Parallels Plesk Panel Backup and Restore Guide

Parallels® Plesk Control Panel

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Contents

Preface 4

About This Guide ........................................................................................................................... 5

Who Should Read This Guide ....................................................................................................... 5

Organization Of This Guide ........................................................................................................... 5

Typographical Conventions ........................................................................................................... 5

Feedback ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics 7

How To Back Up and Restore Your Plesk Data ............................................................................ 8

What Plesk Data Is Backed Up and Restored .............................................................................. 9

Backing Up and Restoring Your Plesk Data 13

Backing Up Your Plesk Data ....................................................................................................... 14

Scheduling Plesk Data Backups ....................................................................................... 17

Backing Up Plesk Data Through Command Line Interface .............................................. 20

Restoring Your Plesk Data .......................................................................................................... 23

Restoring All Plesk Data ................................................................................................... 24

Restoring Clients ............................................................................................................... 27

Restoring Domains ............................................................................................................ 30

Restoring Plesk Data Through Command Line Interface ................................................. 33

Backing Up And Restoring Domains 34

Backing Up a Domain .................................................................................................................. 35

Restoring a Domain ..................................................................................................................... 38

Appendix 43

Troubleshooting ........................................................................................................................... 43

Additional Notes on Backup and Resoration ............................................................................... 45

Additional Command Line Parameters of domain_bu.exe Utility ................................................ 46

4 Preface

In this section:

About This Guide ............................................................................................... 5

Who Should Read This Guide ........................................................................... 5

Organization Of This Guide ............................................................................... 5

Typographical Conventions ............................................................................... 5

Feedback .......................................................................................................... 6

Preface

Preface 5

About This Guide

Formatting
convention

Type of Information

Example

This Guide is intended to give Plesk administrators a practical introduction to Plesk
backup/restore utilities by explaining how to perform backup and restoration tasks via Plesk
backup/restore utilities.

The document contains step-by-step instructions you should follow when using
backup/restore utilities.

Who Should Read This Guide

The primary audience for the Guide is everyone responsible for administering Plesk-enabled
servers. It is assumed that the reader has a conceptual understanding of hosting, domain,
backup and restore issues and possesses some knowledge of MS Windows OS.

Organization Of This Guide

The Guide includes the following chapters:
Plesk Backup And Restoration Basics describes the basic concepts of backup and restoration

you must understand before using Plesk backup/restore utilities. This chapter explains why
you need to back up your data, what data can be backed up and restored, and how can you
back it up and restore it using Plesk backup/restore utilities.

Backing Up And Restoring Your Server provides detailed information on server data backup and
restoration.

Backing Up And Restoring Domains focuses on backing up and restoring individual domains.
Troubleshooting addresses possible problems that can be encountered while performing

backup/restore tasks.

Typographical Conventions

Before you start using this guide, it is important to understand the documentation
conventions used in it.

The following kinds of formatting in the text identify special information.

6 Preface

Special Bold

Items you must select,
such as menu options,
command buttons, or items
in a list.

Go to the System tab.
Titles of chapters, sections,

and subsections.

Read the Basic
Administration chapter.

Italics

Used to emphasize the
importance of a point, to
introduce a term or to
designate a command line
placeholder, which is to be
replaced with a real name
or value.

The system supports the
so called wildcard
character search.

Monospace

The names of commands,
files, and directories.

The license file is located
in the

http://docs/common

/licenses directory.

Preformatted

On-screen computer output
in your command-line
sessions; source code in
XML, C++, or other
programming languages.

# ls –al /files

total 14470

Preformatted
Bold

What you type, contrasted
with on-screen computer
output.

# cd
/root/rpms/php

CAPITALS

Names of keys on the
keyboard.

SHIFT, CTRL, ALT

KEY+KEY

Key combinations for which
the user must press and
hold down one key and
then press another.

CTRL+P, ALT+F4

Feedback

If you have found a mistake in this guide, or if you have suggestions or ideas on how to
improve this guide, please send your feedback using the online form at

http://www.parallels.com/en/support/usersdoc/. Please include in your report the guide‟s title,

chapter and section titles, and the fragment of text in which you have found an error.

Backup is a process of making a copy of your current data and storing it in another

In this chapter:

How To Back Up and Restore Your Plesk Data ................................................. 8

What Plesk Data Is Backed Up and Restored ................................................... 9

C H A P T E R 1

Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics

place. If the original data is lost or damaged, the backed up data can be restored, i.e.,
copied back. Backing up is useful when you need to make system-wide changes that
can affect your data or server performance (for instance, upgrade the OS that Plesk is
running on). Backing up is also done for safety purposes, i.e., to avoid losing data in
case of unforeseen circumstances (e.g., server HDD malfunction).

