Loading ...Welcome to our OS-agnostic, free VPS backup solution! VPS-backup.com is the the result of over 10 years of experience in managing servers, websites and their access to Internet. Here you will find all the information you need, plus a nifty VPS backup tool that will help you get the job done quickly, efficiently and most of all, properly. If you invest a little time into reading and testing this resource you’ll not only do a much better job of backing up your VPS, but save yourself a lot of time and effort in the process — not to mention, you’ll avoid the costly traps that most newbie webmasters-turned-admins fall into.
Could this happen to you?
Even if you are a home user, almost one third of you have lost all of your files due to circumstances beyond your control, like a hard disk drive crash. If you then tried to get a quote from a data recovery service, you likely gasped at the price. There are more severe consequences for businesses – according to a Price Waterhouse Coopers survey a single incident of data loss costs businesses an average of $10,000. You can say I put that to test myself – last time I lost my e-mails, it was dearer than $10,000 to get everything back on track.
What is vps-backup.com?
vps-backup.com is a simple, smart and economical way to protect the valuable data you are currently trusting with a Virtual Private Server rented from a hosting company.
Specifically, the VPS Backup service
- Is simple to set up
- Performs backups automatically in the background
- Allows you to encrypt files on your server before upload
- Uploads only the file bits that changed from the last run
- Backs up open/locked files
- Compresses uploads to save traffic
- Does not have an affected name like Fluffy or Sillycate
VPS Backup relies on a platform launched in 2000 and trusted by 1,500,000 users worldwide.
99% of VPS owners don’t have a reliable backup strategy for their server. Interestingly, 99% of hosting companies don’t mention this – they are too interested in getting you boarded and unloading any responsibility for your data.
I run this service in a totally different way. You can use the tool for FREE. I set it up for my business, which relies on several Virtual Private Servers hosted on two continents and backed up with this solution. If you think your requirements are similar to mine, you are welcome to register and receive the same service. Since I am already covering its maintenance cost on my own, your voluntary contribution will only go into making it better to our mutual benefit. And for a change you might even enjoy such an unusual business experience.
The links on the right sidebar of each page will let you quickly navigate around the site. But please start by reading this page, which will introduce you to the basics of online backup.
Then, when you’re ready to start backing up you private server, click the button below to register a FREE account and start protecting your server anywhere on the Net!
How to properly back up your VPS
Server backup is not really that difficult. It just takes a little bit of effort, a little bit of thought, and a fair amount of resources. It is crucial to understand that online backup is a form of long-term insurance to protect your data against loss. It can take weeks or months to design a successful website or Internet service and to get into the search engines, and years to develop a strong customer/visitor base. On the other hand, it takes one poorly managed hardware upgrade, or server migration, or transition to another provider, to waste it all and start painstakingly from bits and pieces scattered on your developers’ hard drives or sent over public e-mail addresses. But don’t be overwhelmed by the potential consequences of such a disaster. Having a lot to lose is a sign of wealth and prosperity and by taking your time to visit this site you are making big steps towards protecting this lot.
Here’s a summary of my “10 step” program:
- If you are posting it on the Internet, make sure you’re hosting it right. The Internet is great for meeting many people, but this is a two-way road. By all means, test the 3USD/mo shared hosting offers from the likes of Hostgator, Bluehost or Lunar Pages. They have their benefits. But when your needs grow, get a virtual private server or dedicated hardware behind your website. Nothing turns people away more than a slow and panting webserver, with the potential bonus of seeing your account suspended for consuming too many CPU cycles, bandwidth or disk space while on a so-called UNLIMITED hosting plan.
- Understand that hosting companies lose data every day. We all wish that were not true, yet we know these companies rely on hardware, software and people just like everybody else. The hidden ingredient is luck – some got away with it when losing data – backups worked or their customers did not complain.
- Be responsible for your business. You are just a customer to your service provider. Sometimes it is simply not worth to them to help you recover data or restore your server. Have a backup plan and triggers in place to know when it’s time to look for a new host.
- Keep your backup solution in working order. A disaster can happen any time, be it during the night, weekend or the few days far from civilisation you call holiday. Backups that stalled for months are like expired milk. You get sick opening them.
- Automate your website. There is no excuse for doing certain tasks manually. Put a price on your time and start acting as your own employer. Is your manual backup procedure (done timely and thoroughly, remember), worth 30min/day every day?
