Alright I've done a few things:
* I've set up a new subdomain,
http://test.thelifestream.net, which is a 1:1 copy of our current environment, just chucked into a different folder on our production server. Separate files, separate database, everything else should be the same. We can use this to develop / test themes, new forum software, etc. I also now know how to set up subdomains, so if we'd like to host anything besides TLS, we can now do so (like idk, separate game sites or whatever)
* I've reinstated the backup procedure. Unlike the previous iteration though, it now uses just a Dropbox uploader, instead of the whole Dropbox application which had the downside of putting any files I put in there (like my password database) onto the server unless I added a specific exception rule. This solution should be safer (for me), and probably less heavy on the server too because instead of the whole 'sync' action where it has to do a load of checks and shit, it just does a one-way 'upload' action. I'm running a backup now, see how it works out (if you've had trouble accessing TLS in the past few minutes, my bad).
Backups will be made every Monday morning at 8 my time (7 AM GMT or something), so if TLS is unresponsive or slow at that times, it's the backup being made.
I've looked into using Amazon Glacier or S3 to upload the files to, which would be a lot cheaper (Dropbox is $15 / month for me atm), but it was a hassle to set up and rather esoteric apparently, or, I just don't get it.
Anyway, that.
l'edit: I think I can make the part where it compresses and uploads the backup a bit nicer on the server, i.e. in such a way that the processes that create pages for you lot get priority, by calling the gzip and upload methods via the
nice command. Also the thing is uploading now, it uses CURL instead of the Dropbox process like on the old service, and uses just a few % of CPU.