Servers can be unpredictable, so your websites!
A website can crash due to reasons like wrong file edits, permission problems, site upgrades, etc. In all these scenario, it’s the backup that comes handy.
In CPanel servers, users make use of cPanel backup plugin options like Cpremote, Jetbackup, R1soft, etc.
At Bobcares, we often get requests from customers to choose the best backup plugin as part of our Server Management Services.
Today, let’s discuss on the cPanel backup plugin options and see how we recommend backup solutions to our customers.
Why we need a backup plugin ?
Before moving on, let’s take a look on why we need a backup plugin in cPanel server.
Website owners often face problems due to an accidental file deletion. And, when the deleted file is critical, entire website may go down. Similarly, often websites can face virus attacks that deface the pages. Last, and not the least, the hard disk crash can also result in data loss.
It’s loud and clear that only backups come handy in such disasters.
CPanel servers come with an efficient backup option. It allows server administrators to setup daily, weekly or monthly backups. And, there are options to store it on remote backup servers too.
Okay, then why do we need a cPanel backup plugin ?
The major benefits of custom cPanel backup plugin include:
- Minimize the impact of backup process on server
- Customized interface for users
- Multiple remote backup locations
- Flexibility in managing backup tasks
Factors that affect cPanel backup plugin choice
Now, that we know the benefits of cPanel backup plugins, its time to see the factors that affect the plugin choice.
Unfortunately, a backup plugin working perfectly for one customer may not be suitable for another.
Moreover, there comes a wide variety of cPanel backup plugins. Some of them are open source while some work on commercial licenses.
The main factors that affect the plugin choice are:
1. Content type/size
The type of websites that you have matters much in selecting backup plugin. The backup plugin taking a backup of websites with too many images may not be ideal for a simple WordPress website. Similarly, the website content size also plays an important role here.
2. Backup server location
Yet another factor that affects the choice of backup plugin is the backup location. When you serve the backup on the same server in which website exists, there is no need to copy the data over the network. Unfortunately, that’s not the case when you store backup of Amazon S3 backup or remote FTP server.
3. Backup frequency
Again, backup frequency also affects the choice of cPanel backup plugin. If your websites are modified too often, we may have to stick to a tougher backup schedule. Ideally, we need need to minimize the time interval between backups. In such cases, our Dedicated Engineers always recommend a plugin that consumes less resource usage while doing accounts backup.
Pros and cons of top cPanel backup plugins
We just saw the factors that we consider while suggesting cPanel backup plugins to customers. Now, its time to check on the various backup plugins that our customers use.
From our experience in managing servers, our Support Engineers see pros and cons with each of the plugins. Let’s check them in detail.
1. R1soft
One of the backup plugins that our customers use is R1Soft Continuous Data Protection (CDP). It provides an easy and effective way to back up and restore website files and MySQL databases on the server.
To set up R1soft, our Dedicated Engineers connect to the server as root user and install the R1soft package. Then, we assist customers to store all data off site in our backup data center using raid arrays. As a result, the data will be safe and available for restore at any point of time.
Moreover, R1soft allows a quickly accessible user interface. Users can log into your cPanel account and click on the R1soft icon in the Software and Services box. Then log into the CDP server with your cPanel username and password. The restore procedure is rather simple. And, the restore interface looks as shown below.
Again, R1Soft CDP for Linux perform point-in-time snapshot for Linux. The snapshot exactly contain the state of the file system. This can be a problem with MySQL databases.
Luckily, in R1soft CDP, the MySQL add-on uses a MySQL account with administrative privileges. This is used by the Linux Agent to FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK before the file system snapshot is taken. And the lock remains valid until the snapshot completes.
Moreover, from our experience in managing servers, we’ve seen problems with R1soft backup when CDP agent stops. For the proper working, CDP agent should be running on the server. In such cases, we keep the CDP agent under monitoring and restart when they fail.
2. Jetbackup
Hosting providers that would like to offer custom backup solutions to their customers Jetbackup would be an option.
Jetbackup allows to create too many backup jobs on the server. Moreover, it can support multiple back up destinations like Remote server, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. Thus, it helps to serve a wide range of customers using storage solutions.
On servers with high load and resource shortage, Jetbackup allows to exclude certain accounts. Thus, Smart Account Filters in Jetbackup come up as a boon to server owners.
From our experience we see that JetBackup keep the resource usage low during the backup process so as to keep the server load low. Also, when process priority settings like ionice for JetBackup is active, it alters the backup process priorities.
However, this might affect the time taken to complete a backup task. And, the status of backup tasks are readily available in WHM panel.
Jetbackup comes with a commercial license and can be integrated with popular billing solutions like WHMCS.
3. Acronis
Yet another cPanel backup plugin option is Acronis. It comes with the notable feature of prebuilt integration with most of the renowned control panels including cPanel.
In order to protect cPanel servers, all that we need to do is simply download and install the cPanel Acronis plugin and then install a backup agent.
All management task of the Acronis backup can be done easily from WHM. There are options to enable or disable the self-service recovery privilege for cPanel accounts. The self-service recovery privilege helps if your customers are tech savvy enough. They can browse backups and recover files, folders, databases, mailboxes, mail filters and mail forwarders.
Again, Acronis is a licensed product that comes with multiple tenures based on the chosen package.
We just have checked 3 options for backup plugins. There are a lot more available with many user friendly features.
[Looking for a perfect cPanel backup plugin for your server? Our experts can help you.]
Conclusion
On the whole, when thinking of a cPanel backup plugin, the options are many. But, making a right choice depends on per server settings. Today, we saw the factors that our Support Engineers consider when making backup choices and the top backup plugin options.
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