2.16.1. General information about backup
Backup is a mechanism for saving and subsequent storage of hosting account data, designed so that, if necessary (disruption of the site or its database for any reason, ranging from accidental deletion of important data and ending with hacking), the owner of the hosting account has the opportunity return the data to the state in which it was at the time of the copy creation.
Data types to be backed up:
- Site - files and directories from site root directory, without Database. Such a copy can download or restore. When restoring, the entire contents of the site's root directory are replaced with the data from the copy. Copies are created only for sites and subdomains added in the section «My sites».
In backups not saved settings from the control panel, for example site settings, PHP settings, SSL settings, domain settings and others as well as content mailboxes etc.
Backups are often remembered only when everything is already lost and without them the site cannot be restored. For this reason, we provide not only the ability to create and store copies manually, but also the functionality of regular automatic backups.
Retention periods for automatically created backups:
- Account and site — copies are stored for the last 12 days, as well as for the beginning of the current and previous month.
- Databases — copies are stored for the last 7 days, as well as for the beginning of the current and previous month.
History of operations on creating and rebuilding backups are kept for the last 10 days.
Automatic backup workflow
Every day we copy files and databases of each hosting account to a special backup server. First of all, we are interested in this ourselves: if an irreparable situation happens to our web or MySQL server, we will be able to restore your data from a copy no older than 24 hours. The exact time for automatic backups differs between hosting accounts and servers. Copies of files and databases are not necessarily saved at the same time: for example, a copy of files can be created at 2 am, and databases — at 9 am, or vice versa.
The next day the situation will repeat itself — we again create backup copies of your data, overwriting the old copies with new ones. And so every day. Such a backup is called a snapshot (snapshot of the file system).
In the interval between the creation of snapshots, another copy takes place — so—called regular backups are created. The cycle of storing and rewriting them is longer than that of snapshots, due to this there is greater freedom of action, since there is a choice, albeit limited, for which day to restore data.
Copies are not only possible restore, but also download itself in the form of an archive without restoring and replacing the current content of the site directory or its database.
Automatic backups are not created:
- For sites that have root directory is a symlink (however, the necessary data in this case can be obtained from the backup copy of the hosting account).
- For inactive hosting accounts - those that have expired or have a trial period.
- For hosting accounts that deleted and moved to the archive.