What is a good Remote Backup solution?
I want to offer remote backups as a service to my hosting clients. It would be great if it could be automated with WHMCS, but the most important part is that I can pick and choose what clients get the service.
I see WHM has a backup remote option to S3 or SFTP. Is the built in backup solution the best way to do this or is there a plugin or service that is better?
Also, what is a good storage provider? I need to backup about 80GB of data.
I see many services online like BackupAgent and WHMEasyBackup. Any recommendations?
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I use S3 for mine as an off-site solution. I have daily backups kept for a week on my primary disk, purely for any local account issues, then all get sent to S3 each day too. The files in total are about 10Gb compressed, 40Gb if uncompressed. I needed an additional two cores head room for the backup to run effectively without creating a bottleneck for traffic... works effectively. Without those additional two cores for backup, original four core load was spiking to 15.00 and 20.00 respectively during the backup, with the additional two cores (6 core), now no more than 5.00 with global traffic as usual for my off-peak period. 0 -
That sounds like a nice solution. So you use the native backup solution in WHM to generate your backup and send to S3? I am only looking to use this for clients that "opt-in" to this service as we already have 7 days local backups kept at our data center provider. Is it possible to just select the clients that get this service? Also, is the connection to S3 encrypted and secure for transfer? Thanks. 0 -
Yes, S3 is a secured connection. See: Backup Configuration - Documentation - cPanel Documentation To my knowledge, no, you can't select accounts that it sends offsite. If the account is set to backup, and you set offsite backups, then it sends it. Saying that, looking at the S3 pricing, you don't get charged for sending data to S3, you only get charged for storing it and retrieving it. I haven't looked at whether a script could simply wipe out established backups automatically, so you aren't paying for the storage for those who aren't paying you. 0 -
It looks like you can select what accounts get backed up so you can omit some that way. We do a bare metal complete backup and keep for 7 days already. I just want to offer the offsite backup option to clients that want it and charge them a small fee for it. S3 looks like about $0.03 per GB according to Cloud Storage Pricing " Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) " AWS. 0 -
Yes, S3 is a secured connection. See: Backup Configuration - Documentation - cPanel Documentation To my knowledge, no, you can't select accounts that it sends offsite. If the account is set to backup, and you set offsite backups, then it sends it. Saying that, looking at the S3 pricing, you don't get charged for sending data to S3, you only get charged for storing it and retrieving it. I haven't looked at whether a script could simply wipe out established backups automatically, so you aren't paying for the storage for those who aren't paying you.
Since we back up all accounts all ready server wide we just want to add the offsite backup for a few selected accounts. They would be the only ones that need it. Does this look possible with S3? We would need a way to delete backups over 30 days old on S3. Can cPanel do this natively? There are some programs like cpremote.net that may help with the deletion of old backups it seems if cPanel can't handle it.0 -
Since we back up all accounts all ready server wide we just want to add the offsite backup for a few selected accounts. They would be the only ones that need it. Does this look possible with S3?
Yes, if you're only using the WHM backup tool to do this additional service, then yes, that would do the job. They want that service, you just activate their account using the method you already outlined on a per user basis. I only use the WHM backup, so not running other backup solutions.0 -
Yes, if you're only using the WHM backup tool to do this additional service, then yes, that would do the job. They want that service, you just activate their account using the method you already outlined on a per user basis. I only use the WHM backup, so not running other backup solutions.
Thanks Anthony. My hosting provider has had backups not work and the full server backup is pretty much useless as you have to restore whole server. Can you restore individual files from the WHM backup? I have a lot of drive space at my office and thinking about doing SFTP backups to here maybe. Is S3 very expensive? I have about 100 clients sites and 40 GB of data. Small sites mostly0 -
Yes, if you're only using the WHM backup tool to do this additional service, then yes, that would do the job. They want that service, you just activate their account using the method you already outlined on a per user basis. I only use the WHM backup, so not running other backup solutions.
How do you handle removing old copies on S3? I assume you have like a week and then purge old copies somehow?0 -
How do you handle removing old copies on S3?
At present, I haven't, as I'm waiting to see whether WHM backup removes them when it removes files in the backup directory. Otherwise, I guess just manually in the S3 container or I will investigate an automated solution. I only just shifted from ServInt to Linode, managed to self managed... so still testing some solutions for myself.My hosting provider has had backups not work and the full server backup is pretty much useless as you have to restore whole server.
Yer, I had the same issue with ServInt in the past with needed backups. When i needed them, they had failed at their end. I'm with Linode now, so needing the entire servers files really isn't an issue, as you can deploy a linux version and WHM within 30 15 minutes, then you just have to restore the server settings backup, then each account. But you can do all that in one sitting. So within an hour or two, have the entire server restored if a catastrophic SSD failure occurred. If you really want, you can just install everything in a clean environment, all your additions and modules, everything but the accounts, clone the entire thing and let it sit on the smallest deployment version, which is $10 a month. I have thought about doing that, cloning my current setup, removing all the accounts, and just let it sit with an inactive WHM as an entire server copy. The more I think about that, writing this, I think I'm going to do just that...Can you restore individual files from the WHM backup?
