FAQ Category: Linux Server Backup Service FAQ

Yes. The initial backup takes up the most time and resources to run on the server. Thereafter the daily run incrementally and take very little time or server resources.

Yes.  Your backups are stored on their own dedicated Docker container firewalled off from the outside world.  Only the IP addresses you list in our support portal will be allowed to access the backups.  Additionally, the server that is being backed up has no outbound access to the backup container, further preventing an intruder who gains access to the server from gaining access to the backups as well. The Docker containers are located on our servers in our own locked rack in the PhoenixNAP data center.

No, but we do install the rsync binary on your Linux server if it is not already there. Rsync is a file transfer and synchronization utility and it’s likely already installed.

After purchasing your Linux Server Backup service, you will receive an email from our company requesting that you add a ticket to our system to provide us the login information for the server(s) to be backed up. Once you provide us this information, we will have your backup set up within an hour or two. More details of the backup will be sent to your email, and information on accessing the backup will be found in our support portal.

No. The backups do not take up many resources at all. The most resource intensive part is a script which dumps all the MySQL and/or MariaDB databases on your server and runs at 10:22PM server time by default. If there is a concern on this, we can modify the process to use a lower priority and thus just take a bit longer to perform the database dumps or change the time the script runs.

Due to the time involved in setting our Linux Server Backup service, we ask customers to stay at least three months after signing up.

The initial backup of your server takes the most time because every file on the server has to be replicated to the backup container. A large hosting server can take 24 hours, but most take between 6 and 12 hours. The initial can be scheduled to run at night, over the weekend, or even split into multiple periods if needed. After that, the daily backups run fast, only copying over on the files and databases which have changed since the previous daily backup. These generally complete in about 10 to 30 minutes for most hosting servers. Servers with extremely large databases will take longer because the entire database needs to be replicated to the backup container fresh each day.

Yes, you can inform our support department of the time you would like to run the backups.

Yes. You would have to ask our support staff about only backing up only the data you need, or a more common request, to omit a specific domain, user account, or directory from the backup.

Yes. The backup generates daily MySQL or MariaDB dumps, depending on which database the server uses. The database dumps make it easier to restore only portions of a database.

We have used the same system successfully since 2005.

Yes. The backups can be used to back up any Linux server with any control panel or no control panel at all. For control panel servers, we install scripts to make the restoration of the control panel data much easier.

Yes. The backups can be restored to any server; it does not have to be to the server the backups were taken from.

Yes. Additionally, the restoration can be made to any server; it does not have to be to the server the backups were taken from.

We retain the last 7 daily backups of your server, plus the last 4 weekly backups. Weekly backups are those performed on Sundays.

Yes, we have been providing dependable 24/7/365 Linux server support since 2005.

Yes.  The status of every backup is monitored each day. A ticket is opened with our system administrators for any backup that failed.

If your server is also covered by our server management service we will handle any restorations for you. But if you want to directly access the backups, the login information for the backup container is contained in our support portal under the backup service. You must add the IP address you will be accessing the backup from in the support portal. You will then be able to access the backups via WinSCP (which acts much like a graphical FTP client), rsync or regular “black screen” SCP.

We will begin within 10 to 30 minutes of receiving your request, often faster, depending on the current ticket volume.  The restore can take anywhere from a few minutes for a file, directory, database, or user account restoration or many hours for the recovery of a full server. 

Yes. Please ask our support department to make this change.

Yes, assuming you also have the server management service with us.  If we do not manage the server being backed up, you can contact our sales department and ask for a quotation for the restore or you can restore the server or files yourself.