Automated backup solution option for Reseller?

Hi there everyone!

I have what I guess is called a reseller's account on a VPS hosted by InMotion with about 30 accounts that I host for friends and family. Since I'm such a nice guy, I don't make any money doing this

Manually backing up via the cPanel interface in any regular cycle is really not feasible with this many accounts so I've been searching on solutions. The issue I'm running into is that there are a mind numbingly huge number of offerings out there. As I search further, I just keep finding reviews of people that just light them up after bad happenings using their service.

I thought I'd ask here. I'm hoping to find a service that's as inexpensive as possible since it will all be out of pocket. I also wouldn't like a software that would run locally on my PC and download the backups instead of storing on the web, if that's a possibility. Whole account backups would be nifty but I could manage with just web/db/mail/forwarders if that's a more feasible solution.

Any suggestions and thoughts are welcome. Thanks for your time!

 

Thanks for you help, Eminds!

I've seen the Jetbackup site but it looks like it's about $50 annually if their pricing page is correct. Is there a free tier?

InMotion does not allow the backups to be stored on the server so I would either have to figure out a way to get them to my PC or I would have to pay in addition to the backup service for space.

 

After a few more hours of searching, I found this WHMCS module which confuses me a bit. Is the module just the part you install after you pay for the Jetbackup service? In other words, do you need a license key to use the module or can I just have it installed by the host and use it for backups?

 

Since the thread is running incredibly light on suggestions, perhaps I can get some feedback on solutions I find through the hours of scanning search results.

Has anyone used backup-smart.com? It seems to be software you install on your local PC to backup cPanel accounts. It shows a free trial period but I wanted to ask before potentially installing something malicious on my computer.

It does state that it's mentioned in some capacity on the forums here but I can't find it anywhere.

Thanks for your time!

 

Hi there all and thanks for your responses.

All though I have access to WHM, it's a stripped down version of it and backup functions are not available in it. I do have access to the cPanel backup features, however.

I'll continue my searching but have begun to realize that automation may simply be out of my reach.

 

Thanks very much for the clarification, Clark! I very much appreciate it. If I were making more than negative hundreds annually with the server, I'd be all over another subscription based service but as it stands, something like the backup smart linked above better suits my needs and better fits my finances (one time fee and no additional costs for cloud storage).

If I can get it installed and working, which is proving to be a challenge

 

Hi there guys, and thanks for your continued interest in helping me out

While a lot doesn't apply, the potential solution I posted(backup-smart.com/) is not moot and would fit my needs perfectly if I could get it installed. The author did respond once to my question concerning whether it was actively developed to reply in the affirmative but has chosen not to respond once I forwarded my install error.

If I could find something in that vein that worked, it would be perfect for me being relatively inexpensive and offering backup storage on my PC, which is much cheaper than any remote storage options offered by the other services.

 

Thanks very much for your suggestion. Unfortunately, I sit behind an ISP firewall that uses a blanket IP. I've not figured out a way to successfully set up an outward facing FTP server that works when you don't have your own IP address.

I've still not figured a solution out. I did not test backup-smart.com 's offering simply because the app triggered AV warnings, the site hosting the download triggered browser warnings and it just began to feel like a really sketchy application.

The hunt continues so for now I manually backup all the sites like a 21st century luddite.

 

I currently download them to my local machine and store them on two machines on the premises.

I've tried a few times to pay for a second location to manage backups but the three accounts I set up were all closed by the hosts due to storing backup files, stating that was not the purpose of a web host. None mentioned this during signup, however. I finally gave up pursuing that solution.