how does duplicator work with 2 instances in one DB?

Hi @dillhausen,

Thanks for reaching out to us.

When you create a backup using Duplicator, you can exclude the unwanted database tables from your backup. This screenshot shows how to exclude database tables during the backup creation:

https://a.supportally.com/i/bJlB8O

This way, you can filter out the database tables of the website you prefer to exclude from the backup.

When you restore the backup, Duplicator allows you to clean the database before the backup restoration.

Apparently, you need to split the database into two databases to avoid losing the database tables during the backup restoration.

I hope this helps. and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We are happy to help.

Thanks!

Hi @mohammedeisa

thank you for your answer.

Unfortunately, splitting the DB is not an option, simply because of money. I’m working for a small non-profit organisation that is always short of money. My hosting contract only allows one DB (of course, other options are available but cost more). And I would have to stick with the free version of Duplicator.

So, please allow me to ask some more detailed questions:

1. Is the option to exclude specific tables also available in the free version?
2. In case of a restore, I need to restore only the affected instance and leave the other instance unaffected. Let’s say I have crashed my test site and want to restore it without affecting the live site, and I have a backup of the test site available with only the test instance’s tables included (with the method you proposed). Would it be possible to
   a) access the DB with phpMyadmin and manually erase all the test instance’s tables before doing the backup
   b) do the duplicator restore of the test instance WITHOUT cleaning the database beforehand

Would that work to leave the live instance unaffected? Or can you recommend another way to do it?

Thank you so much!

Hi?@dillhausen,

1. Is the option to exclude specific tables also available in the free version?
   Yes, there is an option to exclude database tables from your backup. This screenshot shows how to exclude database tables:
   https://a.supportally.com/i/ffRAuT
2. In case of a restore, I need to restore only the affected instance and leave the other instance unaffected. Let’s say I have crashed my test site and want to restore it without affecting the live site, and I have a backup of the test site available with only the test instance’s tables included (with the method you proposed). Would it be possible to
   a) access the DB with phpMyadmin and manually erase all the test instance’s tables before doing the backup
   b) do the duplicator restore of the test instance WITHOUT cleaning the database beforehand
   Would that work to leave the live instance unaffected? Or can you recommend another way to do it?
   
   Duplicator cleans the database before restoring the database in the backup. I suggest the following:
   I understand that you need to backup your website and you don’t need to migrate the website somewhere else.
   If you don’t change the website files periodically and if you don’t do custom development on your website, then the most important thing is the database backup.
   
   You can create two backups, each backup include the tables of one of the two websites.
   If one of these websites crashes, you can extract the .SQL file from the backup you created for it and import it manually using PHPMyAdmin.

I’m not sure if this solution will meet your expectations, please let me know.

Thanks.

Hi?@dillhausen,

I’m closing this support topic for inactivity. Please don’t hesitate to contact us in a Support Topic if you need any help with Duplicator.

Thanks!