Tag: backup

Sump Pump Backup System

Nick Momrik1 Comment

You never know when a long power outage or a malfunction of the float or sump pump is going to result in basement water damage. So it’s a good idea to have some type of backup or early alarm system. Our home builder tried to sell us a proprietary system that costs almost $3,000 and has a yearly $100 subscription fee. The system is only sold to this particular builder, which seemed sketchy, and doesn’t have any API access to the data.

I found PumpSpy, which is a Kalamazoo, Michigan company, because people have been able to integrate the data in to Home Assistant. I bought The Installation Bundle, which costs $667.

I took off our cover and cleaned out some of the debris.

I had to make a minor adjustment to the setup, by splitting the two floats for the backup pump to use separate pipe clamps. With many floats integrated in to the primary sump pump now, it seems like this should be a standard step.

Everything else was smooth sailing by following their installation video and included instructions.

I connected the system to WiFi and setup their iOS app.

I think the entire install took me just over two hours. I love the piece of mind knowing we have a backup system in place.

WordPress Database Backup Plugin

Nick Momrik8 Comments

Tired of having to manually backup your WordPress database? Do you even back it up? Worry no more…

Skippy has created an awesome plugin for WordPress. It’s called WordPress Database Backup. With a few clicks you can either download a backup of your database or have it sent attached to an email. It’s a very quick and simple process. In addition, if you have Skippy’s WP-Cron plugin installed, you’ll get a bonus option for the WordPress Database Backup. Under Manage->Backup in your WP admin screen you’ll have the opportunity to schedule a daily backup of your database.

I’ve been helping Skippy do some testing and I have to say that it has worked great so far. I’ve setup a seperate Gmail account that I’m using solely to store the backups of my 3 WordPress sites. Talk about a good use for all of those Gmail invites! If you’d like an account, just let me know. Each night at midnight, my WP installs fire off an email with a zipped up copy of my database. I never have to worry again about losing my posts and comments.

Fresh Build

Nick MomrikLeave a comment

I just finished rebuilding my computer. For the non-geeks, this means I erased everything on my computer and reinstalled Windows and all of the software. I only managed to forget to back up one thing, but it was a pretty big one. I forgot to make a copy of my poker history files, so I lost the last 5 months of statistics and record of my play. That’s over 50,000 hands of poker played online. Oh well, there’s nothing I can do about it now.

I hadn’t rebuilt my computer since I bought it 13 months ago, so it was well overdue. Over the past few months problems have been creeping up here and there, but that’s all gone now. I love working with a fresh install.

Backup!

Nick Momrik2 Comments

Never underestimate the importance of a backup! I ran some upgrades to WordPress and all of my dates and times got screwed. I didn’t panic, but I restored a backup of my database, upgraded again, and then re-added all of the missing posts and comments since the last backup.

If I would have backed up right before the upgrade (like I normally do) I would have saved a lot of time. Lesson learned…

Backup

Nick Momrik1 Comment

I just read a very interesting article by Vince Barnes of HTML Goodies.

Three Golden Rules

Intriguing title, don’t you think? We’ll get to them in just a second. First, let’s take a quick look at the “coming to life” of your website.

Imagine if you will, all the thought that goes into a website; then the work involved in it’s actual creation; the care with which its various elements are interconnected; and the pride with which it is placed onto a web server and published for the world to see.

Next, a little time goes by and the site evolves with a tweak here, add a page there, put a database link in this, and so on. Pretty soon the site has grown a lot and represents its developer’s blood, sweat and tears. Then the server crashes and the call comes in from hosting company to say “sorry, you’ll have to upload your pages again.” Pages? PAGES? WHAT PAGES? The horror dawns on you that your only copy is that original set that you first created. All that extra work was done after that upload and was added piece by piece to the live site. Only the live site had it all. And that database of contact information you’ve been collecting — it was up there too!

Now to those golden rules. They apply to everything to do with computers, but we’re especially interested in how they apply to website creation and maintenance. I’m sure you’ve guessed the first part by now. That’s right — Backup!

Rule number one is backup your stuff! When you make a copy, however, things can go wrong with the copy process. It’s a good idea to make a copy of your existing backup before you start to copy over it — just in case! Now you have a one generation old copy and a current copy.

Then there’s Murphy’s Law. “If it can go wrong it will. If it can’t go wrong, it’ll go wrong quicker.” (If that’s not actually Murphy’s Law, I’m sure he’d be pretty proud of it anyway!) Here’s the scene (it’s based on the last one): as your hanging up the phone after the call from the hosting company a knowing smile stretches itself across your face; “I have those two copies in the other room – let me get one and send it up,” you think to yourself. As you do, and as if in direct response to your smirk, a bolt of lightning comes out of the blue, smashes its way through your roof, through the back room, through your computer and melts your CDs and floppies as it goes.

Oops! (Thank goodness it missed the cat – this is, after all, a family style newsletter!)

Yes, that’s right — you should have made another copy and kept it at work or in your safe deposit box. An off-site copy is another very reasonable backup. Of course, its possible that the call comes from the hosting company, a bolt takes out your PC and a flash flood washes away the bank. If this happens to you, you might want to examine your life a little – the universe seems to be exceptionally mad at you.

So, more correctly stated, rule one would be “backup your backups.” That would leave rule two as “backup your stuff” and rule three as “backup your stuff again and keep the backup off-site.” The short form of the three golden rules is:

Backup backup; backup; and backup again.

Say that to yourself a few times. Now ask yourself “did I just say that, or have I actually done it?”

-Vince Barnes

Working for a Support Center, I see people losing data/files all the time because they didn’t have a backup copy. I have no sympathy for these people. I know that when I have something important, I always keep several copies of it. I’ll keep a copy at home, at work, on a CD, in my email…anywhere I can think of. Maybe someday people will learn their lesson.