No, your options are everything, OR, just the files as you can uncheck the DB, mail and sub-domains reinstalling... so you don't lose new db content. I just did this with a nothing account to verify... and it worked as above. It restored the mysql user and permissions, but didn't touch the db itself. I made a change in the db to verify after restore, and it remained. So if your files needed to be restored, easy done.0 -
I actually have a question about S3 here: Understanding Backup For Restoration awaiting an answer from someone who knows more about this stuff. 0 -
Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. 0 -
How do you handle removing old copies on S3? I assume you have like a week and then purge old copies somehow?
Hello, I encourage you to add your input and vote for the existing feature request for this functionality at: Ability to control retention for S3 Backup Destination There's also a post you may find helpful on the above feature request about Amazon's lifecycle configuration: Lifecycle Configuration for a Bucket without Versioning - Amazon Simple Storage Service Thank you.0 -
Hello, I encourage you to add your input and vote for the existing feature request for this functionality at: Ability to control retention for S3 Backup Destination There's also a post you may find helpful on the above feature request about Amazon's lifecycle configuration: Lifecycle Configuration for a Bucket without Versioning - Amazon Simple Storage Service Thank you.
So even though I have WHM set to just save 7 days, it won't delete the older versions at the moment on S3? Just want to understand the issue. I have 5 days now so have not got to day 7 yet.0 -
Ha... I reached 8 yesterday, and it deleted the first folder containing my first backup from my S3. It is only keeping 7 days backup folders in S3. 0 -
Ha... I reached 8 yesterday, and it deleted the first folder containing my first backup from my S3. It is only keeping 7 days backup folders in S3.
That is fantastic! I really like this S3 integration in WHM.0 -
Me too, the moment I found out it worked with WHM's auto delete older backups. :) There was no way I wanted backups building up costing me $$$ for useless space. 0 -
Me too, the moment I found out it worked with WHM's auto delete older backups. :) There was no way I wanted backups building up costing me $$$ for useless space.
Do you know what the minimum permissions for IAM user is in Amazon AWS for WHM to do the backups? Read, write, delete on the bucket but any others? Just curious if you know. Thanks Anthony.0 -
No idea... I don't remember having to play with any permissions, I just use my main account, setup S3 bucket, connected it and away it works. 0 -
No idea... I don't remember having to play with any permissions, I just use my main account, setup S3 bucket, connected it and away it works.
If you use AWS for anything else you should set up IAM user and access codes. That way root can't be compromised. I just setup users with PowerUser permission on the individual bucket in use. Just an extra security step as the data is not encrypted. I was wondering if it would work if we enable encryption on the bucket in S3? Anyone know about that?0 -
No idea... I don't remember having to play with any permissions, I just use my main account, setup S3 bucket, connected it and away it works.
Another thread said full access is recommended.0 -
If you use AWS for anything else you should set up IAM user and access codes.
Yer... I kinda ignored all that. I do use IAM users for SMTP, SNS and such, but I don't bother for things like S3. I have two factor enabled, so if someone can get my access and my phone, then they deserve access after all that hard work. :)0 -
I was wondering if it would work if we enable encryption on the bucket in S3? Anyone know about that?
There's some discussion of this on the following feature request: Backups - encryption of backups (symmetric and asymmetric) Thank you.0 -
I thought S3 backup was already using a secure encrypted connection? Backup Configuration - Documentation - cPanel Documentation 39891 I was wondering if it would work if we enable encryption on the bucket in S3? Anyone know about that?
S3 documents say that you can encrypt as the files reach your bucket, thus storing them encrypted. They give a few different methods, some with costs I believe: Protecting Data Using Encryption - Amazon Simple Storage Service0 -
New I thought S3 backup was already using a secure encrypted connection?
That's referring to the transfer of the files to the remote destination via a secure connection. The link in my previous response is in regards to the encryption of the files stored on the Amazon S3 destination. Thank you.0 -
From: Alex HD's answer to What are some cheap, reliable backup solutions for WHM? - Quora Amazon S3 seems to be the most cost effective and secure option for remotely backing up your cPanel / WHM Server data with ease. A few points to remember: [LIST] - Cost: Amazon S3 is very cheap when uploading the files TO Amazon. But when you want to retrieve the data FROM their server, (for example: restoring a backup or testing) it can turn out to be very expensive. See: Frequently Asked Questions " Amazon Glacier " AWS
- File churn: There is a limitation to deleting files from Amazon S3 before a certain lock-in period. This means that if you keep removing files on a regular basis, Eg. Every week, then it may become expensive. There is a pro-rated charge of $0.021 per gigabyte for items that are deleted prior to 90 days. See: Frequently Asked Questions " Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) " AWS
- Budgeting: Amazon"s pricing may be very very cheap, but it is often almost impossible to predict with accuracy the exact amount you will be charged every month, especially due to their complicated pricing structure.
- Free Space: Do note that your local server also needs to have free space to create the backup archives, before they are shifted to Amazon S3
- Manual Restoration: Remember, that cPanel does not support automatic restoration of Backup files at a Remote Location. Read: Backup restoration from Amazon S3 Backup. This means that you will need to manually download the files to the server using something like s3cmd from the command line, when you want to restore the backup.
- Retrieval Time: Amazon takes a long time for retieval of the data which is backed up for infrequent access. This means that it can take over 5 - 8 hours to get your files onto your server, before you can even start the unzipping or restoring operation. On the other hand, because it is integrated with the WHM backup option, it is very smooth and easy to use.
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