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How to back up or restore a VPS
How to back up or restore a VPS

Saving and restoring VPS backups or snapshots on a Hostinger VPS

Updated over 4 months ago

At Hostinger, we provide backups and snapshots of your VPS so you can easily restore your server to a previous state when needed.

Initial considerations

Restoring a VPS from a backup or snapshot will overwrite all the current content on your server. At the same time, it will also delete any snapshots created beforehand.

This change is not reversible – if there's any data you wish to keep, make sure to download it via FTP before proceeding with backup restoration.

How to manage VPS backups

Open the VPS dashboard, choose the server, and select the Backups & Monitoring Snapshots & Backups option from the left sidebar. From there, you can manage the backup options, such as enabling or disabling automatic backups and restoring your VPS from a backup.

Enable or disable backups

By default, your VPS is backed up automatically every week. To change the creation of backups and their frequency, click on Auto-backups settings:

The Auto-backups settings button on the Snapshots & Backups section

Select Daily (available if purchased), Weekly, or Off to stop backup creation altogether. Once done, click on Save to apply the changes.

If you want to enable more frequent backups, you can do so by clicking on Upgrade:

The Daily Backups option for VPS indicating how to upgrade to daily backups

Next, choose the duration and payment method. Your VPS will start generating backups every day for 7 days and the available backups for restoration will be from one, two, and four days ago.

Restore the server from a backup

To use an available backup to restore your server, find the backup that you wish to restore from on the list and click on Restore.

The list will contain all the available backups. Once you select the preferred backup, your VPS will be locked while restoration is in progress.

NOTES

  • Daily backups are automatically deleted after 14 days.

  • Each new weekly backup replaces the oldest one, so that two weekly backups are available at a time.

  • If a backup for your desired date or time isn't listed, it means that particular backup doesn't exist.

How to manage VPS snapshots

A server snapshot allows you to capture the entire state and data of your VPS at a precise moment. Unlike backups, snapshots must be generated manually, so you have the freedom to create a snapshot whenever needed.

To generate a new snapshot, open the Snapshots & Backups page and click on Create Snapshot:

The Create snapshot option for VPS

Once created, the snapshot will be displayed above the backups:

The VPS snapshot list

Only one snapshot is stored at a time. If you choose to create a new snapshot, it will overwrite the previous one. You can use the snapshot to restore your VPS, or permanently delete it if you no longer need it. Snapshots are automatically deleted after 20 days.

Changing or reinstalling your VPS operating system will permanently delete any existing snapshot 💡

NOTES

  • After restoring your server from a backup or snapshot, it will be brought back to the state it was at the moment of backup/snapshot creation, reverting any changes made afterward.

  • Downloading backups or snapshots directly is not supported - to download files from your VPS to your local device, use FTP to download only the data that is necessary for you.

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