Disaster Recovery Planning for your website
Create an effective disaster recovery plan for your website. Learn what to backup, how often, where to store backups, and how to test recovery at UnderHost.
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A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a documented strategy for restoring your website and data after a failure, attack, or data loss event. Without a plan, recovery is chaotic, slow, and often incomplete. With a plan, you know exactly what to restore, in what order, and how long it will take.
What is a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan includes:
- What data and systems you must protect
- How often backups are created
- Where backups are stored (geographic locations)
- Who can restore from backups
- Step-by-step restoration procedures
- Testing schedule to verify backups work
- Communication plan (who to notify, when)
- Recovery time targets (how fast you need to restore)
Create your disaster recovery plan
Follow these steps to build your plan:
Step 1: Identify critical assets
What would damage your business the most if it was lost?
- Website files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images)
- Database (customer records, transactions, posts, products)
- Email accounts and messages
- Configuration files (database credentials, API keys)
- Installed applications (WordPress, WooCommerce, custom scripts)
- SSL certificates
- DNS records and domain registrations
Step 2: Assess the impact of data loss
Rate the impact of each asset being unavailable for 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week:
| Asset | Loss of 1 Hour | Loss of 1 Day | Loss of 1 Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website files | High (lost sales/traffic) | Critical (site down) | Critical |
| Database | Critical (can't serve requests) | Critical | Critical |
| Medium (messages delayed) | High (communication broken) | Critical | |
| DNS | Critical (site unreachable) | Critical | Critical |
What to back up
Essential (MUST BACK UP):
- Website files (public_html folder)
- All databases
- Email accounts and data (if hosted with UnderHost)
- SSL certificates (keep a copy)
- Cron jobs / scheduled tasks configuration
Important (SHOULD BACK UP):
- Custom configuration files
- Third-party plugin/extension data
- DNS zone files (if managed at UnderHost)
- FTP account configurations
- Email forwarding rules
Backup frequency
| Backup Frequency | Best for | Data Loss Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Daily | Active websites, ecommerce, high-traffic sites | Up to 24 hours of data |
| Weekly | Small sites with moderate updates | Up to 7 days of data |
| Monthly | Static sites with minimal changes | Up to 30 days of data |
| On-demand before changes | Before major updates (plugins, themes, code) | Variable |
Recommendation: For most UnderHost shared hosting customers, daily automated backups are ideal. If using Backuply, set it to back up daily or multiple times per week.
Backup storage locations
Never store backups in only one location. A good strategy:
- Local (on UnderHost server): Fast restore, included with most plans. But if the server fails, local backups may be lost.
- Remote (offsite): Keep encrypted backups on a separate cloud service (Google Drive, AWS S3, Backblaze, etc.). Protected against server hardware failure.
- Local computer: Download full backups periodically to your own computer or NAS for final protection.
The 3-2-1 Backup Rule:
- 3 copies of your data (original + 2 backups)
- 2 different storage types (on-server + cloud, or local + external + cloud)
- 1 copy stored offsite (not in the same data center as your VPS)
Test your recovery
A backup you've never tested is not a backup—it may be corrupted and unreadable when you need it.
Monthly recovery test:
- Download a recent backup from UnderHost
- Extract or restore it locally (to a test environment, not production)
- Verify all files are present and intact
- For databases, check that data can be queried and used
- Document any issues or warnings
Annual full recovery test:
- Restore to a test/staging server
- Verify the website works completely
- Test all critical functions (logins, payments, forms, uploads)
- Check email and other services
- Time how long the full recovery takes
Recovery timeline: RTO & RPO
RTO (Recovery Time Objective): How quickly you need to be back online after a failure.
- Critical system: RTO = 1 hour (or less)
- Important system: RTO = 4-8 hours
- Non-critical system: RTO = 24+ hours
RPO (Recovery Point Objective): How much recent data you can afford to lose.
- Critical: RPO = 1 hour (hourly backups needed)
- Important: RPO = 1 day (daily backups sufficient)
- Non-critical: RPO = 1 week (weekly backups acceptable)
Match your backup frequency to your RPO. If you need hourly backups, daily backup plans won't meet your requirements.
Disaster recovery checklist
Before a disaster happens:
- ☐ Identify all critical data and systems
- ☐ Set up automated daily backups (Backuply, cPanel, or cloud service)
- ☐ Configure offsite backup storage
- ☐ Download and securely store at least one full backup
- ☐ Test backup restoration monthly
- ☐ Document restoration procedures step-by-step
- ☐ Store documentation where a team member can find it (not just in your head)
- ☐ Encrypt sensitive backups
- ☐ Have UnderHost support contact info and account details handy
- ☐ Know your DNS registrar login and where your domain is registered
When a disaster happens:
- ☐ Stop and assess: What failed? What's lost? What's recoverable?
- ☐ Notify affected users (customers, team, management)
- ☐ Retrieve your most recent backup from UnderHost or offsite storage
- ☐ Follow your documented restoration steps
- ☐ Test the restored system before going live
- ☐ Monitor closely after restoration for issues
- ☐ Document what happened and what you'll change next time
Write down your disaster recovery plan in detail. When a real disaster happens, you won't have time to figure things out—you'll need a checklist to follow quickly and accurately.
Need help? Contact UnderHost support if you need help setting up automated backups or testing your recovery plan.
Related: Backup best practices | How to restore from backup | Database backup guide
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