Don't get caught without a backup!

[JPC-Sabrina]

When tech. support tells you that your server has died and your data is lost will you be able to recover?

While having a local copy is one of your best bets it is not unreasonable to consider one of the many online services which now offer backups. Data storage in the cloud is now also a viable means to data archiving and recovery.

Backing up your site, blog and/or your forum is a must. Do it a few times a week. A local backup is really the only way you can know that you can be entirely secure if your server fails. Almost any system can fail so multiple means, methods and sites for your backups is always recommended. It can be a catastrophic event if your server should catch fire and you don't have a backup copy. Consider getting into a routine of performing a daily or weekly backup.

You can also easily obtain backup protection services from JaguarPC. It won't let you down when tragic events destroy your data.
The prompt recovery of your information can be priceless.

http://www.jaguarpc.com/services/backups.php

The following blog posts stress the importance of having copies of your data so that you can recover. Your data can be your income or the sum total of years of effort and input. Find a method that will preserve your efforts of yesterday for today and always.

It’s important to backup | JaguarPC Blog

Backup is not a dirty word. | JaguarPC Blog

[Ron]

You can also easily obtain backup protection services from JaguarPC. It won't let you down when tragic events destroy your data.
The prompt recovery of your information can be priceless.

YES! Backups are an ESSENTIAL piece of your recovery planning.

You should have backups of some sort to be able to recover lost files and lost data.
You should have backups of some sort to be able to restore your server.
You should have backups to be able to resume your business operations after a disaster wipes out your data center or your hosting provider.

While having JPC backup services in case your server goes belly up is a good thing, if your webhosting is provided by JPC, it is probably not wise to house your disaster recovery backup(s) in the same facility or with the same company that houses your server. You need to have an ADDITIONAL backup outside of JPC in case the very worst happens.

Unless there's nuclear war. In which case a backup in Switzerland might be good, but let's face it -- in that case there won't be any customers to serve or any Internet to serve them.

[gohighvoltage]

I tell clients the same thing all the time, even for their home and office computers. BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. It is amazing how so many people do not do backups. I had a client that called me one time that was extremely upset and desparate. She said her home computer crashed, and it contained over 3000 pictures of all her kids, from infant days to current day. I asked if she had any backups, She said "NO". Unfortunately the hard drive went bad. I explained to her that her ownly option due to the drive not even powering up was to send it to a lab for recovery. I also explained how important it is to back everything up, and how even enterprise hard drives typically are rated 5 years. Always play it safe.

She opted to go with the lab recovery. It costed her over $2500.00 to recover the pictures!!!!!

It doesn't matter what you are doing, running a website, hosting, reseller, HOME computer, Work Computer, etc. You must not fully trust anything electronic, always have a secondary backup, and even a 3rd is a good idea that is kept off location, in case of a fire, or disaster.

My business clients are well trained, even have some that don't trust cloud backups, but they backup every day and then once a week they swap out the backup drive with one from home. This way there is always a backup offsite.

[Bell thorpe]

I rent a VPS in Europe purely for backups. Automated, and by design on a different continent to JPC.

The other issue that hardly gets mentioned regarding backups is testing them!

I've been in IT for decades, and have lost count of the times that I've seen people (ranging from a small dental practice to a major bank) laugh at a crash, say "right oh, we'll just hit the 'restore' button", and find that they had been taking backups for years and they didn't work.

From time to time it's necessary to test a backup by restoring it on another machine.

[Ron]

That's an EXCELLENT point... and sadly I have not tried a restore in four or five years since I moved to my reseller box. (How long has that been BellThorpe?)

I have been motivated to test restores out, so I guess I'll find out soon enough!

[Deyson]

What is the easiest way to backup a site and a blog?

[Bell thorpe]

Click on 'backup' in cPanel.

Or click on 'backup' in the blog's admin control panel.

[Jamsori]

While having JPC backup services in case your server goes belly up is a good thing, if your webhosting is provided by JPC, it is probably not wise to house your disaster recovery backup(s) in the same facility or with the same company that houses your server. You need to have an ADDITIONAL backup outside of JPC in case the very worst happens.

I think this is a crucial point that cannot be stressed enough.

[Bell thorpe]

A useful article on security.

[nayan007]

This is useful topic on Server management,backups and storage.