- Consider paying for getting good backup. We can all design plans and solutions. Doing it right is a different story.
- Document your configuration and backup solution. Backups tend to be protected with almost unbreakable algorithms. Trying to restore without the password to your data is an expensive way of testing that privacy claim.
- Think about implementing your own remote backup solution. There is a growing market for offsite backup. You can leverage on your experience to partner with a service provider like vps-backup.com or start your own venture.
- Don’t be too shy to discuss your concerns. If you can imagine a scary scenario, it might happen. Besides figuring out what to do yourself, try talking to others and pooling resources together.
- Read the rest of this page. Assuming I haven’t completely turned your brain to mush with all of the above verbiage, read on. The rest of this page explains in more detail what the site does, and how it does it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do you offer this service?
This site was created because I got repeatedly disappointed with service providers and their stories of 99.99% availability, flawless backup policies and promises that my data “will be safe”. The truth is that data is never safe – not with them, you or me. There are a few good service providers who are working diligently to backup and preserve the data belonging to their clients, and a vast majority of them doing absolutely nothing about it. Not being the type ready to pay for the most expensive service just to be proven to which of the two groups it belongs, I decided to figure out things for myself. This site is nothing but an extension of my existing online backup solution, serving the various Virtual Private Servers I rent all over the world for my business. You get what I get, in quite a transparent way.
What is the difference between online and traditional backup?
Traditionally, you backup your server to a disk or tape attached to it, then you ship that copy away (offsite). Since a virtual or dedicated server is hosted in someone’s data centre, most of them try to backup locally for their peace of mind and yours. Sometimes you can download those backups to your home computer and have sort of a DIY offsite backup solution. I give you space on my own backup server and the tools to take backups and upload them on it automatically. In the end, you get the best of two worlds.
What does the vps-backup.com tool do?
Information is stored on your servers in various folders and files. Some are system and configuration files, some are programs or scripts powering your website or Internet application and some are the data everything relies upon (like database tables, images, music or video files etc). The backup client (called OBM from Offsite Backup Manager) keeps a list of these files. When run for the first time, it saves a compressed and encrypted copy of your files to a remote server (Offsite Backup Server). After that, the client runs periodically and checks for new files or changes in the existing ones. All new additions and changes are also uploaded to the OBS.
In the event of a disaster (failed updates, hacked server or data lost in a hardware incident), you can safely restore the files back to a previous state. Alternatively, if you took a backup before changing your hosting company, you can restore the files to the “new” server and have your website back online with minimal downtime and effort.
The most powerful and comprehensive feature of vps-backup.com is its platform independence. It runs on virtually anything you might have in your data centre or home – Linux, Windows, Apple, even Solaris and BSD. And it can also backup databases (MySQL, MS SQL, Oracle), e-mails (including Exchange) and technically any file you might have on your system.
Customer feedback…
Here’s what some of my clients (some of whom became good friends) have to say about the service:
(Eric Ramsey, Business Owner)
Our filesharing service relies on a VPS to keep track of users and files distributed over several servers in different locations. As a start-up, we are on a tight operation and backup costs were a constant source of concern before using vps-backup.com (Mark S, ravishare.com)
When I moved my online store from eBay to a Linux VPS with Zencart, I never had time to think about backups. After two days of downtime following a hardware crash of our host server, a common friend recommended Garrett for a chat about backups. Next time we will be prepared! (Nikolai Chadrakov)
Our server had been deleted in an attack on our hosting provider. It took them days to recover from backups, while our SMS billing service was back online in less than 10 hours on a new server. On a single event we avoided a loss worth hundreds of times the cost of the backup service. (Melissa London)
Is offsite backup better than onsite backup?
Some experts will say that onsite solutions are faster, especially on restoring large files or disaster recovery (restoring the server data completely). This is partially true due to the high transfer speeds achievable over the LAN or with direct connected technologies (iSCSI, SAS or FC), on the condition that LARGE amounts of data need to be restored. Since most VPS have rather small disks by modern standards (10GB to 100GB), and given the high compression of data used by vps-backup.com, offsite backups can deliver perfectly comparable results and retain better granularity and control over the restoration process.
My rule of thumb is, if I want to avoid keeping all the eggs in the same basket, or better, in the same building, I choose offsite backups.
Why should I choose vps-backup.com?
