DirectAdmin Remote Backup Documentation
A remote destination will allow you to store your backups for your server at a remote location so that if you ever experience an incident, you’ll have something to fall back on. This documentation is to help you configure your servers backup configuration for remote destinations. While this guide is intended to be paired with our remote storage solution, this guide can be used to implement other backup destinations that utilize FTP/FTPS.
If you need assistance setting up your remote backup configuration, please reach out to the Support Department and we’ll be glad to assist anyone under our managed services.
Configuring for DirectAdmin
In order to configure your remote solution storage with DirectAdmin’s backup system, we’re going to have to configure the ‘Admin Transfer/Backup’ utility within DirectAdmin.
The first thing you’re going to want to do is login to your servers DirectAdmin Interface via the ‘admin’ user – this user is required to access the ‘Admin Transfer/Backup’ utility within DirectAdmin.
To begin setting up your remote storage, you’ll need to configure a schedule so click the green “Schedule” button at the top right.
This utility performs setup of the backup system through a four step process as such there will four tabs: Who, When, Where and What.
- Step 1 – Who – Either specific users or all users
- Step 2 – When – Set time period for backups to occur, this would be the “Cron Schedule” – The default time 5AM Server Time
- Step 3 – Where – The destination in which backups would be stored (Specify FTP)
- Step 4 – What – Which type of data you want to have backed up
When you reach ‘Step 3’ you’ll want to specify ‘FTP’ by selecting the ‘FTP’ option then if you’re utilizing KnownHost’s remote storage solution – you should have received an email with your account information presented like so:
New Account Information
Remote Backup Space GA
Login Details
Username: backups00000
Password: knownhostisthebest1337
Domain: backups00000.virtualserver1.com
SFTP/SSH Port: 22
FTP Port: 21This information is what you will be using to fill out the FTPS configuration for your remote destination, when applied to the forms it’d be like this:
| FTP Settings | |
|---|---|
| IP(Hostname) | backups00000.virtualserver1.com |
| Username: | backups00000 |
| Password: | knownhostisthebest1337 |
| Remote Path: | / |
| Port: | 21 |
| Secure FTP: | Check this box for FTPS |
| Append: | Used to specify backup format |
It should be noted that DirectAdmin’s backup utility does not currently support SFTP. There is word that such functionality will be implemented when DirectAdmin launches their new backup/restore system. As such when utilizing ‘Secure FTP’ this is actually FTPS over port 21.
If you’re not using KnownHost’s remote storage, that’s fine – this guide will work for other various FTP setups too.
Appending
DirectAdmin allows the option to ‘append’ a specific format to the backups generated through its system. These ‘append’ formats will create folders to track your backups as listed below.
- Day of the Week (/monday, /tuesday, etc)
- Day of the Month (/1, /2, /3, etc)
- Week of the Month (/week1, /week2, etc)
- Month (/Jan, /Feb, /Mar, etc)
- Full Date (/2020-01-01)
Our recommendation for DirectAdmin is that the ‘Day of the Week’ option be used. This will generate backups in folders of the current day (/Monday, /Tuesday, /Wednesday, etc) which should allow them to be rotated out every week. This method provides a 7 day retention.
This allows for a proper backup rotation that rotates through the backups in order to conserve space so that your disk space can be used efficiently. Of course, the larger the backup space acquired the more backups you can sustain which will allow for other forms of ‘append to be used’ that can create longer retention such as by ‘Day of Month’ which would generate folders in the form of ‘/1, /2, /3, /4’, allowing up to a months worth of backups, the exact total depending on the month.
Do please reach out to us if you have any questions, concerns and or comments regarding this guide and/or our services! We’ll be more than happy to assist you!