Plesk backup/restore utilities offer you the following data backup and restoration
options:

 Plesk data backup is carried out by Plesk Backup utility, which has both GUI and

command line interface.

 Plesk data restore is performed by Plesk Restore utility, which is entirely GUI-

based.

 Individual domains are backed up and restored by domain_bu.exe utility, which is

accessed through command line interface. You can also backup and restore
individual domains using Backup feature available through Plesk control panel GUI.

For more information about these utilities, refer to How To Back Up And Restore Your
Plesk Data (see page 8) section.

To find out what specific data is backed up/restored using these options, refer to the
What Plesk Data Is Backed Up And Restored (see page 9) section.

8 Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics

How To Back Up and Restore Your Plesk
Data

Backup and subsequent restoration of Plesk settings and data can be accomplished in
a variety of ways. Plesk data backup or restore is performed by Plesk Backup and
Plesk Restore utilities, while individual domains are typically backed up and restored
via domain_bu.exe utility or through Backup feature accessible through Plesk control
panel GUI.

Note: You can backup and restore individual domains through Plesk Backup and Plesk
Restore utilities, although using domain_bu.exe should be quicker and more
convenient for this task.

Plesk Data Backup

Plesk data backup is carried out by Plesk Backup utility, which has both GUI and
command line interface.

 To access Plesk Backup utility and back up your data:
1 Click Start on the taskbar and select Parallels > Plesk program group in

the Start menu.

2 Click Plesk Backup to access Plesk Backup utility.
3 Follow the instructions provided in the Backing Up Your Plesk Data

(see page 14) section to successfully create a backup of your Plesk
data.

Plesk Backup utility can also be accessed through command line interface by running

backup.exe located in the %plesk_dir%\admin\bin\ folder (where
%plesk_dir% is the system variable defining the folder where Plesk is installed). To

learn more about using the command line interface of Plesk Backup utility, refer to the
Backing Up Plesk Data Through Command Line Interface (on page 20) section.

Plesk Data Restore

Plesk data restoration is done by Plesk Restore utility, which is entirely GUI-based.

 To access Plesk Restore utility and restore your data:
1 Click Start on the taskbar and select Parallels > Plesk program group in

the Start menu.

2 Click Plesk Restore to access Plesk Restore utility.
3 Follow the instructions provided in the Restoring Your Plesk Data (see

page 23) section to successfully restore backed up Plesk data.

Individual Domains Backup/Restoration

Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics 9

Individual domains are backed up and restored by domain_bu.exe utility, which can
be accessed through command line interface by running domain_bu.exe located in
the %plesk_dir%\admin\bin\ folder (where %plesk_dir% is the system variable
defining the folder where Plesk is installed). For detailed instructions on how to use
domain_bu.exe utility, refer to Backing Up And Restoring Domains (see page 34)
section.

Note: Individual domains can also be backed up and restored through internal Plesk
Control Panel means. This feature is called Back Up and it is located in the Domain
section on a domain management page in Plesk. For more information about this
feature, refer to Backing Up And Restoring Domains (see page 34) section.

What Plesk Data Is Backed Up and
Restored

What Plesk Data Is Backed Up And Restored

The following data can be backed up and subsequently restored by Plesk
Backup/Restore utilities:

Plesk control panel configuration and Plesk server settings:

 System settings

 Plesk IP addresses pool
 Plesk license key

 Plesk services configuration

 DNS zone templates
 Mail preferences
 ODBC settings
 Plesk scheduler configuration, including scheduled tasks with their parameters
 IIS application pool configuration and usage policy settings
 SSL certificates
 Shared SSL settings
 Default domain skeleton
 Server application settings

Note: Only the settings of server applications are backed up and restored, not

the server applications themselves.

 Default site applications available for installation in Site applications repository
 Site application settings (Application Vault)
 SiteBuilder configuration and data
 Acronis True Image scheduled backup settings

10 Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics

 Spam-filter settings

 Control panel settings

 Control panel logo settings
 Session settings
 Control panel preferences and system preferences
 Interface management preferences
 Notification settings
 Action Log settings
 Event Manager configuration
 Interface skins
 Custom buttons

 Plesk Administrator preferences

 Control panel Administrator personal settings
 Control panel access policy configuration

 Plesk Administrator templates

 Client templates
 Domain templates

Client settings and data:

 Personal settings
 Control Panel interface settings
 Report and report delivery settings
 Limits and permissions
 IP addresses pool
 Site applications (Application Vault) pool
 IIS application pool settings
 Default domain skeleton for all client domains
 Control Panel logo
 Custom buttons
 Domain Templates
 Traffic usage statistics

Domain settings and data:

 General domain settings

 Domain user settings (including CP interface settings, personal information and

permissions)

 Report and report delivery settings
 Domain preferences
 Domain limits
 Domain aliases

Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics 11

 Domain backup settings (including backup schedule settings and FTP

connection settings)

 Custom buttons

 Domain services configuration

 Mail configuration (including mail accounts, their settings and messages in the

mailboxes).

