Backup and migrate module + Dropbox = peace of mind

The backup and migrate module is truly sweet. We all know that it is a *really* good idea to back up data. But if you are like me - you forgot to do it or just don't do it for some lame reason. So backups should be automated. The backup and migrate module does exactly that - it can be configured to run every X hours if you have cron (and you should have) running on your site.
The module makes a dump of the database and puts it in a folder in the files folder of the site. Even if you use the public download method, the security is OK - a .htacces file put in the folder by the backup and migrate module and dissalows access to the folder's content.

In the unlikely event that my server goes up in flames, I like to have some backups that are not physically on the same server as the site. I really like Dropbox, so I thought I would figure out a way to use that for the database dumps. I found this very nice and simple php script, that will upload files to your dropbox. I used that to write a super simple php file that my cronjob will call once a day. I settled with having daily backups a week back in time, so the filenames are day names. That way monday's file will be overwritten next monday.

Here is what I did:

1. Enable the backup migrate module
2. Go to yoursite.com/admin/content/backup_migrate/export and choose gz under compression, put your sitename in Backup file name, and put "D" for dayname under Timestamp format
3. Download and unzip the latest Dropbox uploader (I used the 1.1.5 version)
4. Edit the variables capitalized in the php below and save the it to a file called dropbox_backup.php. Put it next to the Dropbox uploader file. The files should be put somewhere outside the drupal installation.
5. Put a line that in your crontab that calls the php script. It could look like this one, that will run every night at 1 and report to a log file how it went.
   00 01 * * * php PATH_TO_SCRIPT/dropbox_backup.php >> PATH_TO_SCRIPT/log.txt

And that's it! Easy backup of your database and easy use of the ample storage space that Dropbox offers.

<?php
$site_name = 'SITENAME';
$backup_dir = 'WHERE_YOUR_DB_DUMPS_ARE_PUT_BY_BACKUP_MIGRATE';
$todays_filename = sprintf('%s-%s.sql.gz', $site_name, date('D'));


if (file_exists($backup_dir .'/'. $todays_filename)) {

// Get todays file from where backup_migrate module puts it
// and drop it in this folder (just to get it out of the "files"
// folder in Drupal).
exec("mv $backup_dir/$todays_filename " . dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']));

// And upload todays file to the Dropbox
require 'DropboxUploader.php';
try {
$uploader = new DropboxUploader('YOUR_EMAIL', 'YOUR_PASSWORD');
$uploader->upload(dirname($_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']) .'/'. $todays_filename, 'FOLDER_IN_DROPBOX');
echo date('m/d Y') . ": Uploaded $todays_filename to Dropbox\n";
}
catch (Exception $e) {
echo date('m/d Y') . ": I had a problem uploading $todays_filename to Dropbox\n";
}
}
?>