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- Stop the cron job.
- Put the system into maintenance mode to prevent client logins by visiting Settings > General > Maintenance Mode.
- Back up all the files. You can do this via an FTP program, or via a shell by running: zip -r backup.zip /path/to/installation/*
- Back up the database. You can do this through a database manager like PHPMyAdmin using the "Export" feature, or with the mysqldump shell command by running: mysqldump -u database_username -p database_name > backup.sql and entering your database password when prompted.
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