How should I backup my VPS/cpanel offsite to the cloud ?

OK, you’ve got a load of clients running wordpress under cpanel. And your VPS includes a tonne of space, so your backing up with whm to /backup. Or even better, the hosting company gives you some ftp space, and you have whm backing up to that.

But recently you started to consider what if something went wrong with the hosting company ? what if the server broke ? or what if they went into receivership ? what if you started arguing over invoices ?

You need an offsite backup, that the hosting company don’t control, that is safe, expandable and reliable.

The plan is to use whm to backup to amazon s3.

Amazon s3 is the best cloud storage around, it’s encrypted, fast, unlimited space, reliable, file size goes up to 5Tb.

This is how you use amazon s3 for backup for whm/panel

• sign up for amazon s3 https://aws.amazon.com/s3/
• create a bucket on s3, say called mycpanelBackupxyzCo (the name needs to be unique). Make sure its in a country close to you, I use Australia (I’m an aussie).
• download and install s3fs (it makes the s3 bucket a local mount). http://tecadmin.net/mount-s3-bucket-centosrhel-ubuntu-using-s3fs/ .
• Mount the s3fs on say /mnt/s3fs
• I suggest setting the bucket to rss , it saves a bit of money, use the amazon web console
• setup a whm automated backup to /mnt/s3fs – as easy as that. log into whm – then (Home >> Backup >> Backup Configuration). https://documentation.cpanel.net/display/ALD/Backup+Configuration+FAQ
• go and get a coffee, and put your feet up for a bit.

By Scott Farrell on January 15th, 2016 , Follow @scott_WordPress Tweet to @scott_WordPress