Backup File Structure

By default, all backups are created in a backup storage located on the Plesk-managed server: in a storage specified by the DUMP_D variable defined in the /etc/psa/psa.conf configuration file

The storage is structured as follows, starting with the content of the storage root folder (we omit auxiliary files and folders which are irrelevant for backing up and restoring Plesk data using pleskbackup and pleskrestore utilities).

`<info>.xml`									Metadata files of full and server-level backups, one per backup, describe configuration and content of server, admin, and all their descendants.
`<content>.<zip\|tar\|tgz>`									Archives with content of server and admin.
	`clients/`								Directory containing the following backup data: clients owned by admin or with no owner objects owned by the clients Organization of the directory is the same as that of `<storage>/resellers/<reseller ID>/clients/`.
	`domains/`								Directory containing the following backup data: domains owned by admin or with no owner objects owned by the domains Organization of the directory is the same as that of `<storage>/resellers/<reseller ID>/clients/<client ID>/domains`.
	`resellers/`								Directory containing the following backup data: resellers objects owned by the resellers
		`<reseller ID>/`							Directories containing backup data of particular resellers, one reseller per directory, and the objects owned by them. The `reseller ID` stands for the reseller login name.
			`<info>.xml`						Metadata files of the reseller backups, one file per backup, describe configuration and content of the reseller and the objects they own.
			`<content>.<zip\|tar\|tgz>`						Archives with the reseller content.
			`domains/`						Directory containing the following backup data: domains owned by the reseller objects owned by the domains Organization of the directory is the same as that of `<storage>/resellers/<reseller ID>/clients/<client ID>/domains/`.
			`clients/`						Directory containing the following backup data: clients owned by the reseller objects owned by the clients
				`<client ID>/`					Directories containing backup data of particular clients, one client per directory, and the objects owned by them. The `client ID` stands for the client login name.
					`<info>.xml`				Metadata files of the client backups, one file per backup, describe configuration and content of the client and the objects he owns.
					`<content>.<zip\|tar\|tgz>`				Archives with the client content.
						`domains/`			Directory containing the following backup data: domains owned by the client objects owned by the domains
							`<international domain name> <domain ID>/`		Directories containing backup data of particular domains, one domain per directory, and the objects owned by them. The domain ID is omitted if the domain IDN is less than 47 symbols.
								`<info>.xml`	Metadata files of the domain backups, one file per backup, describe configuration and content of the domain and the objects it owns.
								<content>	Other files and folders which contain domain contents, and its children contents and configurations.

Files of each backup are placed in the storage folders according to the described structure.

f a partial backup is created, its files will be placed according to the location of the backup objects in the hierarchy. For example, if backing up domain example.com owned by reseller JaneDoe, its files will be located in the <storage root directory>/resellers/JaneDoe/domains/example.com/ folder. If backing up reseller, JohnDoe, who owns a domain joe.info and has one client, DukeNukem, who owns domain sample.org, the backup files will be located in the following folders:

<storage root directory>/resellers/JohnDoe/
<storage root directory>/resellers/JohnDoe/domains/joe.info/
<storage root directory>/resellers/JohnDoe/clients/DukeNukem/
<storage root directory>/resellers/JohnDoe/clients/DukeNukem/domains/sample.org/

To distinguish files belonging to different backups of the same object, a specific prefix and suffix are added to the file names:

the backup is added by default, and, if you like, you can change it to your own on a per-backup basis
a suffix designating the backup creation date is always added to each backup file, and the date format is <yymmddhhmm>. For example, the files of a backup created on 6 April 2011, 8:58 PM will have the suffix 1104062058.

Plesk is capable of exporting a backup as a single .tgz file. Each archive has the same structure as the storage, the only difference is that there is only one <info>.xml file on each level.

If a partial backup is exported, the resulting file structure is reduced from the top so that the highest level corresponds to the level of the highest backup object. For example, if a backup of a single customer (called, for example, SandyLee) is exported, the resulting file will have the following structure:

zip {

<sandy lee info>.xml
<content>.zip
domains/
- subscription1/
  - ...
- subscription_N/
- ...
  }

Plesk Documentation and Help Portal

Backup File Structure

Industry
Partners:

Plesk Documentation and Help Portal

Backup File Structure

Industry Partners:

Industry
Partners: