Can I Use FTP as an Off-Server Backup?
Note: It is against our Terms of Service to use our unlimited disk space packages to keep backups for off site servers, as this would be considered to be file dumping.
It is both allowed and recommended to use FTP to generate your cPanel backups off server. Setting up an external FTP server that your hosting package can upload backups to will help prevent recursively including previous backups in your future backups, prevent backups from increasing the size of your account (potentially disqualifying you from our automated backups), and even help control your inode usage.
To use FTP to generate an off server backup:
- Login to cPanel.
- Click the Backups icon in the Files section.
- Click Download a Full Website Backup.
- From the Backup Destination drop down box select Remote FTP Server (Passive Mode Transfer).
- In the new text areas enter the following information:
- Email Address: The address you would like to be notified at when the backup completes.
- Remote Server: The address of the remote server.
- Remote User: The FTP username for the remote server.
- Remote Password: The FTP password.
- Port: The port address to access the remote server at.
- Remote Directory: The directory you want to store the backup in on the remote server.
- Click Generate Backup.