Using Amazon S3 for VPS backups

[shamp00]

Hi.

I host a number of sites on my VPS and it's gradually getting fuller My current backup "solution" is to use Cpanel backups to store the backups on the VPS and then manually take copies to my home using SFTP on a monthly basis.

I am thinking as the size of the storage I am using grows that I need automated offsite backups and was thinking that if Amazon S3 could be used for this, that would be excellent value for money.

Has anyone managed to set this up and got it working? I came accross this link: Backup script for Amazon S3 using cPanel backups, encryption, and logging - KnownHost Community Forum which looks like a way to do it but it's at the top of my linux knowlege and therefore a little scary.

Alternatively does anyone have other cost effective suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[ccmpj806]

Hi.

I host a number of sites on my VPS and it's gradually getting fuller My current backup "solution" is to use Cpanel backups to store the backups on the VPS and then manually take copies to my home using SFTP on a monthly basis.

I am thinking as the size of the storage I am using grows that I need automated offsite backups and was thinking that if Amazon S3 could be used for this, that would be excellent value for money.

Has anyone managed to set this up and got it working? I came accross this link: Backup script for Amazon S3 using cPanel backups, encryption, and logging - KnownHost Community Forum which looks like a way to do it but it's at the top of my linux knowlege and therefore a little scary.

Alternatively does anyone have other cost effective suggestions?

Thanks in advance

Hi Shamp00,

I'm doing exactly that. I have cpanel back up as normal, but then using the s3sync Ruby package, the cpanel backups are then sent to an Amazon S3 bucket (currently every 2 days in the middle of the night via crontab).

Following any tutorial for s3sync will get you sorted. You will maybe (depending on your current configuration) install Ruby, but that can be done via WHM, where you can also install s3sync, so the installation should be straight forward.

The config for s3sync is quite minimal containing your S3 access keys (available from within your S3 account), so it is just a case of creating a shell script that can be run as a cron job:

#!/bin/sh

# This file syncs a directory with a specified
# bucket.

BACKUPDIR=<PATH TO YOUR BACKUPS>
S3BUCKET=<NAME OF YOUR S3 BUCKET>
S3PREFIX=<PATH INSIDE YOUR BUCKET, e.g. /cpanel/backups>
S3STORE=${S3BUCKET}:${S3PREFIX}

# access details stored in s3config.yml

s3sync -r --delete --ssl ${BACKUPDIR} ${S3STORE}
# msg to email
echo "S3 Push Completed"

This should only push up changes.

Cheers,
Jason.