Well, there’s a hook to this story, some time ago I touched on the subject of disaster recovery with an earlier post about saving your data when disaster strikes. In that post we explored the issue of software and hardware solutions. In my case I invested in an affordable network storage unit. It’s a proactive solution because all my data is regularly duplicated (automatically – I don’t have to do anything) to the network accessible storage unit. After reinstalling a robust operating system (this was my last remaining Windows based PC, now every PC is Linux – Including this one), all I had to do was copy the data back off the storage unit. It even had all my email, email settings, folders, calender, etc. (I was using Thunderbird as the email client as I found I could do much more with it than with other email clients – But that’s simply my opinion).

The point of my post? Don’t negate the probability of a disaster, prepare for it now, to avoid pain later. In my case I was fortunate in that I’m a heavy user of social media to support my business, that and the contributers for some of my other blogs was an issue that kept further stress at bay. Additionally, all blogs (your’s included) should also have an automated backup system. In the case of blogging, your (self hosted) wordpress based blog can make good use of  the WP-DBManager plugin. It (as described by the developer):

“…Manages your Wordpress database. Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up and optimizing of database…”

In my case, the automatic backup feature is in use, in fact all databases of all my blogs are regularly emailed to a central (external) email account. Therefore, if the server itself goes down and the backups (on another server) also happen to go down as well, the database backups are still available. An additional note is that the backup unit I installed for my PC’s will also access the Internet (automatically) and download backup copies of my web sites. (Not bad for a little box!)

Don’t get me wrong, being without my main computer for a few days (because the operating system and applications needed to be installed) was inconvenient, I felt secure and stress free as the valuable data of my business and client blogs and/or web sites was safeguarded.

Again, not to belabour the issue, but to those reading this post (and to clients reading this post), please do seriously consider obtaining an automated, network attached data storage unit. When disaster decides to pay you a visit, you’ll be glad to took the proactive approach!

Have you had a disaster? What were some of the issues you faced? What types of solutions have you used (or are considering). Comment below and share in the discussion.

As some of you are aware, I recently experienced two disasters that effected my blog and how I worked. The first disaster resulted in the initial loss of my blog (and several hours of work it took to write the initial content). The second resulted in the near-loss of data on my computer and a loss of my Internet connection. Both issues lost me time and cost me money.

Issue #1 – Software Related

The web server was configured to automatically create file and database backups every 24 hours. I even received the daily email messages, indicating the backups were created; and faithfully downloaded the new backups each day. Shortly after a I launched this blog, a scripting issue on the server caused all databases to be dropped (deleted). Normally it would be a simple fix to use the existing backups to restore the blog, without much stress.

The reality:

The backups were not overwriting the old ones. So while I was able to use the backups to obtain lost content, the actual data was old (and therefore out dated). Needless to say, it was upsetting to think that I may have lost all my content for a newly launched blog. Unfortunately, the database backup only contained the default blog post and comment entries that are included with the basic Wordpress installation. I did have the files (they were also on my PC), but again, the most important aspect of the blog was the posts (contained in the database).

Fortunately I was saved by the Google Cache, Windows Live Cache and Yahoo Cache using the search term “site:bloggersavvy.com”. If you need to reclaim your posts from the cache you can use the same command to obtain copies of your lost posts using the  same search syntax (site:your-domain-name.com). That search term will list all the pages of your site that the Search Engines have indexed and cached. As this was the only recourse, I was lucky to recover 100% of my posts and pages! It took about 8 days for all the content to appear in the cache. One thing I noticed was that I had to search several times a day to catch cached pages, as in some cases cached posts disappeared quicker than I expected (so keep monitoring and save your lost pages right away).

What I learned:

• Do not rely or trust in the accuracy of automated backup scripts. Actually read the contents to confirm accuracy.
• Do not rely on one or two copies of backups, have a third (independent) “fail safe” to save your posts if your primary backups fail.
• Always have an action plan in the event of such a disaster, if you have a plan you will avoid the stress of trying to determine a solution, when things are not working. Speaking of which, finding solutions when you are under stress is not as productive as finding them when things are okay.
• Solve the problem before it happens, be proactive. Had there been a third independent backup system operating, chances are the recovery would have taken a couple hours at most (instead of a week).

