Backing up data on Dedicated Servers and VPS in Ruachost

Backups are critical for protecting your websites, applications, and databases from accidental deletion, corruption, or security incidents. On Ruachost Dedicated Servers and VPS, you have multiple options for creating and managing backups depending on whether your server is managed or unmanaged.

Backup Options Overview

Hosting Type	Backup Options
Managed VPS	Manual backups, cPanel backups, optional Ruachost Cloud Backup (powered by JetBackup)
Managed Dedicated Server	Manual backups, cPanel/WHM backups, optional Ruachost Cloud Backup
Unmanaged VPS / Dedicated Server	Manual backups, Bash scripts with cron jobs, remote backups (Amazon S3, Google Drive, rsync)

Note

RAID mirroring (if enabled) only protects against hardware failure. It does not allow you to restore older versions of files. Always maintain your own backups.

Backup Methods

1. Using WHM Backups (Managed Servers)

If your server includes WebHost Manager (WHM):

• You can configure full account backups for all cPanel accounts.
• Backups can be stored locally or sent to a remote destination (FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3).
• WHM also allows scheduling (daily, weekly, monthly).

2. Using cPanel Backups

For individual accounts on VPS or Dedicated Servers with cPanel:

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. Go to Files → Backup.
3. Choose Full Backup (entire account) or Partial Backup (home directory, databases, email).
4. Download the backup to your computer or send it to a remote server.

3. Remote Cloud Backups

You can back up data to cloud storage providers:

• Amazon S3: Use s3cmd or AWS CLI to sync files.
• Google Drive: Use the gdrive utility to upload backups.
• Other remote servers: Use rsync or scp to transfer backups securely.

4. Bash Script + Cron Job (Unmanaged Servers)

For full control, you can create a custom backup script.

Example Script

#!/bin/bash
destination_folder="/home/username/backup/$(date +%F)"
archive_file="backup-$(date +%H%M).tar.gz"

mkdir -p "$destination_folder"
/bin/tar --exclude='/home/username/backup' -czvf "$destination_folder/$archive_file" /home/username/public_html

• Save this as backup-cron.sh

• Make it executable

chmod +x /home/username/backup/backup-cron.sh

Schedule it with cron:

50 23 * * * /bin/sh /home/username/backup/backup-cron.sh

(Runs daily at 11:50 PM).

5. MySQL Database Backups

Use mysqldump to back up databases:

MySQL Database Backups
Use mysqldump to back up databases:

6. Remote Backups with rsync

To copy backups to another server:

rsync -avz /home/username/backup/ user@remote-server:/backup/