Moodle 2.0

Chapter 3
Backup
You'll find the backup settings under Site Administration | Courses | Backups.
Most of these settings enable you to choose the type of data that gets backed up. You
can also choose which days of the week the backup will automatically run, and the
hour the backup job will start. Usually, you want to choose a time when there are
few users on the site. The backup is activated by the cron job routine.
Seting up the Cron Job
Some of Moodle's functions occur on a regular, timed schedule. The most visible
example is mailing out notices to the subscribers of a forum that a new message has
been posted. A script called cron.php checks periodically to see if new messages
have been posted to any forum. If so, the script causes the notice to be emailed to the
members of that forum.
The cron job also triggers routines that clean up old data and back up your courses.
The script cron.php must be triggered at regular intervals. You can set this interval.
The mechanism that triggers the script is called a cron job. Directions for setting up the
cron job are in the Moodle installation guide, available from http://moodle.org/.
Some web-hosting services allow you to set up cron jobs. If you're buying hosting
services, look for a host that allows you to set a cron job to run every hour, or even
every few minutes. Some hosting services allow you to run a cron job only once a
day. This means that Moodle will perform those functions that depend on cron.php
only once a day.
If you've been given space on your school's or company's web server, speak to the
system administrator about setting up the cron job. Moodle's cron.php uses very
little memory and few system resources. Most servers could run it every 15 minutes
without affecting the server's performance.
If you cannot set up the cron job on your host, then your only other option is to set
up the cron job on a Windows machine that you control. The cron job will reach
out over the Internet to your Moodle site, and activate the script cron.php. Again,
directions for this are in the Moodle installation guide, available at http://moodle.
org/ installation guide. However, if you choose this option, you must keep that
Windows PC running all the time, and it must also be connected to the Internet at
all times. If the Windows PC goes down or offline, then the Moodle functions that
require periodic triggering will also go down.
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