often after days of use (even when I wasn't actually doing anything with the FTP_folders). All the company would say is that nobody else had reported any problems. If you look at the WebDrive and INP websites, you'll notice they're similar, and I believe that they all come from the same developer, with a few features enabled/disabled for the different versions.

 

[KeenR1214]

Well, after a couple of weeks of using this "WebDrive" it isn't working out. WebDrive slows down my computer WAY too much - just by turning on my computer and logging on to windows it adds like 5 minutes to the process (on a very good computer too).

 

So, if anyone has any other ideas - I am listening.

 

Thank you

[KeenR1214]

I see that in a couple of forums it discusses FTP functionality for Macintosh versions of Retrospect. Is there any reason this isn't so for Windows versions? Still looking for a solution. Thank you.

[AmyJ]

Retrospect for Windows does not support backup to FTP sites. This functionality may be incorporated into a future release.

[KeenR1214]

I am not trying to backup to FTP sites. I am trying to create backups of FTP sites. I want to be able to have retrospect to connect to a FTP server and generate a backup of its contents just as I can do windows drives.

 

So far the only way I can figure to do so is to use the afforementioned third party webdrive software. However, their program really slows down my computer. So, I am desperatily looking for an alternative.

 

 

 

Does anyone know of Hosting companies that let you VPN in and view your root as a network resource? This could accomplish what I am looking for and be native to Windows.

[KeenR1214]

Well,, recently I have just been completely downloading the site and running a full new backup of the folder that I downloaded. Is there any other option?