Scheduling backups

When you schedule a backup, you automate the backup to occur regularly at a pre-set date, time and location. No manual interfacing is necessary to initiate the backup.

Scheduling backups -

• Automatically invokes a backup at the scheduled date and time

• Ensures that files are backed up regularly without fail

• Saves you the overhead of remembering to take a manual backup regularly

• Frees up manual resources to focus on other operational tasks

You can back up data onto a remote FTP server or a local desktop.

• Important: Ensure that the target server has enough space to accommodate the backup, otherwise the backup will fail.

Before you begin

Before you begin backing up, have the following information ready.

• The name of the FTP server to which you want to save your data

• Your FTP login user name and password to log onto the FTP server

• The directory path of the backup directory on the FTP server

• Maximum file size of the data being backed up

• Note: Various file systems and FTP server utilities have limits on the file size they can handle. If the size of your backup file exceeds the file management capacity of the file system or the FTP server utility on your backup server, then WEBppliance splits the file into multiple files before continuing with the backup.

To schedule a backup, click Backup/Restore in the Shortcuts section of the Home page (Administration section), then follow the instructions below.
 

go to wizard step1 step2 step3

You need to enter schedule information, provide necessary FTP account details and other miscellaneous information.
 

wizard Step1: Enter backup Schedule information

1. Schedule your backup.

2. Important: If your site uses demanding database applications, frequent daily backups are advised to insure against data loss. Premium sites, demanding applications, highly volatile data entities qualify for regular back ups.

Select any one of the option buttons in the Frequency field.

• Daily - Backs up daily at the scheduled time

• Weekly - Backs up weekly at the scheduled date and time

• Monthly - Backs up monthly at the scheduled date and time

2. Click the arrow in the Minutes list, and select a number between 0 and 59.

3. Click the arrow in the Hours list, and select a number between 0 and 23.

4. Click the arrow in the Day of Week list, and select a day between Sunday and Saturday.

5. Click the arrow in the Day of Month list, and select a number between 1 and 31.

6. Important: Selecting a number that exceeds 28 in the Day of Month list will fail to run the backup, as scheduled, on certain months.
   For example, selecting 31, would not invoke a backup on any of the months that have only 30 or 28 days.

wizard Step2: Enter FTP information

6. In the FTP Server field, enter the name of the FTP server you want to use as the backup server.

7. In the FTP Login field, enter the login user name to the FTP server.

8. In the FTP Password field, enter the login password to the FTP server.

9. In the FTP Location field, enter the absolute path to the backup directory on the FTP server. If you leave the field blank, the files will be saved to your home directory.  

10. Note: If the specified directory does not exist, the backup fails and email message is sent to you about the error.

wizard Step3: Enter miscellaneous information

10. In the Maximum Backup File Size field, enter the maximum size of the backup file, and click the arrow in the Unit field to select the appropriate quantifying unit (in Megabytes or Gigabytes).

11. Important: Various file systems and FTP server utilities have limits on the file size they can handle. If the size of your backup file exceeds the file management threshold of the file system or the FTP server utility on your backup server, then WEBppliance splits the file into multiple files before continuing with the backup.  
    The split files follow the naming convention as given below:
    <backupfilename.tar>
    <backupfilename.1.tar>
    <backupfilename.2.tar>
    where backupfilename is the name of your backup file.

11. In the Email field, enter the email address at which you want to receive email notifications about your backup. If you do not want to receive email notifications, leave the field blank.

12. Click Schedule.

The list of scheduled backups is updated.