Disaster Recovery Planning

SenseiSteve

HD Moderator
Staff member
I've seen this next saying many times, but it's worth repeating. Concerning disaster recovery, if you fail to plan, you essentially plan to fail. I know I've read quite a few threads across multiple forums of OPs who lost their data when this or that happened. I believe I'm seeing this a little less now, so maybe the message is getting through. I'm curious what you all recommend for backups today.
 
I've seen this next saying many times, but it's worth repeating. Concerning disaster recovery, if you fail to plan, you essentially plan to fail. I know I've read quite a few threads across multiple forums of OPs who lost their data when this or that happened. I believe I'm seeing this a little less now, so maybe the message is getting through. I'm curious what you all recommend for backups today.

When i was hosting i did backups using jetbackup, but i also took out backup plans with my VPS provider (backup 1), then i had a cheap VPS with another provider where i backed up everything daily (backup 2), then i had another cheap VPS where i would mirror backup 2 (backup 3).

so i had 3 backups with 3 different providers
 
I got into a discussion with this last night with a client .

Personally, I have a custom written script that I use for backups

DA does the backups on the host machine, I sync them off to another server, and remove them from the host altogether

Backups are kept for 45 days, and then deleted automatically

Of course, I have to login and check periodically, make sure it's still running. Pretty much every time I see a thread like this about 'how do you do backups' (thanks), or 'my host is gone, I have no backups'... that kind of stuff ;) . Call it paranoia if you want, but I know my stuff works
 
It’s good that it works for you! I have never encountered this in real life and I’m not sure how well I'm prepared for problems in the operation of servers.
 
It’s good that it works for you! I have never encountered this in real life and I’m not sure how well I'm prepared for problems in the operation of servers.
Have you ever heard of Murphy's Law? I would not tempt fate, rather prepare for the worse and protect your data.
 
I don't know if people are more prepared for a disaster scenario, or if those scenarios are happening less frequently as hard drives moved to SSD and more redundant systems.

Back in the day, it was common for a hosting company to run on a single drive, and crashes happened a lot more frequently.

A good disaster recovery plan is critical in any business - even for accounting. We have a copy of our QuickBooks on a backup at home, one in dropbox and one stored in a safe deposit box
 
I don't know if people are more prepared for a disaster scenario, or if those scenarios are happening less frequently as hard drives moved to SSD and more redundant systems.

Back in the day, it was common for a hosting company to run on a single drive, and crashes happened a lot more frequently.

A good disaster recovery plan is critical in any business - even for accounting. We have a copy of our QuickBooks on a backup at home, one in dropbox and one stored in a safe deposit box

yes i have all mine saved in 4 different locations.

When i was hosting i was sick of the amount of times i would have to remind clients to backup on a regular basis, but not to store the backups in the same place as their sites, but would still get clients contact me ' can i have a copy of my website as i did *** and its gone down and i dont have my own backup., this was even after i installed jetbackup, so they could access via their own cpanel.

I soon sorted this out by informing clients that for an extra £1 a month they can have access to any of their backups by request and if they dont take this option a charge of £15 will apply for any backup request.

I was amazed after this on the amount of clients that suddenly found how to use jetbackup.
 
I soon sorted this out by informing clients that for an extra £1 a month they can have access to any of their backups by request and if they dont take this option a charge of £15 will apply for any backup request.

Yup. As a web designer (and no longer a host), we have monthly management or we have disaster recovery. Going the disaster recovery route can run $375+ for that one time as our backups are stored and we have to dig them out etc. Or they can go monthly, and then it's just a time purchase to get things restored.

People USUALLY learn after one or two times - others will never learn ;)
 
Yup. As a web designer (and no longer a host), we have monthly management or we have disaster recovery. Going the disaster recovery route can run $375+ for that one time as our backups are stored and we have to dig them out etc. Or they can go monthly, and then it's just a time purchase to get things restored.

People USUALLY learn after one or two times - others will never learn ;)

I had to laugh at 1 client ( not direct to the client though). he was suppose to be a web designer, but the amount of times i would get a ticket ' i have done something to my website and cant get it back , can i have a copy of the recent backup'
 
Personally, I backup my WHMCS database in multiple locations. I also recommend my clients to backup their data on a regular basis not only on the web server by on their PC as well. Data lost would be a nightmare.
 
on the web server

This is one place i would tell clients not to back up to as the point of backing up is in case the web server goes down, so if your backup is also on the web server then you are in the same boat as not having any backups as you also lose your backup.
You can easily pick up a cheap VPS for under $5 a mth (no need for extra IPs or paid control panels) to set up as a backup server
 
This is one place i would tell clients not to back up to as the point of backing up is in case the web server goes down, so if your backup is also on the web server then you are in the same boat as not having any backups as you also lose your backup.
You can easily pick up a cheap VPS for under $5 a mth (no need for extra IPs or paid control panels) to set up as a backup server
Indeed at least if your going local at least have a HDD or better yet HDD in RAID 1 for good measure.

This will limit failures reasonably without spending metric tons of money for a dedicated backup unit to run say R1Soft or similar.
 
Indeed at least if your going local at least have a HDD or better yet HDD in RAID 1 for good measure.

This will limit failures reasonably without spending metric tons of money for a dedicated backup unit to run say R1Soft or similar.

I dont even trust my own PC.

I have 2 Hard drives in my PC

Basic HDD which only runs the OS (win. 10)
SSD drive which everything is saved too
I also have external SSD drive which i back my PC too every day, even though i have auto backup every 3 hrs, so anything new i do will auto backup , so most i lose if my PC goes down is 3 hrs work
 
All my hosting machines are cloud.
Snapshots taken regularly and the whole system backed up to r1Soft at another site hourly.
Locally all of our files are synced with the synology NAS (Hybrid RAID 6) and then synced from there to an offsite archival system.
 
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