Backing Up the Entire Server

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To back up the server configuration settings and all user data you have on your hosting machine:

  1. Go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager.
  2. Click Back Up. The Back Up the Server page will be opened.
  3. Specify the following:
    • What data to back up. You can back up only the server settings, or server settings and all user data. Refer to the Backing Up and Restoration section for details on what is included in the backup files.
    • Location where to store the backup file. Select the repository where you want to store the backup file.
    • Type.
      • To backup all the data, select Full.

        A full backup can include either configuration or configuration and content, depending on what you selected in Back up.

      • To back up only the changes made since the time of the previous backup, select Incremental.

        Incremental backups always include configuration with content, including databases. Database-related content is included in full, while web and mail related content is backed up incrementally.

        If no backups have been created yet, the first backup will be a full backup.

        For the difference between full and incremental backup, see Backing Up and Restoration.

    • Splitting of the backup file. To create a multi-volume backup, select the respective checkbox and specify volume size in megabytes. Multiple volumes are supported for backups stored in personal FTP storage.
    • Email notification on backup completion. If you want to be notified of the backup completion, click When a backup task is completed, send a notification email to and type your email address.
    • Comments about this backup.
    • Suspend domains until backup task is completed. Select this option to prohibit users from making changes to content or settings of websites while they are being backed up.
  4. Click Back Up. The backup process starts. When backing up is finished, the backup file will be saved to the storage you selected.

Note: Custom view settings (that are stored as the Simple plan) are included into server-level backups. However, the restoration of these settings is only possible if Plesk has not been yet initially configured (either by the init_conf utility or from GUI). Learn more about Custom view.