Issue #2 – Hardware Related

I configured my computer to automatically download all data, every 24 hours. This resulted in backups being created on my PC (which I later forwarded to another small file server on my local network). This resulted in me having a second off site backup of all my blog posts and files (the first backup remains on the hosting server). Also because I would copy the backups (on my PC) to another file server, I had a third backup. A backup of the backup so to speak.

The reality:

While I was diligent in ensuring I had off site backups (with current data), I failed to plan effectively for a hardware failure. My computer has two hard drives and both of them started to fail! My operating system became crippled and it was hard to boot up the PC. I used a bootable diagnostic disk from the hard drive manufacturer and their diagnostic confirmed the hard drives were failing. To further compound this issue, I had a switch on my network (it acts like a hub to allow more than one computer to access the network – and internet), which failed, resulting in me not being able to access the Internet.

Replacing the switch was easily accomplished by a quick trip to the PC hardware store. I had to order 2 new hard drives to replace the failing ones and reinstall the operating system along with the applications. Before doing this, I needed to reclaim the lost data (as the file server only had some of the data copied to it). After phoning a few data restoration companies, who gave me (in my opinion) excessive and expensive options of $250 – $3500 CDN, before even working on obtaining the actual data, I decided to find out other options. I send a few messages on twitter from a friend’s computer and used Google to search for some self-help options. I found a good solution for about $135 CDN, called “Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recover“. I downloaded the demo version first, just to see if it could access the drive (it did) and then paid for the full version to recover my lost data (which automatically sent it to the working file server). One issue I had to deal with was the constant reboots of the system (not because of the recovery software) but because of the failing drives (which the operating system was also on). It took almost four days to finally reclaim just about 100% of my data.

I also opted to install a proactive solution and purchased a D-Link DNS-321 network storage unit, to which I added two more hard drives again, and had one mirroring all it’s contents to the other. In the event when one of those drives fails – and eventually they will, the second drive in that unit will be a duplicate of the failed drive.

Waiting for parts, installation of software, etc. cost me about a week of lost time and work. But using the data recovery software and replacing the hardware fixed all issues.

What I learned:

• Always plan for unexpected hardware failures. Moving parts (such as hard drives) do eventually fail.
• It is unrealistic (for home users or small business operators) to keep extra hard drives on hand, so make sure there is a separate storage unit (that is a backup of your existing data).
• Keep 3 sets of blog backups at the very least. One on the web server, one on your PC and the third on a separate system (or backup network storage unit). Doing so is proactive and resolves data loss issues before they happen).
• Be nice to your web hosting support team! – If you are nice to them, they will be nice to you. Capiche?

I should note that there are online solutions as well, such as:

• Remote Backup using Rsync or FTP.
• Rsync Remote Backup.

However, I have not actually used their services, so have no idea of the support or service level quality. I’d appreciate (we all would, I think) comments below from anyone who does use online backup services. Are they effective, easy, affordable, etc? Please let us know in your comments.

Side note: I also use a Wordpress plugin that supports automatic backup scheduling of my blogs database and emails me a copy of the database every day, it may help you too.

In conclusion, I cannot stress enough the need for all blog owners (such as myself) to have a disaster plan ready. Doing so will reduce stress and down time. Additionally, the second factor that needs extra emphasis is to ensure you operate in a proactive manner. Remember that your data (and the blog requiring it) can be effected by software failures, hardware failures, malicious activities, and so forth. As such, I cannot stress enough the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that redundant backup systems bring.

Here’s a helpful how-to backup video from BetaFlux Studios on YouTube: “…it will show you how to create and run a very important backup utility in your operating system…”:

Have you had any issues similar to these? How did you resolve them? Did I miss anything in this post? Or do you provide related solutions that help blog owners? Feel free to answer below!

