A better backup scheme
So here my suggestion for a better backup scheme. Do something like keeping:
= 1 - 3 monthly backups
+ 3 weekly backups
+ 4 - 6 daily backups
This way a longer period is covered without increasing the space required for backups. You can try keeping it at 8, although 12 would be ideal as it will cover last 3 mo, last 3 wk, and last 6 days.
Other suggestions:
- Allow to choose the time of day to do backup so it won't slow down the server during busy hours.
- Allow to choose external backup destination like S3, Dropbox ... so you don't have to worry about space. Of course you need to create a way for us to be able to recover a full server from a backup too.
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Current backup as it says on https://support.cloudways.com/how-to-backup-my-server/
"Note about backup retention:
We keep eight days worth of backups (this is a fixed setting that you can’t change)...
How many backups this includes, depends on the backup frequency that you have set:
- If you have set frequency to daily (default), we will keep eight backups (one per day for the last eight days).
- If you have set frequency to seven days (weekly), we will keep just one backup."
I was considering setting it to every 2 days thinking that I'd have 16 days more or less covered. Or weekly to have 8 weeks worth of backups. But according to your article I would only end up with 1 weekly backup. So why not retain 8 backups no matter what the interval was set as?
I also don't see the value of hourly backups if only 8 are kept.
However, in the end, none of these make a good backup scheme.
Don
shared this idea
We are closing this thread as we have implemented most of the features requested by OP and other features requested by users in the comments over the years. Here is the list of the features we have introduced around backups.
1. We added the option to set backup retention from 1 to 4 weeks.
2. We added the option to set the frequency of backups from 1 hour to 168 hours (1 week).
3. We introduced on-demand application backup options.
4. Users can now specify the time at which the backups process should be initiated on the server.
5. Users can now restore their deleted servers from the Cloudways Platform. Previously this feature was limited to support but to give customers more control this feature is now available to all Cloudways customers.
6. Users can now restore their deleted applications from the Cloudways Platform to an existing or new server.
If there are any new ideas that you would like to suggest we request you to open a new feedback request.
Best Regards
Cloudways Team
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Don
commented
The backup as it is currently does not give me peace of mind in case of catastrophic server failure or deletion.
Think of a website design studio offering hosting the websites for each client. There are hundreds of clients per server.
At this moment if you lose a Cloudways server, the only to recover it back is an excruciating and VERY time consuming task of creating, reconfiguring settings and restoring the files and databases one by one.
What I am suggesting is a full SERVER and APPS SETTINGS BACKUP along the current backup. AND a corresponding option of RESTORE/CREATE SERVER & APPS from an existing backup set.
So the only extra info you need to save is XML files with the server and apps settings that would allow recreating the server and apps in one go. Now that's peace of mind!
A studio would not have the man power for the hours it would take to redo everything in a timely manner in case of disaster. It would results in a lot of unhappy clients and business loss.
I hope you see my point and the relatively ease of implementing it along the existing backup solution.
Thanks. Cheers!