How to create a backup

Please note that we provide a free automated backup solution for our services. Those backups are created on the special backup server and don’t affect your disc space. The creation of the backups is also scheduled for nighttime (00:00 – 06:00 CEST). You can find out how to manage those backups in the Does Fozzy provide any backup solutions for hosting services article.

Nevertheless, you can create manual backups through your control panel at any time. It is very useful to create these backups before the major update of CMS or after the final stage of site development, so you can get back to this moment if something goes wrong. Also, the benefit of manual backup is that you can create it at any convenient time and don’t wait for our schedule.

How to create a backup manually?

DirectAdmin

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My services” section and click the “Login to DirectAdmin” button;
2. The DirectAdmin panel will be opened. Go to the “Advanced Features” section and click the “Create/Restore Backups” button;
3. Hit the checkboxes near the data you want to back up:
   • Website Data:
     • Domains Directory – back up all the files in your domain directory. If you have more than one domain or subdomain, then all your domains and subdomains will be backed up. Backed-up folders include logs and stats as well.
     • Subdomain Lists – back up the subdomain names you have created. It will not back up the files inside the subdomains.
   • E-mail:
     • E-mail Accounts- back up all accounts from all emails (names and passwords);
     • E-mail Data – back up all messages from Inbox, IMAP folders, and webmail data;
     • E-mail Settings – back up all filters and the catch-all e-mail address;
     • Forwarders – back up all the forwarders created by you;
     • Autoresponders – back up all the autoresponders and the message content of the autoresponders;
     • Vacation Messages – back up all vacation message settings and the vacation message itself;
     • Mailing Lists – back up a mailing list, digest-list, and archives;
   • FTP:
     • FTP Accounts – back up all FTP accounts created by you. Please note that it does not back up any files in the FTP directories. If you need to back up the content of the FTP directories, select “Domains Directory” from the “Website Data” section.
     • FTP Settings – back up your FTP accounts’ preferences;
   • Databases:
     • Database settings – back up all DB users and DB settings;
     • Database data – back up all MySQL databases associated with your account. You should back up your databases often, especially if your site depends on them (for example, forums);
4. Once all the needed data is selected, click the “Create Backup” button. The backup creation will run in the background. You can exit or do anything you want freely now;
5. When the backup is created, you will receive a notification. The notification icon will appear in the top right corner near the customer avatar;
6. Go to the “Messages” section, read your notification and click the “Close” button.

Please note that your backup will also be stored in your /backups directory, so you can easily download it through your File Manager or FTP client. We recommend you download important backups to your local PC, as it is much safer to store your backups in multiple places.

How to restore a backup created manually?

1. Go to the “Advanced Features” section and click the “Create/Restore Backups” button;
2. Click the “Restore Backup” button;
3. Select the needed backup from the “Backup” drop-down list;
4. Once the backup is selected, the “Restore Options” section will appear. This section contains the options you have selected when creating the backup;
5. If you want to exclude some options from the restoration process, just uncheck them;
6. Once all the needed data is selected, click the “Restore” button. The restoration will run in the background. You can exit or do anything you want freely now;
7. When the backup is restored, you will receive a notification. The notification icon will appear in the top right corner near the customer avatar;
8. Go to the “Messages” section, read your notification and click the “Close” button.

There is also the “Click here for a list of your current backups” link in the “Restore Backup” section. By clicking this link, you will close the current section and open your File Manager in the /domains folder.