In my opinion, one issue is to maintain your own server. Do not host your blog on a shared server hosting account. Shared hosting accounts mean just that – other people (whom you don’t know) also have accounts on the same server, it can increase the likelihood of an incident. To give you one simple example, I was using a shared server for a quick small web site development project about six years ago. The hosting company had some issues with the server and left it in an unprotected state (they were working on it at the time). I remember logging in (via FTP) that afternoon and had full access to the files of every single account! I terminated my service the same afternoon. Using a dedicated server (or at the very least a VPS server) avoids such issues as you are in control of your own server.

All too often it seems we are so involved in how to grow, promote, enhance, etc. our blogs, yet seldom do we give serious thought to safeguarding our valuable investment.

Having said this, the question remains, for most of us (who are not network administrators), what can we do to help avoid (being proactive is more effective than reactive) security related issues? The following six tips should help you. Some may require a little more knowledge, but they are pretty easy steps to take. So, without further ado, here are the helpful tips:

1) Make sure you ALWAYS have an off-site backup.

I use a plugin called WP-DBManager, which emails me a scheduled backup of my database and also store several versions on my server. I should note that these database backups in turn are backed up by the server based software. The critical point here is that you have a CURRENT copy of your database (and blog files) offline in YOUR possession. Never ever assume that the server software (backup) is working as expected.

2) Keep your blog software updated – Always.

Updates often include bug and security fixes that plug potential exploits. One good feature of Wordpress for example is that the administrative area will tell you when an update is available. It’s a simple matter to backup all your data and files, perform the update and continue blogging. If needed, you can find the update (upgrade) steps directly from Wordpress’ post “Upgrading Wordpress“.

3) Change your password – Do so often.

When you forget your Wordpress password (or have just installed Wordpress), it sends you a password. That password is short and fairly easy to crack – Change it to something more difficult. Also, there is a plugin you can use to help you lock out visitors who are trying to guess your password (to break into the administrative area), it’s called Login LockDown. Login LockDown will lock out the IP addresses of incorrect password submissions for whatever time period you choose.

4) Disable indexing of your files.

Search engines do not need to index all your Wordpress files. Use a robots.txt file to disable such indexing. SImply add the statement:

Disallow: /wp-*

to your robots.txt file. The above statement tells the search engines that any directory beginning with “wp-” should not be indexed.

5) Disable viewing of your folders.

Anyone attempting to access your system may be able to see your files (such as plugins). In your web browser, try to visit your wordpress plugins by going to:

http://www. Your-Domain-Name.com/wp-content/plugins

If you can see a list of files and/or directories, that’s not good. You can create an index page that redirects visitors trying to see those directories, back your blog. Here is the code I use:


<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://bloggersavvy.com/" />
<title>Nothing Here</title>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>


Name the file “index.html” and place a copy of it (with the above code) in your plugins folder. Now if you try to view the contents of the plugin folder, you will be redirected to your blog’s home page. Note: Obviously, you will want to substitute the URL of my blog for your own. This tip is important because it prevents authorized visitors from inspecting your plugins and finding an exploit.

6) Deny access to your administrator login.

I use an .htaccess (among other things) to accomplish this. An .htaccess file allows me to customize how a folder is “treated”. In this case I want to deny access to all IP addresses except my own. If you find one day that you are locked out, simply edit the .htaccess file and re-upload it the the “wp-admin” folder of Wordpress.

Here is an example of the code I use:

AuthUserFile /dev/null
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthName "Access Control"
AuthType Basic
<LIMIT GET>
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from 206.138.140.97
</LIMIT>

Again, change the IP address to your own. Don’t know your IP address? I’ve included a handy tool below. It does not store any data, it just shows you your current IP address (which means everyone else will only see their own IP address below). You can use this post whenever you quickly want to see your current (new) IP address:

This is your connection:
(For the technically adept, these addresses are not logged by the script that displays the IP address above, it simply finds the variable “REMOTE_ADDR” and displays it to you).

While there are several more advanced things network administrators can do to help protect your blog, the above are six simple tips that you may implement as soon as possible. Have any input, ideas, questions? Feel free to include them in your comments below.