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CorePanel

Backups

Backups lets a customer see and download every backup of their account. If you allow it, they can also take a new one and put their account back when something breaks — without opening a ticket. This page covers what they see, what the switch turns on and the limits that keep it safe for your server.

What every customer sees

Section titled “What every customer sees”

Every backup and restore of their account — the ones your schedule made, the ones you took by hand and the ones they took — with size, outcome, per-resource report and a Download link. This is always on: the archive is their own data.

A restore you ran on their account appears too, without a download link, so they can see their site was rolled back.

Letting them take and restore backups

Section titled “Letting them take and restore backups”

Server → Settings → Client panel has the switch, off by default. Turning it on adds Back up now and Restore. Before you do, know that it costs disk:

  • Archives go to the panel’s disk (/var/lib/corepanel/backups), outside the account’s quota. Each customer keeps their two most recent; a new one deletes their oldest. Your own backups are never touched by that rotation.
  • One backup per account at a time, with one hour between them.

Because of the rotation, the panel tells customers that to keep a copy they should download it.

The Backups screen of the client panel: the heading "Backups" over the line "Copies of your files, databases and email: download one, or put part of it back", with a "Back up now" button at the right. Below it a table of two completed backups of 1.1 GB each, each row offering "Details", "Restore" and "Download". Under the table, a note reads "Only your two most recent backups are kept: taking a new one removes the oldest. To keep a copy for longer, download it."

Putting a backup back

Section titled “Putting a backup back”

Restore on a backup offers two ways back:

The client panel's Backups screen with the restore dialog open over it, titled "Restore the backup of October 2, 2026 at 9:40 AM" and asking "How do you want to restore it?". Two choices: a highlighted first one, "Put my account back as it was on October 2, 2026 at 9:40 AM — Your files, databases and email go back to that day. The simplest way back when something broke", and below it "Choose what to restore — Get back only a folder, a database or a mailbox, and leave the rest as it is now", with a Cancel button.

Put my account back as it was

Section titled “Put my account back as it was”

For a site that broke — a bad update, a plugin, an intruder’s files. The panel first shows in figures what would change; nothing is touched until they press Restore everything.

  • Files return to the backup. Files created since are deleted, with no trash, so an intruder’s files do not survive.
  • Databases in the backup are replaced, each saved as a copy first. Their users get back the password from the backup, matching the site’s config file.
  • Email is never rolled back: deleted messages come back, new ones stay.
  • Not touched: logs, live PHP sessions, application deploys, ~/backups, the trash, caches, and the files of a site added after the backup.
  • All or nothing: if the archive is damaged or the disk is full, nothing changes.

Afterwards the WordPress list is re-synced and every page cache emptied. This needs a backup made with a file list; older ones only offer the second way.

The same dialog after choosing to put the account back: "This is what changes in your account. Nothing has been touched yet." Four figures — 14 files that go back to their earlier version, 37 files created since that are deleted (highlighted in amber), 1 database replaced and 2 mailboxes recovered — then "Some of what is deleted" listing paths under ~/public_html. An amber warning reads "What you created or changed in your files after October 2, 2026 at 9:40 AM is lost, and it does not go to the trash. Your email is not lost: deleted messages come back and new ones stay. Each database is saved before it is replaced." Below, the 10-minute note and the buttons Back, Cancel and a red "Restore everything".

Choose what to restore

Section titled “Choose what to restore”

The same browser as your partial restore, with three tabs — Files, Databases and Mail — and a preview before Restore now. Files come back beside the current ones in ~/restored-<date>-j<job>/; a database is saved as a copy first; a mailbox is merged, never emptied.

The client panel&#x27;s backup browser for corepanel.io: the line "Backup taken 10/2/2026. Pick the files, databases or mailboxes to put back", tabs for Files, Databases (2) and Mail (2), the Files tab open at public_html with index.php ticked, the selected path shown as a chip, and a bar at the bottom reading "1 item selected" with a Review restore button

What stays with you

Section titled “What stays with you”
  • Recreating a deleted account, and restoring domains, configuration or applications — those decide security-relevant settings.
  • Archives from outside — uploaded, placed on disk or at a remote destination. Customers restore only this server’s own backups of their account.
  • Remote destinations, which are your storage and your credentials.

And the limits on what they can do:

  • a deleted database or mailbox comes back only if the plan has room for it;
  • the restore must fit what is left of the account’s disk limit, and never more than half the server’s free space;
  • one restore at a time, 10 minutes apart; the database copies saved before a replace rotate like their backups (two kept).