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  1. #1

    Smile Storing backups online?

    Hi
    Ok, I am creating full backups of my cPanel account, just so they can be used to restore the site if I ever change hosts or if something goes wrong.
    But these backup files are ridiculously large: over 200 MB. :O
    Since my internet speed is below par, I might not be able to download it to my computer. I was wondering if there is a way to copy the backup files created by cPanel directly to my Google Drive or Dropbox account, like without actually having to first download to my computer?
    Is it possible? Can someone advise me on this?
    Thanks

  2. #2
    You can purchase backup space, which is quite cheap, and then configure cPanel to upload the backup directly to that space via scp.

    Also 200MB is not that large of a backup.
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  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by [HB]Andrei View Post
    You can purchase backup space, which is quite cheap, and then configure cPanel to upload the backup directly to that space via scp.

    Also 200MB is not that large of a backup.
    Hi
    Any recommendations where I can purchase backup space from? Any *trusted* providers for this?
    Also, how to configure cPanel to upload the backup directly? Any method in particular?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by joxocafeco View Post
    Also, how to configure cPanel to upload the backup directly? Any method in particular?
    Are you doing the backups through a script, or manually through the cPanel interface.

    If you're doing it manually, when you go to the "generate a full backup" screen, you're presented with an option to specify the backup destination. The default is your home directory, but there are two other options - remote FTP, or using Secure Copy (scp).

    As long as your external storage provider gives you access either over FTP, or over SCP, you can choose that option, supply the credentials, and your backup will go straight there.
    Not as active on WHT as I used to be, but still drop in and receive email notifications from here.
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  5. #5
    You can take a look at Backupsy I guess, but unless you know how to setup and secure the backup VPS they provide yourself I'd suggest you look for simpler solutions, such as just FTP/SFTP backup space... there's plenty of providers you'll just have to browse the offers section: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=169

    Also look into this regarding how to make your cPanel upload the account backup to a remote server:
    https://documentation.cpanel.net/dis...yourentiresite

    Alternatively there are sites such as siteautobackup, which can automate the whole thing for you and provider backup space.
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by OakHosting_James View Post
    Are you doing the backups through a script, or manually through the cPanel interface.

    If you're doing it manually, when you go to the "generate a full backup" screen, you're presented with an option to specify the backup destination. The default is your home directory, but there are two other options - remote FTP, or using Secure Copy (scp).

    As long as your external storage provider gives you access either over FTP, or over SCP, you can choose that option, supply the credentials, and your backup will go straight there.
    Hi
    I am using the cPanel interface. I think this is the page you are referring to? (screenshot attached)
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails backup1.png  

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by joxocafeco View Post
    Hi
    I am using the cPanel interface. I think this is the page you are referring to? (screenshot attached)
    That's the one.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by joxocafeco View Post
    Hi
    I am using the cPanel interface. I think this is the page you are referring to? (screenshot attached)
    Exactly.

    Enter your FTP or SCP details in there. SCP is preferable if you could do either and are trying to decide which.
    Not as active on WHT as I used to be, but still drop in and receive email notifications from here.
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  9. #9
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    I often recommend Backupsy or SecureDragon for this purpose. However, if you just want simple ftp storage (and not a vps), adrive.com is a good option (the premium or business plans support ftp/sftp).
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  10. #10
    Alright, thanks.
    So I believe using Google Drive or DropBox via this mechanism is ruled out, then? I should better look for a remote space provider, according to you?

  11. #11
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    I would suggest using https://www.siteautobackup.com/
    Just provide your WHM credentials and the site will retrieve backups on the interval you require. No need to download the files to your own computer or setup a backup-server.

    I use it myself as backup and I can highly recommend it.

  12. #12
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by joxocafeco View Post
    Hi
    Ok, I am creating full backups of my cPanel account, just so they can be used to restore the site if I ever change hosts or if something goes wrong.
    But these backup files are ridiculously large: over 200 MB. :O
    Since my internet speed is below par, I might not be able to download it to my computer. I was wondering if there is a way to copy the backup files created by cPanel directly to my Google Drive or Dropbox account, like without actually having to first download to my computer?
    Is it possible? Can someone advise me on this?
    Thanks
    As others state you would be better off going with a backup provider who provide you with FTP access or as a few mentioned you could also get a VPS with a large HDD partition. Make sure in either case the provider have the HDDs RAID protected and if they backup the data from there, then you got the "golden" backup space. Since even if the drive(s) fails then the provider could restore from backups.

