Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

Data Backup & Disaster Recovery

Losing data can be catastrophic for any business. GoSiteMe provides automated backup systems and disaster recovery tools to ensure your websites, databases, and email can be restored quickly. This guide covers how backups work and how to create a recovery plan.

Automatic Backups

GoSiteMe performs automated backups on the following schedule:

• Daily backups: Retained for 7 days (all plans).
• Weekly backups: Retained for 30 days (Business and Enterprise plans).
• Monthly backups: Retained for 90 days (Enterprise plan).

Backups include your website files, databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL), email accounts, DNS records, and cron jobs.

Creating Manual Backups

1. Go to Dashboard → Backups.
2. Click Create Backup Now.
3. Select what to include: Full Account, Files Only, Databases Only, or Email Only.
4. Click Generate. The backup file appears in your backup list once complete.

You can also trigger backups programmatically via the GoSiteMe API or ask Alfred: "Alfred, create a full backup of my account."

Restoring from a Backup

1. Navigate to Dashboard → Backups → Available Backups.
2. Select the backup date you want to restore from.
3. Choose Full Restore or Selective Restore (individual files, databases, or email accounts).
4. Confirm the restore. Your current data will be replaced with the backup version.

Offsite Backup Integration

For additional redundancy, GoSiteMe supports automatic replication to external storage:

• Amazon S3: Configure your S3 bucket credentials under Backups → Remote Destinations.
• Google Cloud Storage: Provide a service account JSON key.
• SFTP Server: Specify the host, port, and credentials for any remote SFTP server.

Disaster Recovery Plan Checklist

• Verify backups are completing successfully (check Backups → Logs weekly).
• Test a restore at least once per quarter to ensure backups are valid.
• Maintain at least one offsite backup destination.
• Document your recovery procedure and share it with your team.
• Set email notifications for backup failures under Settings → Notifications.

Recovery Time Objectives

GoSiteMe targets a recovery time of under 15 minutes for full-account restores. Selective restores (single database or file set) are typically completed in under 5 minutes. Enterprise customers with dedicated infrastructure can achieve near-instant failover with our high-availability add-on.