Backing Up Data

Depending on your needs, Plesk can perform two types of backup:

• Customer account configuration. Such backups have small size and are convenient for restoring account settings in case of configuration problems.
• Customer account configuration and websites content. This type of backup requires more disk space and system resources because Plesk also saves the content of all websites. Such full backups are the best way to prevent data loss.

You can perform backup manually at any time, or schedule it for a specific time. For example, make the full backup once a day at night time when the number of site visits is minimal. To get the details on scheduling backups, refer to the section Scheduling Backups.

Storing Backups

There are two ways of storing backups in Plesk:

• On the Plesk-managed hosting server. All backup files are stored on your Plesk server along with other account content. Note that in this case backup files occupy the disk space provided by your subscription.
• On a remote FTP server. All backup files are stored on a remote FTP repository. In this case, backup files do not occupy the disk space provided by your subscription. The instructions on how to configure Plesk to save backups to an FTP account are provided below in this section.

Creating Password-protected Backups

Since Plesk 11.0, you are able to secure sensitive data in your backups by protecting them with a password. Protection makes it impossible for an attacker to reveal backup data if the security of your external backup storage is compromised.

You can specify a backup password in the following circumstances:

• In your FTP repository settings (Websites & Domains > Backup Manager > Personal FTP Repository > Personal FTP Repository Settings).
• When downloading a backup file from the Plesk internal repository to some external location.

When uploading these backups back to Plesk and restoring them, you will be prompted to provide the password you used for protection.

Important:
If you forget the password you used for backup protection, it cannot be recovered. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to keep a list of your passwords and corresponding backup file names in a safe place.

Configuring Plesk for Working with an FTP Repository

If you are going to use an FTP server for storing backup files, you should specify its settings in Account tab > Back Up My Account and Websites > Personal FTP Repository:

• FTP server's IP address or host name.
• Directory on the server where you want to store backup files.
• User name and password for access to the FTP account.
• Password that Plesk will use for protecting backup files.