User Guide - Data Backups

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Applicable Plans: All plans

eApps provides three types of backup procedures to its customers: 

Daily backups - up to seven days (7) retention of daily backups of your entire VPS (included with the service)

Client-side backups - backups that are initiated by the customer using the Control Panel, and saved to the customer's local computer (no cost)

Server-side backups - backups that are initiated by the customer using the Control Panel, and saved to an eApps storage array (customer pays for a set amount of disk space on the array)

Apart from the backup procedures that eApps offers and supports, you can always use scripts that you create for managing your backups and eventually upload them somewhere outside eApps. Simple commands such as scp or rsync executed periodically, or tools such as Amanda can be used. eApps Customers may also use third party backup services which can be configured to automatically retrieve and store the data from your eApps VPS service. For all data that poses a risk if lost, we strongly recommend that you keep a backup of these critical files and data somewhere outside of the eApps service.

Daily backups

The daily backups are automatically done for each of your virtual private servers, every night, and there is no action required for you to make this happen. We create this daily backup for all the files in your VPS. We can restore a file, or directory, or a complete image of your entire VPS as of time when the backup was taken, for up to seven (7) days in the past. However, because the backup is created once per day we may not be able to restore the content of some files which change very frequently (such as mail folders, database tables which are frequently changing by issuing INSERT/DELETE/UPDATE statements, and so on), because usually in such cases the file content is inserted and deleted from a file between the backup sessions.

How to get a file or directory restored from the daily backups: you will need to submit a ticket into our Tech Support department (you can send an email to support _at eapps.com or submit a ticket into the Tech Support queue from our Support Site https://support.eapps.com/ ) and let us know what file(s)/directory(es) you want us to restore, what date you want to restore the backup from, and that you agree with the $15 fee.

Client-Side backups

Since this kind of backup is totally controlled by you there is no fee for creating such backups or for restoring files.

Creating Client-Side Backups

To create a backup you have to take the following steps:

  1. log into your Control Panel and make sure you're under the System tab;

  2. click the Backup and Restore link;

  3. choose one of the available options for creating a backup for a user directory, for all users directories or for a custom directory if you know the path to it already (by example: /etc, /opt/tomcat5/webapps, /opt/svnserve)

  4. click Next and save the file on your local PC. Please make sure you don't misplace it in case you will need it.

Restoring files from Client-side Backups

Log into your control panel and make sure you're under the System tab;

  1. click the Backup and Restore link;

  2. choose the Restore a directory from a backup stored on your computer option;

  3. browse the local computer for the backup file previously saved while creating backups;

  4. click the Restore button.

Please note that restoring a file or directory from a backup will overwrite the already existing files. If you still need the content of the files to be overwritten then please rename them using the file manager from your control panel or the Linux command line (if you log into your VPS by SSH).

Server-Side backups

This kind of backups are created on your request but are stored on the eApps data storage array. To be able to create such backups you will have to purchase backup space from eApps. For this please log into your Control Panel, go under the Upgrade Center tab, click on Buy Resources, scroll down to Total size of all backups fill in the size of the disk space you need (in gigabytes) for backups you intend to create and then click the Next button. Once your order is paid for and processed the backup space will become available to you in your Control Panel.

Warning: The eApps data storage array is a high quality, reliable data backup device. It provides another level of protection against data loss. However, it is physically located in the eApps Data center where your VPS data resides. In the event of a disaster, eApps can not guarantee that your data will be safe even if you use the Server-Side backup service. For disaster recovery purposes, a copy of your critical data and files must be stored off site.

Creating Server-Side Backups

To create a backup you have to take the following steps:

  1. log into your Control Panel and make sure you're under the System tab;

  2. click the Backup and Restore link;

  3. click on the Server Side Backing up and Restoring link;

  4. click Create Backup to save the a copy of the entire image of your VPS on our backup servers.

You may create as many server-side backups as you want provided that you have purchased enough backup space.

Restoring Files from Server-Side Backups

To restore specific files or directories from a server-side backup: You will have to make a request to the Technical Support department as was explained previously in the section on restoring a file or directory from the daily backups. Since the Server-Side backup service is a paid option, you are entitled to one free restoration request per month at no additional cost.

To restore the entire backup image of your VPS from a server-side backup: In the Server Side Backing up and Restoring area under the Backup and Restore area of the System tab you will see a list of all server-side backups that you have made. click the checkbox of the backup you want to restore and click the Restore link. Your VPS will be replaced by the image of the backup of the VPS from the date you are restoring. WARNING: This is an irreversible process! If you restore a server side backup you will lose all of the data currently contained within your active VPS!!!

Important Tips for Backing Up your Data

Commands for Backing up Databases - Having reliable backups of your databases is very important. The data contained in your database often supports critical functions for customer relationship management, financial transactions and more.  Keeping good backups of this data must be one of your top priorities.  The eApps backup system backs up your entire VPS environment nightly.  This backup method takes a snapshot of your VPS by copying static files from your file system.  This works fine for most applications but can be troublesome when backing up dynamic databases.  It is possible that some of your data can be lost when restoring from a backup if your site was very busy processing database updates when the backup was made.

The following commands for MySQL and Postgresql can be used to add a higher level of insurance that your database data is backed up optimally. The web interface administration tools for MySQL and PostgreSQL also allow you to create backups.

MySQL - the mysqldump command creates backup files; its operation is very simple:

mysqldump -p<PASSWORD> <database> dbbackup.sql

This command can be easily added into a script that can be run by the cron daemon.  It is also advisable to have another script rotate the backups out as they age so that you don't use too much disk space on your server.

Postgresql - likewise, the pg_dump command does the same thing for postgresql.

pg_dump -d<database>

Once again, this command can be easily added to a script that can be run by the cron daemon. Don't forget to rotate the backups.

Please keep in mind that these are the most basic uses of the commands. Consult the documentation for these commands to customize them to your needs.

Database Replication - Another database backup technique is to use a slave server to perform live replication of MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. We use this approach on our important databases to take frequent snapshots of all tables and data without interrupting the production database servers.  Some of our customers use this technique as well. All it takes is setting up a second VPS with a database server only, configured to replicate with your production database on a scheduled basis.

If you would like eApps administrators to assist in writing backup scripts tailored to your site, set up a database replication scheme, or help in any way just let us know. Open a ticket with our sales department at sales@eapps.com and we will work with you to design a solution that meets your needs.

Third Party Approaches for Backing Up your Data

As we mentioned before, any backup that is maintained at eApps should not be used as your 'disaster recovery' solution. The primary reason is that the data saved on the eApps service is not rotated or transported off site. Even though the data center we use is designed to withstand anything short of a direct hit by a tornado or earthquake, it is not prudent to rely on a single location. If you can not set up a data backup solution using your own network, you may want to invest in a third party backup service. We can not vouch for the following three services, but each of them advertises the ability to backup from Linux servers, which indicates that they would probably work with your eApps VPS.

http://www.dataprotection.com/
http://www.amerivault.com/
http://www.databarracks.com/

Links to other Information

For more information about how data backup works please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backup .

The Rsync documentation page may also provide useful information for you to create your own backup strategies: http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/documentation.html , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync .

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