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The strange case of the disappearing databases

  • 15-03-2005 11:19am
    #1
    richardo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 236 ✭✭


    A bloke I know runs a site which uses osCommerce and phpBB on a LAMP server.

    He therefore has two databases. For the sake of argument, I'll call them site_osc and site_bb.

    He contacted me in yesterday to say that the site wasn't working, so I went into his CPanel and found that both databases had somehow been renamed. The names were something along the lines of site_dbsiteosc20050214182835sql and site_dbsiteosc20041204192635sql. One of these was empty [no tables] but the other contained the osCommerce info. I renamed that one and that restored his osCommerce. He didn't have a backup of his phpBB database, so that is now dead.

    From the look of the names above, the incorrect database names seem to imply a backup. He did do backups on the dates contained in the names, and used the standard CPanel Backup feature. He swears blind that he never messed with anything else, and I believe him.....

    Has anyone ever come across this type of problem before??


Comments

  • #2
    Yerac
    Closed Accounts Posts: 235 ✭✭Yerac


    Assuming he's on a shared hosting setup (or similar), I'd check with the hosting company to see if there were any problems. For example database problems where they attempted to restore from backups.
    Other than that it's very strange.


  • #3
    richardo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 236 ✭✭richardo


    Thanks for the reply Yerac.

    As far as I know, he is with Surpass Hosting in the States. They are a big crowd who should know better. I haven't been in touch with them myself, but I presume they would deny all :D

    He managed to get the system back up and running from their server backups so he has lost nothing.

    I would think it unlikely that he messed it up himself. Renaming databases is the kind of thing you have to do deliberately, not accidentally. Especially, if you are using CPanel. If he had Telnetted into the sever it might be the answer, but I'd say he has never even heard of Telnet!!

    The only scenario that I can think of is that the backup process copied the databases to backup files. The system then somehow pointed the site to the backups rather than the live. And then of course the pages would then try to read from a database with the incorrect name, and fail.
    Which would mean that there is a MAJOR bug in CPanel, which I doubt.

    The whole thing is very very strange.

    In the meantime, the poor lad is too scared to do any more backups!!


  • #4
    tom-thebox
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,414 ✭✭✭tom-thebox


    If the host is half decent they will make daily backups, and can pull the db file out for you.


  • #5
    richardo
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 236 ✭✭richardo


    tom-thebox wrote:
    If the host is half decent they will make daily backups, and can pull the db file out for you.

    They did.

    But that is not what is worrying the client - it's how it happened in the first place.
    He is a worrier by nature, and he freaked out completely when the site went down....


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