In a recent post I described creating a blog test environment in my home using an older PC running Linux. I use this test environment to develop and try out any changes to my blog before posting them to the live (Internet) environment. This test environment also serves as a back-up for my blog data.
I’ve been using a rather simple method to keep the data in the two “Meandering Passage” sites in sync. This is done by the following steps:
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The WordPress dB Backup Plugin automatically makes a back-up of my live blog dB at 4pm each day and emails it to a specified home email address;
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When needed, I detach this latest SQL backup file to a folder on my home computer; and
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Using the free MySQL Admin utility I restore the “Live Blog” SQL backup file data to my test environment dB.
This restore process takes less then two minutes to do and makes the test environment data an exact copy of my live blog.
Important Note: I modified the WordPress dB Backup plugin so that the core “options” table is not backed up by default. The “options” table is unique to each WordPress installation, so I can’t restore this live table to my test environment.
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