Chapter 10. Backup

Backup is the cornerstone of every well maintained production server. This chapter will try to explain the importance of such procedures regarding Moodle and present tools available both within the platform and outside of it. We will also try to offer some guidelines for what to do in case of total server failure. This is the content outline:

• Importance of backup

• Backup tools in Moodle

• Site backup

• Disaster recovery scenario

Importance of backup

According to an online etymology, dictionary backup (or to be more exact back up) means stand behind and support or just support. The noun meaning of the same word is reserve or standby. The meaning specifically related to the computing could be expressed as a copy or duplicate version of a file, program or entire computer system, retained for use in the event that the original is in some way rendered unusable.

To help you understand better the importance of having adequate backup strategies, a simple fact is that any server will fail...