Settings for Drupal's Backup & Migrate Modules

The default settings for Drupal backup modules such as the Backup & Migrate Module (backup_migrate) are not optimal for shared & reseller hosting environments, and can lead to resource issues.

We, therefore, recommend that you change the temporary directory the module uses to store files to a different directory.

How to Change the Default Settings for backup_migrate

The following are the instructions for Drupal 7 however may apply to Drupal 6.

1. Go to the Administration area of Drupal and click Modules.
2. From their go to Backup and Migrate and click Configure.
3. On the configuration screen, you will see a warning telling you to change the Temporary Directory from system settings. Click on file system settings in the warning message that appears (like the following example).
   You must specify a private file system path in the file system settings to backup the server.
4. There we recommend changing the Temporary Directory to /home/cpaneluser/tmp (where cpaneluser is your cPanel username).
5. Click on Save Configuration to apply your changes.

Other Drupal Backup Modules

Directions for other backup modules vary, but most allow you to specify which directory your backups are stored in. Consult the module's documentation for specific directions.

Use of the /tmp Directory

In general, use of the /tmp folder on the server should be avoided for storing large files as anything on this partition can be deleted as it's the temporary storage for the server.