Reliability Edit

Once your site is up, how do you keep it that way? And what can you do if it goes down? In most cases, the same best practices apply to WordPress as with other web applications, but some differences and recommendations are detailed here.

Backups

A WordPress site is composed of three (3) main components: Code WordPress coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Team builds WordPress., zero (0) or more plugins, and one (1) or more themes Assets Typically images, documents and other user-upload files. This can also contain pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. or themeTheme A theme dictates the style and function of your WordPress website. Child Themes derive from the main parent theme. cacheCache A cache is a component that stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster; the data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsewhere. and/or configuration files as well. DatabaseDatabase A database is an organized collection of data. Access to this data is usually provided by a "database management system" (DBMS) consisting of an integrated set of computer software that allows users to interact with one or more databases and provides access to all of the data contained in the database. Because of the close relationship between them, the term "database" is often used casually to refer to both a database and the DBMS used to manipulate it. A set of tables containing your posts, pages, comments, links, settings, and other data.

Your WordPress database contains user-generated content and configuration, including every post, every comment and every link you have on your website. If your database gets erased or corrupted, you stand to lose everything you have written. There are many reasons why this could happen and not all are things you can control. With a proper backupBackup A backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time. Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery. of your WordPress database and files, you can quickly restore things back to normal.

It’s recommended to keep and test regular backupsBackup A backup is a copy of computer data taken and stored elsewhere so that it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. Backups can be used to recover data after its loss from data deletion or corruption, or to recover data from an earlier time. Backups provide a simple form of disaster recovery. of your WordPress sites using the system-level backup or snapshotSnapshot A snapshot is the state of a system at a particular point in time. It can refer to a system snapshot copy of the state of a system or to a capability provided by certain systems. infrastructure of your choice. One thing to be aware of is that the code, assets and database change in conjunction with WordPress but may be backed up separately. For this reason, it is a good idea to keep restore points that include backups of code, assets, and database taken at the same point in time. It’s recommended to create restore points before any critical action, e.g. WordPress core update.

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Monitoring

See Monitoring.

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Version Control

See Version Control.

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Changelog

  • 2023-05-29: Move the MonitoringMonitoring Website monitoring is the process of testing and verifying that end-users can interact with a website or web application as expected. Website monitoring is often used by businesses to ensure website uptime, performance, and functionality is as expected. to the Advanced Administration Handbook.
  • 2023-05-29: Move the Version Control to the Advanced Administration Handbook.
  • 2021-05-27: Fixing infoboxes
  • 2021-02-17: Changelog added
  • 2020-11-23: Minor text changes and info-blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.
  • 2020-06-02: Published from GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner.

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