Backups and Restores

4 min read

GoZen Host runs daily automated backups on all shared and WordPress hosting plans using Backuply. Your files, databases, and email data are backed up offsite so they’re available even if the server has a hardware failure.

What Gets Backed Up link

Backups are stored offsite - not on the same server as your account. This means they survive disk failures and other server-level issues.

Automated Backups with Backuply link

Backuply handles automated offsite backups on GoZen Host shared and WordPress hosting. Backups run daily and are kept for 7 days on every shared and WordPress plan.

To check your backup status:

1. Log into cPanel
2. Open Backuply (where it’s available on your server)
3. You’ll see your most recent backup dates and status

To restore one of these backups, use Backuply in cPanel where it’s available, or open a support ticket and we’ll restore it for you.

Creating a Manual Backup in cPanel link

If you want to create a backup right now (before a major update, migration, or theme change):

Full Account Backup link

1. Go to Files → Backup in cPanel
2. Under Full Backup, click Download a Full Account Backup
3. Choose the backup destination (Home Directory is fine for download)
4. Click Generate Backup
5. When it’s ready, download it from the same page

This creates a compressed archive of everything - files, databases, email, and settings. Use this for migrations or as an emergency snapshot.

A full backup can only be restored by GoZen support (open a ticket). To restore files yourself, download a Home Directory backup (below) and upload that under Restore a Home Directory Backup.

Partial Backups link

On the same Backup page, you can download individual components:

• Home Directory - all files
• MySQL Databases - select a specific database to download as .sql.gz
• Email Forwarders and Filters - configuration exports

Quick Database Backup via phpMyAdmin link

For a fast database-only backup:

1. Go to Databases → phpMyAdmin
2. Select your database
3. Click Export → Quick → Go
4. Save the .sql file

This is the fastest way to grab a database snapshot before testing a plugin update or running a migration script.

Restoring from a Backup link

Restoring Files link

1. Go to Files → Backup in cPanel
2. Under Restore a Home Directory Backup, click Choose File
3. Select your Home Directory backup archive (not a full account backup)
4. Click Upload

cPanel will overwrite existing files with the backup versions. Only the files in the backup are affected - files that didn’t exist at backup time won’t be deleted.

Restoring a Database link

1. Go to Files → Backup in cPanel
2. Under Restore a MySQL Database Backup, click Choose File
3. Select your .sql.gz file
4. Click Upload

Requesting a Restore from GoZen Support link

If you can’t access cPanel or need a backup from a specific date:

1. Open a support ticket
2. Specify what you need restored (files, database, or both)
3. Include the approximate date you want to restore to
4. Our team will handle it - usually within a few hours

VPS and Dedicated Server Backups link

VPS and dedicated servers do not include automatic backups by default. You’re responsible for your own backup strategy.

Recommended approaches:

• Snapshots - available from the client area for VPS plans. Creates a point-in-time image of your entire server
• rsync to remote storage - automate daily backups to an external location
• mysqldump + cron - schedule nightly database dumps

Example cron job for daily MySQL backups:

  # Runs daily at 3am, keeps backups for 7 days
0 3 * * * mysqldump -u root --all-databases | gzip > /backup/db-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d).sql.gz && find /backup -name "db-*.sql.gz" -mtime +7 -delete
  

Best Practices link

• Test your backups. You only know a backup works once you’ve restored it. Restore to a staging environment periodically.
• Keep offsite copies. Even with GoZen Host offsite backups, download a full backup to your local machine before major changes.
• Back up before updates. WordPress core, plugin, and PHP version updates can break things. Take a snapshot first.
• Document your restore process. When something breaks at 2am, you won’t want to figure it out from scratch.

What to Do Next link

• Managing Files with cPanel File Manager - work with your restored files
• Creating and Managing MySQL Databases - verify your database after a restore
• Browse VPS Plans - if you’ve outgrown shared-hosting backup windows, VPS plans include snapshot-based backups with longer retention