I was looking at signing up with acunett as a reseller but when I asked about data backup I was told :

"We currently have no scheduled backups, but we are considering to implement weekly backups in the future."

The "in the future" is a good thing but what I am wondering is if this is common not to backup or is it something you just have to ask about?

I have learned from years of computer use that you ALWAYS backup and do it often. Learned that one the hard way :bawling:. But I am not someone who is tremendously familiar (yet) with the hosting arena.

Thanks

Dave

Yes, it's not proper not to have backups by Hosts on their server(s). As a reseller you did the correct thing, if you are a reseller for a particular Host and the Host don't provide at least weekly backups for their entire server, don't signup with such a Host.

As a reseller, I am using WHM/CPANEL where there is an option for the client to backup their files and save it to their computer harddisk, so if the Host's backups is not up-to-date, then the client can always upload their saved backups data/files from their computer harddisk and use the "extract" in WHM/Cpanel to restore their files.

I am not sure about Ensim/Plesk control panel whether they have this option as I don't use it and cannot comment on it.

In a world where backup drives are so cheap, there is no excuse not to have server backups, they wont' protect you from crackers, but at leat you will be safe in case of hardware failure

Great info, thanks. I would certainly strongly recommend everyone I host to do regular backups as well. I do myself. It seems it should be their job to ensure their hardware failure does not destroy data though. Thanks again.

Dave

Acunett does weekly backups now...:)

Originally posted by cactus
I am not sure about Ensim/Plesk control panel whether they have this option as I don't use it and cannot comment on it.
Plesk doesn't seem to have much, and their myphpadmin install setup doesn't have the option for dumps, so really you'd have to give them SSH, which is fine for some, but honestly not fine for many people.

I also (my personal opinion) think backups are overrated. Sounds great in theory, but honestly, if I don't have two copies of whatever on both of my home HD's, I feel itchy. I have drives either mirrored (RAID1), or backed up (daily/weekly/monthly), but I think in general, you have to rely on your provider's abilty to restore from those backups, less than if there are backups in the first place (of course, if there aren't back ups in the first place, it won't be possible to restore no matter what, but I think you get the meaning).

To sum it up, my suggestion is this... Do your own backups. If you don't know how, ask. Consider it your primary backup and assume that any other backup will either not be done properly, be lost as well, will be unable to restore from, or corrupted. If the data is important to you, then you shouldn't rely on others as they won't care nearly as much if it is lost. In the end, you'll be without the data and there won't be anything that will bring it back, and *that's* what matters.

I totally agree with Chicken on doing your own backups but we all know how we end up forgetting to do them. Do yourself a favor and also expect your host to do not just weekly backup's but I would seriously recommend looking for a host who does daily, weekly and monthly backups.

Not only does this protect the data against a hard drive failure but it also protects from the user doing the accidental delete. At least yesterdays data will still be out there if dailies are performed :)

In the end you get what you pay for. If you are looking for a very inexpensive host, don't expect all of the extra protection but if your service and data is very important to you then pay the extra five bucks or so a month for the comfort of knowing your data will have a much lower risk of being lost.

I want to echo what Curt has said. It is ultimately the user's responsibility to back-up their site, but I would not go with a host that does not offer at least weekly backups. Daily backups are better.

Weird things can happen(as I am positive you know). I once had a client accidently copy over an index file on the server and then try to "fix" it by uploading a copy from his local computer. His local copy was corrupt and was no good to him. Luckily he could fall back on a backup on the server.

-Lamar

A host should do backups ! ! !

;)

Originally posted by Groundhog

"We currently have no scheduled backups, but we are considering to implement weekly backups in the future."


Backups are a GOOD thing. We do backups but they are not used for "I deleted my file by accident". Our backups are for hardware failures and box restorations. I understand if a host will not back up a clients site for the clients use, but not having them at all is just asking for trouble. :)

Originally posted by Curt
I totally agree with Chicken on doing your own backups but we all know how we end up forgetting to do them. Do yourself a favor and also expect your host to do not just weekly backup's but I would seriously recommend looking for a host who does daily, weekly and monthly backups.

Agree completely. I suppose it is a balance between what you can do and what is reasonable (in a perfect world, you'd personally back up your data 10 times a day). I'd also like to thank David & gang at intraspatial for setting up the daily/weekly/monthly for me, as it does (as you said) help reassure me that should anything go wrong, I have another option to get things back to normal should anything happen. I woldn't rely on it, however, it would be nice if it worked and would likely be more current than my backups.

If your site is mission critical or dynamic, you should seek a mission critical backup system or healthy d/w/monthly backup plan.