Backing Up Your Plesk Data

Plesk data backup is carried out by Plesk Backup utility. Using this utility, you can:

• Back up your Plesk data via easy-to-use GUI
• Choose what Plesk data should be backed up, with a couple of clicks
• Quickly and efficiently schedule backups
• Use command line interface to back up your Plesk data or integrate backup in your own applications and batch files
• Save certain combinations of backup settings to reuse them later

To see the list of data that can be backed up with Plesk Backup utility, see the What Plesk Data Is Backed Up And Restored section.

To back up your Plesk data:

1. Start Plesk Backup utility (Start > All Programs > SWsoft > Plesk > Plesk Backup)
2. Select the objects you want to back up.
   • You can choose what clients and domains you want to backup by selecting the corresponding checkboxes in the Select the objects to be backed up menu.
   • When selecting or deselecting a client, all domains of this client are selected and deselected as well.
   • You cannot back up a domain without backing up the client it belongs to. If a domain is selected to be backed up, its owner will be automatically selected as well.
   • Use Select All to select all available objects and Clear All to deselect all objects previously selected.
3. Choose the appropriate backup options.
   • If you are making a full backup, it is recommended that you leave the Suspend control panel services during backing up checkbox selected to ensure that backup procedure is performed correctly and that resulting backup file is not corrupted.
   • If you are making selective domain backup, we recommend you to clear the Suspend control panel services during backing up checkbox and leave the Suspend domain operations during backing up checkbox selected. This will ensure that domains which are not backed up are accessible during the backup procedure.
   • If you do not want to see the warning messages that are displayed if problems are encountered during the backup process, select the Do not prompt with warnings checkbox. To see the list of encountered problems, click Show Details >> on the backup results message window after the backup process is finished. Note that this button is disabled if no problems were encountered.
   • Leave Back up domains content selected to back up domains content.

     Note: If you do not back up domains content, web applications and databases might not function properly after the subsequent restoration.

   • Leave Back up mailboxes content selected to back up messages in the mailboxes.
   • Leave Back up databases content selected to back up the MySQL and local Microsoft SQL Server databases.

     Note: If you do not back up databases content, web applications and databases might not function properly after the subsequent restoration.

   • Leave Back up control panel configuration and server settings selected to back up Plesk Control Panel preferences and server-wide settings.
   • Select Back up interface skins to back up currently installed inferface skins.
4. Select the destination for the backup file.
   • Choose Store backup file on local drive to store the backup on a local hard disk or local network. Use Browse to specify the filename and location for the backup, and click OK to confirm your choice.
   • Choose Store backup file on FTP to store the backup on a remote server via FTP protocol. Click FTP settings to specify FTP server, base FTP directory and login credentials. Select the Passive mode checkbox to use passive mode for FTP transfers. Click Apply to save the changes.

     Note. The backup file size is limited to 2 GB. All backup files over 2GB are split into several volumes, named in accordance with the following scheme: FileName -> FileName.1 -> FileName.2, etc.

5. Enter a description for the backup file in the Description field.
6. Select a temporary folder for backup purposes, if the hard disk partition where Plesk is installed doesn't have enough free space. Under File menu, click Set Temporary folder... and specify the required folder. Click OK.
7. Save the backup configuration, if necessary. Under File menu, click Save config, specify the filename and configuration file location, and click OK to confirm your choice. To use an existing backup configuration, click Load confing, find the required file and click OK.
8. Click Start to start backup. If Suspend control panel services during backing up or Suspend domain operations during backing up options were selected, Plesk will stop the required services automatically before proceeding with backup.
9. After the backup process is finished, you will be prompted with a message that dispays the backup results, including all possible problems encountered during the procedure. Click OK to close the window, or click Show Details >> to see what problems were encountered. Note that this button is disabled if no problems were encountered.