Business Backup: a 2 TB to 20 TB backup server with root access

Business Backup is a storage server for off-site backups: 2 TB, 5 TB or 20 TB in UnderHost's Canada data center, with full root and SSH access and aaPanel included for web-based file management. Because you have root, you can run rsync, rsnapshot, borg or any backup software you choose, and decide exactly how backups and retention work.

Plans

Setup is free. Need more than 20 TB? Custom storage setups are available on request. For 1 TB or less, see Personal Backup. Current prices are on the Business Backup page.

What is and is not included

First login and securing the server

After the order, your SSH root login and aaPanel login are sent by email. Replace your-business-backup.underhost.com with your server's name or IP.

1. Log in and update

   Connect with ssh root@your-business-backup.underhost.com and install the operating system's updates.

2. Switch to SSH keys

   Add your public key and turn off password logins. See SSH key authentication.

3. Protect aaPanel

   aaPanel opens on port 8888. Turn on SSL for the panel, use a strong password, and limit panel access to your own IP address where possible. See aaPanel hardening.

4. Create a backup user

   Give each server you back up its own user and key, instead of sending backups as root. See Manage SSH keys.

Push backups with rsync

From each server you protect, sync data to the backup server over SSH, and schedule it with cron:

# one-off sync
rsync -az -e ssh /var/www/ backup@your-business-backup.underhost.com:/backup/web01/www/

# nightly at 01:15 (crontab -e)
15 1 * * * rsync -az -e ssh /var/www/ backup@your-business-backup.underhost.com:/backup/web01/www/ >> /var/log/offsite-backup.log 2>&1

Dump databases to a file before the sync, for example with mysqldump --single-transaction, so the backup holds a consistent copy.

Keep daily snapshots with rsnapshot

A plain sync keeps only the latest copy. rsnapshot runs on the backup server, pulls from your servers, and keeps hourly, daily or weekly snapshots. Unchanged files are stored once, using hard links, so many snapshots take little extra space.

# install (Red Hat family: from EPEL)
dnf install -y epel-release && dnf install -y rsnapshot     # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux
apt install -y rsnapshot                                     # Debian, Ubuntu

# /etc/rsnapshot.conf (fields are separated by TABs)
snapshot_root	/backup/snapshots/
cmd_ssh	/usr/bin/ssh
retain	daily	14
retain	weekly	8
backup	backup@web01.example.com:/var/www/	web01/

# test the configuration, then schedule it (crontab -e)
rsnapshot configtest
30 3 * * *  /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily
0  5 * * 0  /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly

Pulling from the backup server has a security benefit: the servers you protect do not hold a login to the backup server, so an attacker on a web server cannot delete your backups.

Manage files in aaPanel

aaPanel gives you a web interface to browse, download, share and edit files on the backup server, which is handy when someone without SSH experience needs to retrieve a file. See aaPanel File Manager.

Restore data

# latest copy
rsync -az -e ssh backup@your-business-backup.underhost.com:/backup/web01/www/ /restore/www/

# a snapshot from three days ago (rsnapshot)
rsync -az -e ssh root@your-business-backup.underhost.com:/backup/snapshots/daily.2/web01/ /restore/www/

Restore into a separate folder, check it, then move it into place. Test a restore regularly; see Backup testing and verification.

FAQ

Related: Personal Backup | Cold Storage | Backup strategy design | aaPanel hardening

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