Get WorpDrive Compatibility

WorpDrive (at the time of release) only supports Linux-based web hosting environments.

Microsoft Windows platforms are not currently supported. We hope to add support in a future release.

WorpDrive is built on top of the Worpit WordPress Management Platform.

In this way you integrate all your WordPress management and backup facilities.

Your site must be connected to your Worpit account and have the plugin version 1.1 or above installed.

WorpDrive works differently to other traditional backup systems.

WorpDrive doesn’t use clunky ZIP files on your server. Instead we make a copy of your website offsite and then work our magic on it.

To do this, we must have FTP / SFTP access.

This is often not as easy as it sounds, but it’s not hard. There is no direct link between FTP document root and the root of your website.

Since all web servers are configured differently, there’s no consistently reliable method to work this out.  But WorpDrive will do it’s best to try to find it.

If it can’t find it, you can specify something manually. But it must be a valid FTP path on your domain, or it will fail.  Some common examples are:

/home/public_html/
/home/httpdocs/
/home/www/
/home/httpsdocs/

Either way, what you provide must be web accessible and be a valid path on your FTP.  When we say web accessible, it means that if we were to put a file in your document root, we could access it using a web browser.

When WorpDrive runs, it uploads files to your website to run the backup.

These files are PHP files. And these PHP files create files on your site as well… one such file it create is a copy of your WordPress MySQL database.

Your website hosting must allow for PHP files to write to the disk. If this is prohibited in any way, WorpDrive will not be able to run.

If you have any doubt, it’s best to ask your web host to review the security and permissions settings on your server.

This is another security and permissions-related issue.

WorpDrive will upload PHP files to your server using FTP. Then it will attempt to execute those PHP files.  Some hosting providers have restrictions in place to prevent this.

You will need to have these restrictions lifted before you can use WorpDrive.

If running exec() in PHP is restricted, then it will not be possible for you to use WorpDrive.

WorpDrive works differently to other backup systems in that it doesn’t rely solely on PHP functions to execute commands.

WorpDrive is founded on the principle of reliability of execution and PHP environments in many web hosting providers are neither consistent nor reliable.

In this regard, we must use other resources available on the server, and to do this WorpDrive needs the ability to use exec() in PHP.

Remember, you are always free to change your web hosting provider to any provider that suits your needs better.

The mysqldump command is critical to backing up a WordPress website.

If this isn’t available, we cannot get a backup of your database and therefore WorpDrive cannot function.

Remember, if your web hosting provider wont help you with this, chose one that does. There are plenty!

The mysqlimport command is critical to restoring a WordPress website.

If this isn’t available, we cannot restore your WordPress website properly and therefore WorpDrive cannot function.

Remember, if your web hosting provider wont help you with this, chose one that does. There are plenty!

As you know, if you have a big WordPress website, it can take a long to time to run certain things on it.

Backing up a WordPress site can be one of the most intensive things you ever do on it.

Intensive things take time. But shared web host providers put restrictions on you so your PHP scripts are limited by a certain time.

If you have this restriction and we’re not allow to set a new timeout, WorpDrive will have problems running reliably.

Again, WorpDrive is built to be reliable and we wont attempt to run it on websites that don’t meed the requirements.

Please talk to your web hosting provider about this, or find another, more lenient provider.

The tar command has been around even before there were computers.

If your web server doesn’t support the tar command, WorpDrive cannot un-pack your website files during a website restore.

Again, if you’re facing this problem, consider moving your website hosting to another provider.

WorpDrive has many requirements, but if you’re failing at this one, WorpDrive compatibility is likely not your only problem.

Consider alternative web hosting providers.