Bluehost Web Hosting Help

Managing Backups with SFTP

There are a few options when wanting to download or delete the server backups on a VPS or Dedicated Server. The first will be how to manage it with SFTP. First you'll need an FTP client. In this article we will use Filezilla. Please note that while the screenshots shown are from a Mac, Filezilla works with most operating systems.

To download Filezilla, please see: http://filezilla-project.org

In order to use SFTP you'll need to set a root password and know your server IP.

To get started, open Filezilla.

Go to File in the top left, and select Site Manager

Filezilla - Site Manager

Now click New Site.  You'll need to enter the follow information:

  • Host: Your Server IP
  • Protocol: SFTP
  • Logon Type: Normal
  • Username: root
  • Password: your root password
Filezilla Main Window

Once you have entered the information, click Connect.

When you connect you will likely be prompted to accent the host key.  Click OK and proceed.

Once connected you will be taken to /root which is the root users directory, but you can't do much in there, so go up a directory.

Filezilla Main Window

Now that your at / you can navigate to the backup directory and then the cpbackup directory.

If you are using Legacy Backup (the default backup manager) you'll want to go to /backup/cpbackup, however if you are using Backup Configuration then you'll want to go to /backup

Filezilla Main Window

In the /backup/cpbackup directory you will find a daily, weekly, and monthly directory. Depending on which backups you have running, you'll want to go to directory for them.  By default daily and monthly backups are running.  So if you want to modify your daily backup you'd go to the daily directory.

Filezilla Main Window

The file you want to get will be username.tar.gz,  username would be the account's Username.  Once you've there, you can drag and drop the file to where you want to download it.  Or you can delete it if that is your purpose for coming here.

Filezilla Main Window

At this point it is strongly recommend downloading anything before you delete it.  Deleting any of your files is a bad idea unless you know what it is, you have got a backup, or you are 100% sure you don't need it.

Knowledgebase Article 160,641 views bookmark tags: sftp vps


Was this resource helpful?

Did this resolve your issue?


Please add any other comments or suggestions about this content:





Recommended Help Content

SFTP

How do I use a secure FTP connection?

Automatic Backup Frequency

How often do you backup my site? When do automated backups take place?

Managing Backups with Site Backup Pro

How to manage your backups using Site Backup and Restore

Related Help Content

VPS and Dedicated Hosting: Restore or Transfer cPanel

If you need to transfer or restore a cPanel account for your VPS or Dedicated server, there is a tool within the WHM panel to perform these tasks. This article is about transferring or restoring from another server or restoring after a re-image.

Bluehost Account Backup Policy

What is the Bluehost backup policy? What kinds of backups are available?

How to Delete a Mass Amount in an Email Account

There are a large number of emails or spam that need to be deleted from an email account.

DNS Management - How To Add Edit Or Delete DNS Entries

How to Modify Your DNS Records

FileZilla

Among the various free FTP programs available to download on the internet for Mac OSX, Windows, or Linux, we recommend Filezilla. It can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.filezilla-project

Server Status: File System Rebuild

Why would a File System Rebuild need to occur?

VPS and Dedicated Hosting: Enabling FTP on New Servers

This article will explain how-to enable FTP on a newly provisioned VPS or Dedicated cPanel server. Since FTP is an unsecured connection point to the server, cPanel has it disabled by default in version 11.86 or prior.

How to manage files with CuteFTP

This article will instruct you on managing files within the FTP client, CuteFTP.