The Cloud Server backups feature is available through the Bytemark Panel and aims to make the process of creating and restoring backups simple.
Backups can be made manually or they can be scheduled to take place automatically.
How do I add a backup?
- Log in to Bytemark Panel.
- Select the ‘Servers‘ tab from the main menu.
- Open the ‘Backups‘ section of your Cloud Server.
- To add a Scheduled Backup, click the ‘Add a schedule‘ button and select the time and day of the week you want your schedule to be set to.
- To add a Manual Backup, click the ‘Backup now‘ button.
Symbiosis
Servers running Symbiosis will also have an automated backup system. Learn more about automated backups.
Legacy VMs & Dedicated Servers
Existing Bytemark legacy VMs and dedicated servers may have some backup space. Learn more about accessing your backup space.
What happens when I take a backup?
When you take a backup, your server’s root disc is copied and immediately stored alongside your existing disc. It is a full copy of your root disc including your operating system and partitions. This process is instant, with minimal performance impact, and it does not use any storage on your existing disc or require your server to be shutdown.
We also schedule the backup to be transferred and stored safely on separate hardware on our Cloud platform. This transfer process is fully automated with no performance impact, and normally takes a few minutes (depending on the size of your disc and the number of other transfers taking place).
What can I do with backups?
Restoring from a backup
You can choose to restore a backup at any time. Before the backup is restored, a recovery backup of your current root disc will be made and stored under ‘Manual Backups‘. Your backup will then be migrated to the standard SSD (SATA) grade hardware and attached to your server directly in place of your previous root disc. Your server can then boot to the state it was at the time of your backup.
Please note: You can only restore a backup to the Cloud Server it was created from, and backup files cannot be downloaded.
Recovering individual files
Currently, you can only restore a complete backup, not individual files.
When can I take backups?
We offer two ways to take backups: scheduled and manual.
Scheduled Backups
Automatic backups can be set to happen on schedules that you configure. You can have up to three schedules for taking backups. Each schedule has a start date/time, an interval time between backups (number of days 1-30), and a limit to how many backups the schedule will keep before the oldest backup is replaced with the newest.
A schedule with a start time of Monday at 12.00am, an interval of seven days, and a limit of four will take a backup every Monday at 12.00am and always keep the last four weeks of backups, deleting the oldest when four backups already exist.
Manual Backups
You can backup your root disc at any time. Manual backups will be stored indefinitely until you choose to delete them. A maximum of 4 manual backups can be made.
Can I backup additional discs on my server?
This is not currently possible, only the root disc of a server can be backed up.
How much do backups cost?
The cost of Cloud Server backups depends on the amount of storage required and the number of backups you choose to keep. The first 25GiB of backup storage is provided free-of-charge for every Cloud Server (enough for one backup of a 25GiB root disc). Additional backup storage is charged at £2 per month for each 100GiB storage block.