Backups are boring right up until the moment they are the only thing standing between you and disaster. A bad deploy, a compromised account, a fat-fingered rm -rf — any of these can wipe a server. The good news: a solid backup routine takes an afternoon to set up and then mostly runs itself.
The 3-2-1 rule
The industry standard is simple: keep three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with at least one copy off the server. The off-server copy is the important part — a backup that lives only on the machine you are backing up disappears with that machine.
What to actually back up
Files are only part of the picture. Make sure you capture:
- Application data and uploads — the irreplaceable stuff.
- Databases — use proper dumps (
mysqldump,pg_dump), not raw copies of files that may be mid-write. - Config files — web server, app, cron jobs. These save hours when rebuilding.
- A record of installed packages so you can recreate the environment.
Tools worth knowing
- restic — modern, encrypted, deduplicated backups to almost any storage (including S3-compatible object storage). The best default for most people.
- rsync — simple, reliable file sync, great for mirroring to another host.
- Provider snapshots — a fast full-server image. Convenient, but treat them as a complement to off-site backups, not a replacement.
Automate it
A backup you have to remember to run will eventually not get run. Schedule it with cron — for example a nightly restic backup to off-site object storage — and set up an alert if a run fails. Keep several days or weeks of history so you can roll back to before a problem started, not just to last night.
The step everyone skips: test the restore
A backup is worthless if it does not restore. At least once, spin up a fresh server and restore into it. You will discover the gaps — a missing database, a config you forgot — while it is a drill, not an emergency.
Bringing it together
Backups are part of a broader security posture; pair them with the steps in our Linux VPS security guide. Every Volt Serv VPS gives you full root access to run restic, rsync, or any tool you like, and our team can help you design a routine. Want managed peace of mind? Ask us about backups.