When thinking of a ASP.NET Website and how to maintain good backups, the platform you choose is key to the success of rock solid backups and restores. We will examine three different platforms and their PRO’s and CON’s for backups.
“Cloud Snapshots provide the best mixture of disaster recovery and timely restores from a snapshot.”
Shared Hosting
Most providers include some type of backup in their shared hosting plans. For the most part this is a broad sword approach for disaster recovery of the shared server should the server become nonfunctional. Due to the low cost nature of Shared Hosting, some providers may not include backups at all. File level restores may incur fees and the ability to restore a file more than likely will be time consuming.
Dedicated Servers
Dedicated servers typically do not include back ups of any kind by the provider. This service is typically an add on and can range in features and in price. For file level restores this is a good choice, but what happens when the entire server goes down and you need it back online ASAP? Due to the nature of bare metal restores, this is again a time consuming activity.
Cloud Snapshots
Cloud Snapshots provide the best mixture of disaster recovery and timely restores from a snapshot. Here’s why. The Operating system and the entire Cloud Server application stack is backed up via a Snap Shot. This is typical of any cloud provider that includes snap shots. Not all Cloud Providers include this feature – check with your provider regarding your plan. 3essentials Cloud Servers include Snap Shots.
Snap shots do not include file level restores, since the only way to make the restore available is to boot the server up. There are typically many solutions to this:
– