The information on your Server is normally critical to your customers. Many Web Hosts worldwide are too relaxed in backing up data. Having Daily, Weekly and Monthly backups scheduled is imperative. The data that you need to backup includes configuration files, client files, client websites and client databases.

Types of Backup

There are two different types of backups besides Daily, Weekly and Monthly. You can have either Onsite or Offsite backups.

Onsite Backups to your Server

Onsite Backups away from your Server

Offsite Backups away from your Server

Onsite backups, while they are good, do not offer the level of protection of Offsite backups. The reason for backups is recovery. At a minimum an Onsite backup should be performed to get the data off of your Server. Backing up the data to your Server only will protect a specific site from crashing but what if your Server goes down?

An Offsite backup allows you to keep your data at a different location and is especially useful in disaster recovery. I would recommend using a combination of all three types of backups. This way you can backup this data on a regular basis to your Server. Then copy it to an Onsite backup away from your Server. An on a scheduled basis you can copy your data Offsite for maximum protection. This will allow you to have multiple backup sources for disaster recovery.

Some people may think this is overkill, however your clients are trusting you with their information. If your Server crashes they will lose their data. If your data center becomes unavailable for whatever reason they will lose their data. Imagine having to tell a customer that all of their data is gone.

Automation

Many of the popular control panel packages already backup your clients information on a regular basis. This data is packed into a compressed file with the format ?backup.tar.gz?. This makes it very easy to schedule transfer to your backup solution off of your server.

Using Rsync and Cron Jobs it is easy to automate the process of Off Server transfer. In addition if your server does not offer an automatic backup solution, it is fairly simple to create a backup script. Rsync is a program that makes transferring files off site simple. A ?cron job? is a program that schedules specified scripts to run on a particular schedule. By using some simple Server Scripts you can automate the backup process simply.

Backing up your clients data, files, email and web information is an important part of your Web Hosting Business. By doing this properly you can set yourself above the competition. In addition to your clients data, I would always recommend backing up your specific Server configuration files. This will make the rebuilding of your server much easier in the future. Regardless of the costs involved, setting up a proper backup solution now is the best way to elevate your Web . By following this guide and a little research you can setup a nearly bulletproof backup solution.