How reliable is backup via cPanel?

[eam]

My forum backup is just over 211 MB in size and I'm to the point now where it's timing out when I try to backup via the backup tool in vBulletin.

Likewise, I get timeouts when I try to backup via phpMyAdmin.

My host does not allow telnet/ssh access so I'm stuck paying them $100/hour to run a backup.

However, they did remind me of the backup feature in cPanel, which I had not seen before and wasn't aware of. I can download a zip backup at around 48 MB. Obviously this is the most ideal option I have.

My question is this - how reliable and current is the backup? Is it easy to restore from if needed? Is it up-to-the-second from the point I download the file, or is it a case where the backup is generated once a day or something like that?

[Steve Machol]

When I tested this a cpouple of years ago with an 80MB database it worked fine. I can't vouch for it on larger dbs or the current process but my best guess is that it will work fine.

[mtha]

I do copy database to a "clone" database, using cp's phpMyAdmin, and it worked fine - no time-out

i got like 1.5Gb of db

[Zachery]

cPanels backup system (the download) mysqldumps and gzips the database via the shell. Its reliable.

[eam]

Great news - thanks.

[eam]

New question - I've been using this method to backup my 2 vBulletin sites and while it seems to work OK, every once in a while, running the backup causes database issues. I get the generic "Database Error":

The xxxxx database has encountered a problem. Please try the following:

• Load the page again by clicking the Refresh button in your web browser.
• Open the xxxx home page, then try to open another page.
• Click the Back button to try another link.

The xxxx forum technical staff have been notified of the error, though you may contact them if the problem persists.
We apologise for any inconvenience.

This most recent time, I put a support ticket in to my host, and this is what they said:

Please note that somehow the database access credentials was not working

We granted all the privileges and the website is working fine from our end

Is this a known problem? Is there something I can do when running the cPanel backup to prevent this? And if not, is there something I can do afterward rather than put a support ticket it? I don't understand what they mean by "database credentials."

Thanks.

[Zachery]

We'd need to know the real database errors. Right click view source and paste the error here when it happens.