How do I Restore File From Backup Function

[wckay82]

Hi ,

I did a backup using the backup function in cpanel.

How do i vew and restore the backup file?

Please advise,

Thanks

[davidweg]

trying to understand what happens after you upload your backed up folder?

No-one around here know how to do this?

[skeezix]

Hi ,

I did a backup using the backup function in cpanel.

How do i vew and restore the backup file?

Please advise,

Thanks

cPanel > Files > Backup > and you'll see the options for restoring a previous backup. Just click the Browse button and go hunt for the backup you saved on your local disk...

I've never tried this but I don't see why it wouldn't work - to "see" a backup file on your local drive use an unzip application just as if the backup file extension were "zip".

[davidweg]

I did that and even after unzipping the file (which then shows a single folder), when asked to restore, the question is which part you wish to use.

Well I only see one folder in that zip file, and the restore function wants to know

1) Your home directory

2) Your SQL databases

or

3) Your email stuff.

Again, the zip only contains one folder and that folder contains a plethora of other folders, none of which are any of the three options listed above.

?????

[skeezix]

Frustrating.

Rather than just let you hang, let me be honest and say,

"I ain't got the foggiest!"

Let's just hope that you (and I!) never have to go that far...

Here's what I do:

I use cPanel's phpMyAdmin to export my database to a local folder that I have named with a datecode, for example, /mysite20080201. Then I zip and ftp /mysite with all its contents to that folder as well. Now I have a backup of the entire site, subfolders intact, and a backup of my sql database.

I necessary, I can upload the folder back to the server, remove the datecode, drop all records from the sql database, and insert the ones from my backup.

[felgall]

If you are developing static web pages then the best way to do it is to develop and test the pages on your computer and then upload them to your hosting. That way you both know that the pages work before anyone else sees them and you have a backup copy on your computer automatically.

For dynamic pages that use a database there are two parts to consider. One is the script that generates the pages from the database. If you installed this from Fantastico and anything goes wrong then you can reinstall it from there with no backup being required. If you did a manual install then you should still have a copy of the files on your computer to upload again if necessary.

That just leaves the actual content of te database as the only part of your site that is actually updated online without having a copy on your computer from the start. There are two ways to handle backing this up. Which you use depends on how big your database is and how easily you want to be able to access the data to individually restore parts of the content. One is to use the backup facility to do a backup of the database. This provides the smallest file to download but is the hardest to use if you really need to restore. The other way is to use the export option in phpmyadmin to create a zipped backup of the SQL commands needed to rebuild the data. You can then use the import option to upload it again or extract sections of the data as needed to selectively restore content.

The only other part of your site that could need backing up are the filtering, redirects, autoresponders etc that you have applied to to your email accounts. These can be backed up from the backup facility.

I have never come across a situation where restoring backups taken via the backup facility would be required and so I have not investigated how you would do so. Provided that you have the backups then you would be in a position to ask for help from support should it ever become necessary to use them.

In so far as moving your site from one server to another, support should manage to successfully copy everything across for you. Your taking a backup beforehand is just a precaution so that if something goes wrong and they end up losing some of your data that you have a copy of that data to put back if they don't. After all the content of your site is your responsibility and you should never rely on the hosting provider maintaining any backups that will contain what you need. Any backups they take are for their purposes in maintaining the whole server.