Offsite Backup Guide
From MDSupportWiki
Contents |
Logging In
To login to the offsite backup node, head to:
http://backupserver.mdwebhosting.com.au/restore/login
You will be asked to enter a username and password, which we supply when you sign up.
To login to the onsite backup node (for VPS/VDS/Slice clients) head to:
http://backupnode1.mdwebhosting.com.au/restore/login
Creating a Backup Set
The first time you login, you will see four buttons: Home, Filestores, Preferences, and Terminology. At this stage, we are interested in creating a backup, so click on Filestores.
You will be taken to the filestore management portal. Proceed by clicking "Add Target" in the top right hand corner.
You will then be asked to choose a protocol. Select FTP, then click Next.
Type in the FTP details for the domain you wish to backup.
Hostname: Your website domain name, or alternatively the server IP or hostname.
Port: Leave as 21
Username: Your FTP username
Password: Your FTP password
You can generally leave the other boxes unticked. Click Next.
The backup server will attempt to communicate with your account. A little red orb will spin, indicating that the filesystem is being updated.
Once the server is authenticated you will see the filetree. If you just want to back up your website files (this will increase transfer speeds and maximise your space on the server) then unselect everything except for public_html. If you want to save everything, including emails, then tick everything EXCEPT for the www folder (if you leave the www folder checked then your data will be copied twice). Click Next. (Note, this will not save MySQL databases. Keep reading to learn how to do this).
Choose a Target Name, then click Finish.
You will now be taken to the snapshot page. Every backup event is called a "Snapshot". To take an immediate snapshot, click the Play icon located in the top right corner.
You will be taken to the console page and can view the progress of the snapshot here. Once you see that the Snapshot has finished, you can click the Snapshots tab to see the history of your most current snapshots.
Top tip for VPS/VDS clients using Cpanel: For a more consistent and quicker backup you may wish to consider creating a Cpanel backup first, and backing up the resultant tarball.
Creating an automated Backup Schedule
Instead of logging in every time you want to backup your site, you can instead create a schedule that will run a backup job for you as frequently as desired.
To do this, click the Schedule tab, and then click the Snapshot Schedules + button.
You will be asked to create a schedule name, set the days you want the schedule to run, and the time that you want the backup to run. In this example, the schedule will run Monday and Friday at 3am.
NB: We strongly urge you to set schedules to run during offpeak periods between 1am-7am. Running at other times may place unnecessary strain on your server and hence risk your account being suspended. (This does not apply to VPS customers, but best practices dictate that you should always perform backups during off-peak periods).
Click Create, and you will see the new Schedule in the left hand pane.
You can also define Retention Schedules. For example, you may only want to keep a backup for 2 weeks before discarding it. By rotating out your backups you save space and resources on your backup slice. The Revision Retention Schedule + button on the right-hand side allows you to set these schedules.
In the example below, all snapshots are kept for 2 weeks and then discarded. If there is only one snapshot left, then the system will retain it.
Restoring Data
Restoring data is a simple task. To begin, click the "Restore Data" tab. Depending on how your Snapshot schedules run, you will be given different points in time from which you can restore your data.
Select the files and folders that you wish to restore.
Once selected, click the Restore button in the top right hand corner.
Select the restore method:
RESTORE files to original location - This may over-ride existing files, so be careful here.
RESTORE files to a subdirectory named: - Make sure that the subdirectory exists when using this option.
Download a ZIP File - Downloads the backed up files directly to your home computer.
When you have made up your mind, click Go. You will be able to watch the restore process, or if you selected to download you will be sent a Zip file.
Backing up MySQL Databases
The procedure for backing up your MySQL databases is quite similar to backing up your other files. Click on Filestores, and then choose MySQL as the file protocol.
You will then be asked to enter your details:
Hostname: Your domain name or IP address.
Port: Leave as default 3306
Username: Your database username
Password: Your database password
When finished, click next.
Once authenticated, you can select the various databases you wish to backup. Once selected, Click Next.
Type a target name, and then finally click Save.
As before, you can then create backup schedules and retention policies for your MySQL databases. If authentication/connection fails, then either your password was incorrect or there is a problem with the firewall (call us to unblock the mySQL port for your server).
Setting up Email Notifications
You can set up your offsite backup manager to send you information notice emails whenever a snapshot is completed, or alternatively whenever an error is encountered.
To do this, click on the Preferences button, then check the "Receive Email information notices" and "Receive email error notices". Put your email address into the Email field before clicking Update.
You can also update your password in this section. We recommend you change your password every 30 days for better security of your data.