It’s Easy! Download and install the client, define your backup sets and you’re done. All future configuration is done via the web interface from there, and you can configure e-mail notifications to monitor it from your mailbox.
It’s Comprehensive! vps-backup.com is a one-stop-shop for your backup needs – irrespective of the operating system, filesystem or database engine, this reliable backup tool does its job and protects your data.
It’s Economical! You can register for free and use the service for 30 days with all its features. More than enough as additional insurance against anything that could go wrong during your server migration to a new host or some major version script upgrade to your website. If you like it, you can make a contribution and pay what you think this service is worth.
It’s Faster! No surprise here, since I am not hosting backups for hundreds and thousands of home users, but for myself and a limited number of VPS owners very sensitive when spending their precious bandwidth.
It’s Different! Other backup providers, even using the same platform, are adding supplemental charges for application modules (like MySQL, for example). I give you access to all of them for your contribution, since I have already licensed the whole lot for myself.
And by the way, nothing stops you from configuring the client on multiple servers or even home computers and backing them up altogether (well, up to 5 of them per account, and more if you contribute) at no extra charge.
And finally, the owner of this site and his helpers have a good sense of humour and will try to make your experience rather enjoyable in the event you require assistance or go through a painful restore process.
What do I get for purchasing a Plus(+) account?
Free accounts have all the features enabled and 2GB disk quota for life. That should be enough if you have small requirements (like a small online store, with only a few hundred products) since all disk quotas apply against compressed files (common PHP files and MySQL databases compress 2:1 or even better). If you find it does not meet your requirements (have large backup sets or simply want to have a generous retention policy of 2-6 months), you are welcome to upgrade to a Plus(+) account starting with 100GB for 10USD/mo and growing in 100GB increments if you require even more; you can do it by logging in into your account or directly from the backup client. This will set you back between 0.1USD / GB, but we think it is well worth it – it comes with full technical assistance and it will help you sleep better at night.
But you are still allowing people to use the service absolutely FREE?
I strongly believe you should try before you buy – and that is why FREE accounts have a 2GB disk quota for life. The bottom line is, I’m trusting that you’ll make a contribution to support the service once you see how useful it is. And because the last thing I want is a dissatisfied user, I offer an absolute 100% money-back guarantee. If at any time you feel you haven’t gotten your money’s worth, you get it back. No questions asked.
Myths about Online Backup
Many people sign with online backup providers and expect never to have a problem from there on. This is wrong – and anyone who promises such risk-relief is well stocked on snakeoil and other dubious remedies.
Installing the client and configuring a responsible backup set and schedule will help you in the event of a disaster on your VPS or dedicated server. Will also help in case you decide to part with your current host and they feel like keeping your data hostage.
Running and monitoring your backups is not fail proof. My servers have respectable uptime, and I took the common collection of steps to instill some redundancy to the service (RAID1, multiple connections, replication server etc). Yet I am still exposed to black swans and perfect storms and any other acronym used by Service Providers to explain their downtime. This service does not come with an SLA, but with a lot of goodwill and my own business at stake along with yours. Enough said – if anything fails, do your best to let me know and I will do the same for you. This is a lot better than what banks are offering you, by the way – and how many of us manage to avoid banks these days?
Finally, if something does not work or you have any technical question, use the contact form and leave an e-mail address and a phone number where you can be found. I’ll take it from there.
About your service provider:
My name is Garrett Wheeler and from my early days I worked with computing staples like Zilog, Cobol or Fortran. Some of my Internet ventures have become a steady source of income and in spite of the fact that I seem to work alone I am surrounded by a few great people that happen to be excellent IT professionals as well. I speak a couple of European languages and live in Ireland for now, so if you live close come by and say hello. Otherwise just use the contact form and rest assured I will do my best to write back.
PS. Just in case you did not have the time to read all the information above, here’s a brief: with vps-backup.com you can have your data backed up to our server absolutely free for life* (2GB of compressed backup space available). If you like the service you can upgrade anytime to a Plus(+) account (100+GB) and backup all your devices in a single place. All contributions are covered by a 100% money back guarantee – no questions asked.
*The free VPS Backup accounts retain all features, but the available storage space (total amount of compressed data you can back up on our servers) is limited to 2GB. You can upgrade to a Plus(+) account that offers 100GB of compressed space from 10USD/mo and grow from there as needed in 100GB increments.
