SQL Backup - Very newbie

I installed some forums on my website a little while ago (phpbb) and as there are quite a few posts there I decided it was time to make sure I had backup's.

First I used the "backup" facility from within the phpbb Administration pages.
This downloads a file called phpbb_db_backup.sql which is about 2.3mb in size.

Next I logged into my cpanel for the domain and went through the "backup" option.
This enabled me to "download an sql database".
This downloads me a file called xmb1.gz which is around 300k in size.
I used WinZip to extract this file and told it the file extension would be .sql and that gives me a file around 2.2mb in size.

My cpanel tells me that my SQL database is around 1.5mb so it was a little bit confusing why all the downloads were a little bit larger.

Doing the above two things am I in effect backing up the database twice?
Or is the SQL backup and the phpbb backup two tasks that really both need to be done?
Is this all I really need to do to make sure I have backups of the forums?

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Top