 Mailing lists and their settings
 DNS configuration
 MySQL databases
 Microsoft SQL Server databases
 Domain SSL certificates
 Tomcat Java application list and applications themselves
 ODBC settings

 Hosting configuration

 Physical hosting configuration
 Web users and their settings
 Subdomains list
 Web directories protection
 Virtual directories and their settings
 Domain-wide MIME types configuration (MIME type settings for individual

directories are not backed up and restored)

 Domain-wide error documents configuration (Error documents configuration for

individual directories is not backed up and restored)

 Anonymous FTP settings
 Log rotation preferences
 Scheduled tasks
 Installed Site Applications and their preferences
 Installed ASP.NET web applications and their preferences
 Performance settings
 IIS application pool settings
 Shared SSL settings
 Hotlink protection settings
 Domain home directory, excluding log files
 Standard and frame forwarding settings (IP address and destination URL)

 Subdomain settings and data

 Subdomain hosting configuration
 Web directories protection
 Virtual directories and their settings

12 Plesk Backup and Restoration Basics

 Subdomain-wide MIME types configuration (MIME type settings for individual

directories are not backed up and restored)

 Subdomain-wide error documents configuration (Error documents configuration

for individual directories is not backed up and restored)

 Installed Site Applications and their preferences
 Installed ASP.NET web applications and their preferences
 Shared SSL settings
 Hotlink protection settings

 Interface skins

Note: By default, Plesk Backup utility is set to back up everything from the list above,
excluding interface skins and application settings in the Site applications repository.

When physical hosting content is restored from backup to an existing domain, the
content will be restored only if the domain has no hosting configured. If you want to
restore physical hosting content to an existing domain, delete hosting from the domain
before restoring backed-up hosting.

What Plesk Data Is Not Backed Up And Restored

The following data is not backed up (and, accordingly, not restored) by Plesk
Backup/Restore Utilities:

 Server Applications (only their settings are backed up and restored)
 Help Desk configuration and data
 Firewall settings
 MySQL and Microsoft SQL databases connection settings
 Default ASP.NET application packages available for installation in ASP.NET Web

Applications

 ASP.NET server-wide settings
 MIME types configuration for each directory
 Error documents configuration for each directory

This chapter provides detailed information on Plesk server data backup and restoration

In this chapter:

Backing Up Your Plesk Data ............................................................................. 14

Restoring Your Plesk Data ................................................................................ 23

C H A P T E R 2

Backing Up and Restoring Your Plesk
Data

through Plesk Backup and Plesk Restore utilities.

14 Backing Up and Restoring Your Plesk Data

Backing Up Your Plesk Data

Plesk data backup is carried out by Plesk Backup utility. Using this utility, you can:

 Back up your Plesk data via easy-to-use GUI
 Choose what Plesk data should be backed up, with a couple of clicks
 Quickly and efficiently schedule backups
 Use command line interface to back up your Plesk data or integrate backup in your

own applications and batch files

 Save certain combinations of backup settings to reuse them later

To see the list of data that can be backed up with Plesk Backup utility, see the What
Plesk Data Is Backed Up And Restored (see page 9) section.

 To back up your Plesk data:

1 Start Plesk Backup utility (Start > All Programs > Parallels > Plesk > Plesk

Backup).

2 Select the objects you want to back up.

 You can choose what clients and domains you want to backup by selecting the

corresponding checkboxes in the Select the objects to be backed up menu.

 When selecting or deselecting a client, all domains of this client are selected

and deselected as well.

 You cannot back up a domain without backing up the client it belongs to. If a

domain is selected to be backed up, its owner will be automatically selected as
well.

 Use Select All to select all available objects and Clear All to deselect all objects

previously selected.

3 Choose the appropriate backup options.

 If you are making a full backup, it is recommended that you leave the Suspend

control panel services during backing up checkbox selected to ensure that backup

procedure is performed correctly and that resulting backup file is not corrupted.

 If you are making selective domain backup, we recommend you to clear the

Suspend control panel services during backing up checkbox and leave the Suspend
domain operations during backing up checkbox selected. This will ensure that

domains which are not backed up are accessible during the backup procedure.

 If you do not want to see the warning messages that are displayed if problems

are encountered during the backup process, select the Do not prompt with
warnings checkbox. To see the list of encountered problems, click Show Details >>
on the backup results message window after the backup process is finished.
Note that this button is disabled if no problems were encountered.

 Leave Back up domains content selected to back up domains content.