Legacy Backup FAQ

What are my backup options?

You can configure backups for your server using the Configure Backup feature (Main >> Backup >> Configure Backup). This interface allows you to configure how automatic backups will run on your server.

What is stored up in a backup?

By default, backups only include system files and directories. When account backups are enabled, the account's home directory contents, databases, email filters and forwarders, and DNS records are copied and stored. You can enable account backups using the Backup Accounts option on the Configure Backup interface.

Which files are included in a cPanel user's backup?

After you enable account backups, the backup process runs as the cPanel user whose data it is backing up. Anything a user cannot access is not backed up.

This means:

• All of the files owned by the user are included in the backup.
• Files the user does not own but has access to are included in the backup.
• Files the user does not own and cannot access are not included in the backup — even if they are stored in the user's home directory.

Can I control which users' accounts are backed up?

You can use the Select Specific Users option in the Configure Backup interface to select specific users. To select users:

1. Click the Select >> button.
2. Select checkboxes corresponding to the accounts you wish to back up automatically.
3. Click the Save button.

How are DNS zones handled?

This depends on which version of cPanel/WHM you're running.

If you are running cPanel/WHM 11.25 or earlier, the account's local DNS information is stored. In some cases, this may publicize outdated DNS information whenever the account is restored.

If you are using a DNS ONLY cluster and cPanel 11.27+, the pkgacct script will examine all of the DNS zones in the DNS cluster to find the record with the newest serial number. It will then store that DNS zone in the backup.

How can I use rsync with a cPanel backup?

We do not support a backup procedure that uses rsync. While it is possible to use rsync with cPanel backups, we strongly recommend using our tools to ensure reliable backups. Under certain conditions, rsync may corrupt SQL database backups.

Which scripts run backups?

There are numerous scripts that are responsible for running backups. The main scripts responsible for generating backups are:

• /scripts/cpbackup
• /script/pkgacct

Where can I find backup logs?

You can find backup logs here:

/usr/local/cpanel/logs/cpbackup

Where are backups stored?

You decide — use the Configure Backup feature (Main >> Backup >> Configure Backup) to select the location where you want to store backups:

1. Access the Configure Backup feature (Main >> Backup >> Configure Backup) from your WHM interface.
2. Scroll down until you see the Backup Destination configuration option.
3. Enter the location where you would like to store the backups in the corresponding text field.
   • Note: You should use a directory, network filesystem, or coda mount with at least twice the space of your /home directories/partitions. You should not set this value to your /home directory/partition.
4. Click Save when you are finished making your changes.

What gets backed up when I select configuration files? Where can I find the backups?

If configuration files are set to be backed up, they will be automatically stored in directories called dirs and files. When the entire MySQL directory is backed up, it can be found in the dirs folder.

The following directories are backed up into dirs:

/etc/proftpd/
/etc/ssl/
/etc/valiases/
/etc/vdomainaliases/
/etc/vfilters/
/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/mailman/
/usr/local/frontpage/
/usr/share/ssl/
/var/cpanel/
/var/lib/mysql//
/var/lib/rpm/
/var/log/bandwidth/
/var/named/
/var/spool/cron/

The following files are backed up into files:

/etc/exim.conf
/etc/exim.conf.localopts
/etc/fstab
/etc/group
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/ips
/etc/localdomains
/etc/my.cnf
/etc/named.conf
/etc/passwd
/etc/pure-ftpd.conf
/etc/quota.conf
/etc/remotedomains
/etc/rndc.conf
/etc/secondarymx
/etc/shadow
/etc/wwwacct.conf
/root/.my.cnf
/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

I want to run backups on a mounted filesystem. Can I do this?

If you are using a mounted filesystem to store backups, we strongly recommend that you mount the system using the noexec option. Passing the noexec parameter to mount prevents binaries from running on the mounted filesystem.

You can configure a filesystem to use noexec by default whenever it is mounted. To do so, you'll need to edit /etc/fstab This file contains a list of filesystems that can be mounted on your system. To configure a mountable filesystem that will automatically use noexec, you'll need to edit its entry in /etc/fstab to reflect the following:

• nfs /path/to/nfs ext3 defaults,noexec 0 0

The example above describes the following configuration options:

How does cPanel & WHM determine when to make backups?

If you run /scripts/cpbackup without the --force option:

• cPanel & WHM creates a monthly backup if the existing monthly backups are more than 29 days old.
• cPanel & WHM creates a weekly backup if the existing weekly backups are more than 6 days old.
• cPanel & WHM creates a daily backup if the existing daily backups are more than 12 hours old.
  • Note: If backups are taking more than 12 hours to run, they will skip a day.

Can I manually edit my backup schedule?

Automatic backups are run by a cron job in root's crontab. This cronjob is not overwritten by /scripts/upcp As a result, you can control when backups will run by editing root's crontab. You can do this via SSH as root using the following command:

crontab -e

My backup partition is locked and will not unmount itself. How do I fix this?

There is a known incompatibility when cPanel runs on CloudLinux under Centos 5.X. After a nightly backup runs or a restore runs, the backup partition will get stuck in an active lock. The next time you perform a backup or a restore, you will see an error similar to the following:

[backupmount] Cannot umount: /backup. This mountpoint is still in use and has an active lock 

mount: /dev/sdb1 already mounted or /backup busymount: according to mtab, /dev/sdb1 is already mounted on /backup

To resolve this, you will need to perform the following commands as root:

mount -r /backup
mount -o remount,rw /backup
umount /backup