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How to Back Up or Restore a VPS Server
How to Back Up or Restore a VPS Server

Saving and restoring a VPS server with Backups and Snapshots

Updated over a week ago

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

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 open the Snapshots & Backups page from the left sidebar:

The Snaphots & Backups option in VPS

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. 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

Choosing the duration and payment method. Your VPS will start generating backups every day for 7 days.

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.

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 the weekly backup and, if you have daily backups enabled, the backups from one, two, and four days ago. Once you select the preferred backup, your VPS will be locked while restoration is in progress.

NOTES

  • Each new weekly backup replaces the previous one so that one weekly backup is available at a time

  • Daily backups are automatically deleted after 7 days

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 either use the snapshot to restore your VPS or permanently delete it if you no longer need it. Snapshots are automatically deleted after 20 days.

If you change your VPS operating system, your snapshot will be lost 💡

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

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