If you can’t see the backup you want in the “Restore Backup” drop-down list (but you’ve downloaded it to your PC previously), you can upload this backup to the /backup folder through your File Manager or FTP client. It will appear in the “Restore Backup” drop-down list after this, and you will be able to restore it easily. Please note that it only works for backups created manually through this control panel.

cPanel

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My services” section and click the “Login to cPanel”;
2. The cPanel will be opened. Go to the “Files” section and click the “Backup Wizard” button;
3. Click the button “Backup Up” to start the backup process;
4. You will need to select a type of backup:
   • Full Backup – back up full data of the account (databases, files, mail);
   • Partial backup:
     • Home Directory — back up the /home directory;
     • MySQL Databases — back up your databases;
     • Email Forwarders & Filters — back up your email forwarders or filters;
5. When you select a full backup, use the “Backup Destination” drop-down menu to select where you want cPanel to store the compressed backup file. If you are not sure, select the “Home Directory” option. If you want to receive notification of the backup completion, then enter your email address in the “Email Address” field. If you do not want to receive any notifications, then simply check the “Do not send email notification of backup completion” option;
6. After selecting the available options click the “Generate Backup” button.

How to restore a partial backup created manually?

1. Go to the “Files” section and click the “Backup Wizard” button;
2. Click the “Restore” button;
3. Select the restore type;
4. Click the “Select File” button and select the desired archive, then click the “Upload” button;
5. Wait for the notification that the backup restore is complete.

We want to clarify that you cannot use a full backup file to restore your files through the cPanel interface, for this action you need to contact support from your client area or from a contact email address, provide either a link to the backup or upload backup.

ISPmanager

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My services” section and click the “Login to ISPmanager” button;
2. Go to the section “Tools – Backup copies”;
3. To create a backup, click the “New” button;
4. A backup will be created in the background and upon completion, the backup will be downloaded to your PC;
5. The created backup will contain a complete copy of all data and will be available under “Backup archives”.

In order to upload your backup from an external source, you need to click the “Import” button and select the type of source and the backup (file) to be imported.

How to restore a backup?

1. Go to the section “Tools – Backup copies”;
2. Select the copy and click the “Details” button;
3. Select the data type: “Databases”, “Mail” or “Files”;
4. Select the required files;
5. Click the “Restore” button to restore files from the backup.

Plesk

1. Go to your client area to the “Services – My services” section and click the “Login to PleskExtended”;
2. The Plesk panel will be opened. Go to the “Websites & Domains” section and click the button “Backup Manager”;
3. Click the “Back up” button;
4. Under “Back up”, you can select which content you want to back up. Domain configuration is always included in backups. You can choose to exclude “Mail configuration and content” and/or “User files and databases” by clearing the corresponding checkboxes;
5. Under “Type”, select the backup type by selecting the corresponding radio button:
   • “Full” backup includes all data you specified during step 4;
   • “Incremental” backup contains only the files that changed since the last previously created backup. Incremental backups are created quicker and take up less disk space than full backups. However, to restore an incremental backup, you must have the corresponding full backup and all previously created incremental backups available;
6. At this point, the backup is ready to be created. There are a number of optional settings you can configure before creating the backup:
   • Leave a comment about the backup being created under “Comments”. Comments are visible in the Plesk interface and can help you tell one backup from another;
   • To exclude log files from the backup, select the “Exclude log files” checkbox. This can decrease the amount of disk space taken up by the backup;
   • To exclude specific files or directories from the backup, select the “Exclude specific files from the backup” checkbox. Type the path or paths to the directories or files you want to exclude in the field below. Paths must be relative to your home directory;
   • If you want to be notified via email when the backup is created, select the “When a backup task is completed, send a notification email to” checkbox. Make sure that the email address next to the checkbox is correct;
   • Keep the “Use native MS SQL backup functionality if possible” checkbox active;
7. Click the “OK” button to create the backup.

How to restore a backup?

1. Go to the “Websites & Domains” section and click the button “Backup Manager”;
2. In the list of backups click the creation date of the backup you want to restore;
3. Select the type of restore:
   • All objects (entire system) – specify the types of data to restore, such as domain configurations, virtual host content, databases, or mail settings and accounts;
   • Selected objects – select the type of object to restore;
4. If you want to be notified via email when restoring is completed, select the “When the restoration is completed, send a notification to” checkbox;
5. Click the “Restore” button to start restoring.