Even more security with local, remote FTP, and cloud storage backups
Backups are stored by default on the same host where your website is located. The advantage is that backups and restores are very fast there. But to ensure maximum security of your data, Plesk works with other locations as well. You can store backups on any external FTP location (using an encrypted transfer method, of course, which is also included for free). This also works in addition to local backups, so you can get internal and external backups at the same time.
In backup sets, service passwords, like mailbox passwords, are encrypted with a key of your choice for added security. For most users this is already enough, but if transport layer security and encryption of service passwords in the Plesk database are not enough for you, simply increase security even more by storing copies security with cloud providers supported by Plesk. Because the entire encrypted files are stored there again.
Backing up to the cloud is as easy as backing up from FTP. Numerous extensions can allow you to back up to Google Drive, Amazon S3, Digital Ocean Spaces, Microsoft One Drive (depending on the provider, there may be a cost for this, the list names only a few popular extensions, but there are more). For web professionals and hosting companies, it is recommended to use the “Backup to Cloud Pro” extension for even more flexibility. The “Backup to Cloud Pro” license package gives you access to premium features of Amazon S3, Google Drive, DropBox, DigitalOcean Spaces, Microsoft OneDrive and SFTP Backup all in one. It is a perfect choice.
Too good to be true?
We all know that sometimes even the best backup isn’t the perfect match for its intended purpose. Many users expect that a backup will restore not only website content, mailboxes, databases, and Plesk settings, but the entire server, including the operating system. This overwhelms even a sophisticated but easy-to-use backup system like Plesk Backup.
Backing up the entire operating system requires expensive snapshots (and a corresponding amount of disk capacity and processing power, or RAM) and poses the greatest challenges to data integrity on servers that have to handle large amounts of data. transactions. This is because a perfect snapshot of the entire system must be created at the time of the backup. Only then can the system state at time X be restored so that all configurations, services and data have integrity and match exactly as before the backup. To achieve this, other methods are more suitable, for example, instant backups of the virtual machine (if supported by virtualization). However, the disadvantage of such backups is that parts of them cannot be restored selectively, or only with great effort. Therefore, they should be seen more as an additional security option.
For daily operation and continuous and convenient backup of data, as well as very easy, selective or complete restoration of important content such as emails, databases, files and websites, as well as settings, Plesk Backup Manager is the right choice.
Conclusion
You should always have a current backup before any updates. With integrated Plesk Backup Manager, backups can be created manually or fully automatically on a regular basis in the background in no time. Restoration is possible not only for the entire backup, but also for individual parts of it, for example, databases, mailboxes, files and folders, or websites. Plesk Backup Manager can store backups on the local host, but also on FTP(S) locations and, with extensions, on cloud services. Plesk Backup is included in all Plesk licenses.