The backup process is capable of capturing all the important components of the MediaCP software including the database, media contents and configuration files. All backup data is compiled into a single .tar file and stored on your system, by default backups , in the /backups path however this can be defined from within the MediaCP System Configuration screen.
A Full Backup includes both the Database and Media Contents while a Partial Backup only includes the Database. If the Media Contents path (/usr/local/mediacp/content/) is very large then you might consider a Partial Backup and manually configure an rsync of the Media Contents to another disk or server; this will dramatically improve backup performance.
Full Backup
A full backup will take a backup of the MediaCP as well as all your media content files. This may take some time to process while it archives all your media files.
Firstly, we recommend checking the how large the MediaCP directory is and also the disk space available on your system using:
du -h --max-depth=1 /usr/local/mediacp | tail -1 df -h
You can then specify the location to store the backup with the option –backup-dir=
cd /root/;rm -f init;wget http://install.mediacp.net/scripts/init;chmod 777 init;./init backup --backup-dir=/backups/
Partial Backup
A partial backup is much faster and will backup all MediaCP system files and database required for critical operation. Media content files are excluded and should be backed up separately.
cd /root/;rm -f init;wget http://install.mediacp.net/scripts/init;chmod 777 init;./init --no-contents backup
Automatic Backups
Automatic backups can be configured from the MediaCP System Configuration -> Backups interface.
Custom Backup Location
You can change the location of backups from within the panel by editing the Backup System Path field. It is important that the new path is owned by the mediacp user For example, if you wish to configure a mounted drive at /home2/backup2/ as the backup destination you can run the following command to set ownership:
chown mediacp:mediacp -R /home2/backups/;
It is also important that the location you plan to store backups with is large enough to hold your entire MediaCP installation as well as entire content directory. You can check the general size of the directory using the following du command:
du -h --max-depth=1 /usr/local/mediacp | tail -1
From there you can set this up in the panel by following these steps:
- Select Administration on the side menu
- Select System Config
- Select BACKUPS
- Change the Backup System Path field to /home2/backups
- Select SAVE CONFIGURATION
Transferring Backups Offsite
We recommend storing backups on a separate disk or offsite to protect against disk failure and data loss.
You can setup offsite backups by syncing your backups to an offsite location. This could be done by mounting an external cloud drive and storing a copy of your backups there, or by setting up a cronjob that automatically rsync’s or transfers your backups to the external location. We will go through the steps to rsync backups offsite below
- Schedule automated backup weekly and/or daily using panel UI.
- Create SSH key to allow rsync to run without user intervention.
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/mediacp_sync -N "" ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/mediacp_sync.pub root@external-server-ip
- Open crontab to add automatic action.
nano /etc/crontab
- Create rsync cronjob to transfer backups directory to external server. This example is set to run weekly on Saturdays.
0 2 * * 6 /usr/bin/rsync -rav -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/mediacp_sync" /backups root@external-server-ip:/root/ >> /var/log/mediacp-rsync.log 2>&1
- Optional: rsync content directly offsite instead of using full backups to save space.
0 2 * * 6 /usr/bin/rsync -rav --exclude '*.log' --exclude '*.w3c' -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/mediacp_sync" /usr/local/mediacp/content root@external-server-ip:/root/ >> /usr/local/mediacp/logs/backup/rsync.log 2>&1
- Save crontab file to apply the changes.
Troubleshooting
There is not enough space on this disk to backup the MediaCP and contents
The backup process requires twice the amount of free space on the disk as the total size of the MediaCP software. This is to ensure adequate space for a staging area where files are packaged before finalising the backup. You should increase the amount of disk space available to complete the backup.