Every website owner implements robust security solutions and streamlined processes to prevent data loss. However, sometimes due to external cyberattacks or internal errors, owners can lose precious site data. The one fallback in case of such eventual data losses is ensuring that you have copies of your data stored, which can be easily restored to restart the website processes. These copies of data are called website backup.
Website backup can be manual or automated. In the manual backup, as the name suggests, you copy all the data from the source folder to another storage platform manually. This can get time-consuming and does not allow for constant tracking of changes to the data.
To supplement your manual efforts, you can choose backup software that allows for an automatic backup of data. One such popular software is the CodeGuard Website Backup Solution.
What is CodeGuard Basic Backup?
CodeGuard is an automatic website backup software, and as the name suggests, it’s a tool that can take reliable backups of your website with little to no human intervention.
CodeGuard works on the principle of continuous backups. When the program is installed for the first time, the software takes a complete ‘image’ of your website. From website content to backend information, all data is backed up on Amazon’s S3 servers.
Subsequently, your website is scanned every day. Whenever the software sees a change, the backup is updated to reflect these changes. All this is done, of course, without any external prompting. Depending on the type of CodeGuard plan you have, you can also take backups on demand. This is useful if you’re doing some major overhauls to your website and need a near-instant backup of your website.
This article is a step-by-step guide to using CodeGuard and two of its important features — adding a website and adding a directory.
How to add a website to your CodeGuard account
Let us consider that you’ve bought a CodeGuard account, and you can add a website for CodeGuard to keep track of. The process is quite simple.
Simply log in to your CodeGuard account and search for the domain name of your website. If you’ve paid CodeGuard for that specific website, you can simply navigate to the ‘Order Information’ tab.
Here you’ll need to click on ‘View Dashboard’.
Once you do that, you’ll be greeted with the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) details page. This is where you have to fill in the FTP details of your website. If you don’t know your website’s FTP details, you can find them on your website management software.
For example, with cPanel, there’s a tab called ‘FTP accounts’ under the ‘Files’ section, which is on the main page. You can click on it to get your FTP details. FTP details usually include your website’s URL, server credentials, server IP address, your username, and password. Once you’ve filled in these details, click on the button at the end of the page. It should read ‘Test Website Connection.’
If all the details are right, you’ll see a screen that lists the directories of your website. Here, select your root directory and click on ‘Select Root Directory’. When you select the root directory, CodeGuard will list all the files associated with your website. Here, you’ll be asked to choose the files that you want to backup. This is the initial backup of your website.
Select all the files that you want to backup and click on ‘Begin First Backup’. This will put the backup process into motion. The time taken for the first backup to finish depends on the size of your website and whatnot. While the process is taking place, you can see the progress bar on the CodeGuard page.
Once the backup process is done, you’ll see a page that lists the processes that have taken place, the files that have been backed up, and the status of your progress tracker will read ‘Completed’.
This means that you’ve completed your first website backup.
How to add a directory to CodeGuard
Login to your CodeGuard account. Here, you’ll see a prominent tab that reads ‘Databases’. Click on that tab, and you’ll be taken to a new page.
Here, click on the ‘Add Database’ button. If you’re adding a directory to CodeGuard for the first time, there are a few initial processes to complete. For starters, you need to test the connection. It’s a fairly easy task. Just locate the IP address of your website server on your cPanel dashboard and paste that on your CodeGuard page where you’re adding the directory. Now, simply click on the ‘Test Connection’ button.
If the connection is successful, the next step is almost automatic. CodeGuard will now see if there are any firewalls on your web server that might cause a problem. If it does find a firewall that’s blocking its entrance, it’ll give you an error message. If this happens, just go back to your cPanel account and reconfigure your firewall settings to allow CodeGuard all access. Once this is done, CodeGuard will again move to check if it’s in the ‘Whitelist’.
Finally, you just have to add the credentials. There are three basic types here — Direct MySQL, Tunnel Over SSH, and MS-SQL. Choose the right one.
At this point, CodeGuard will display an IP address under the ‘External Database Hostname or IP’ tab. Copy this number and go to your cPanel dashboard. Here, click on the ‘Databases’ section. You’ll now see a few sub-options. Select ‘Remote MySQL’ here.
cPanel will now ask you the IP address of the access host, i.e., the server that’s trying to access. Here, simply paste the IP address that you copied earlier and click on ‘Add Host’. Back on the CodeGuard page, you’ll be asked for your MySQL username, password, and so on. Enter all those details and click on ‘Next Step’.
The CodeGuard servers will now establish a secure connection with your web server, and you’ll be led to a page where all your directories are listed one below the other. Select the directory that you want to add and simply click on the ‘Add Databases’ button.
The process of adding the directory will start immediately, and as before, you’ll have a progress bar to help you keep track. Once it’s done, the status bar will indicate ‘Completed’, at which point you can simply click on ‘Close Progress Report’.
Conclusion
CodeGuard is a powerful software that allows you to rest assured about backups, their reliability, and their safety once you’ve set up the software. CodeGuard will simply take backups every single day to ensure that your website backup is never more than a day old.
Given that all data is stored on AWS S3 servers, you don’t have to worry about the safety of your data either. All data is completely encrypted. CodeGuard is actually so relied upon these days that some of the top website hosting companies offer CodeGuard as a part of their hosting solution. When you buy web hosting from ResellerClub, you can choose to add CodeGuard Website Backup Plans to your hosting setup as well. We will help you to seamlessly assimilate the CodeGuard software with your hosting setup. With our 24×7 dedicated tech support, you can get your queries resolved effectively at any time of the day. This way, you don’t have to worry about backups and can simply concentrate on growing their website.
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