  14. #14
    You should be able to backup directly to FTP or Amazon S3.

  15. #15
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    If you have Dropbox or Drive account, you can backup directly from your server. This online stores have an API interface, and you can call this interface from your server, and upload/download/delete... any files.
    We tested this interface, and it's working, but the free online account have a speed limitation.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by Til View Post
    I would suggest using https://www.siteautobackup.com/
    Just provide your WHM credentials and the site will retrieve backups on the interval you require. No need to download the files to your own computer or setup a backup-server.

    I use it myself as backup and I can highly recommend it.
    I should not need to mention what a terrible idea this is. Giving your credentials to be stored in some random database is never a good idea.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by [HB]Andrei View Post
    Also 200MB is not that large of a backup.

    True. I could only wish that everyone had backups in the ranges of 200mb.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by joxocafeco View Post
    Hi
    Ok, I am creating full backups of my cPanel account, just so they can be used to restore the site if I ever change hosts or if something goes wrong.
    Very good - awesome in fact.

    Now all you need to do is think about what you actually need to do should you have to restore from that back up.

    Most web sites - the physical page files that is - don't actually change all that often. What changes most is email (which you can and should already be retrieving and storing locally) and the biggie: databases.

    So... you don't actually need to "offsite" the full site backup all that frequently. Once a week at most. What you really need more frequently than that offsite is a dump of your database - which is, presumably, smaller than the entire site as a whole. Assuming MySQL it should be a relatively trivial matter to cron a mysqldump of the databases, gzip the resulting dump files, and ftp/scp those files somewhere else for offsite storage.

    Depending on the contents of those SQL dumps, you may also want to put GPG somewhere into that cron job to encrypt the dump files before you start transferring them willy-nilly around the Interwebs.

    Code:
    #!/bin/sh
    
    DATE=`date '+%Y%m%d'`
    
    cd /var/lib/mysql
    
    for DB in `find . -maxdepth 1 -type d -printf "%f\n" | egrep -v "^\."`;
    do 
        mysqldump -u dumpuser -p dumpuserpassword "$DB" > "/tmp/$DB.$DATE.sql" || exit -1;
        gzip -9 "/tmp/$DB.$DATE.sql"
        gpg --output "/tmp/$DB.$DATE.sql.gz.gpg" --encrypt --recipient you@somehost "/tmp/$DB.$DATE.sql.gz"
        scp "/tmp/$DB.$DATE.sql.gz.gpg" someuser@somehost.sometld:/some/dir/.
    done
    Adjust as needed. Make sure to always surround the derived filename with "quotes" because you never know when you're going to run into a database name with spaces or funky characters.

    It's simple, but it works and should get you started. You can get more creative (or not :p ) later...

    Edit: OH! Free tip.

    On the "somehost.sometld" that the resulting dump files get transferred to? Have another cron job that runs daily as root do this:

    Code:
    #!/bin/sh
    find /some/dir -maxdepth 1 -type f -name \*.gpg -exec chattr +i \{\} \;
    That makes your backup files immutable. They cannot be changed or deleted unless root first removes the immutable attribute.

    If someone hacks your web server they can delete all the local data, but they won't be able to use the web server's credentials or keys to connect to your offsite storage server and blow away any of your backups. This *has actually happened* to some people, so make SURE that nothing on the machine the backups came from can alter those backups once they've been delivered to the receiving offsite server.
    Last edited by SneakySysadmin; 02-05-2015 at 09:32 PM.

  19. #19
    siteautobackup.com i find is the easiest to use, not very complicated at all as i use it myself.
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  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by valuehostni View Post
    siteautobackup.com i find is the easiest to use, not very complicated at all as i use it myself.
    They've already been mentioned in this thread. It all depends on whether you're happy handing over your server's login credentials, or if you're looking for a solution where the hosting server can push to the backup server.
    Last edited by Postbox; 05-14-2015 at 09:37 PM.
    Not as active on WHT as I used to be, but still drop in and receive email notifications from here.
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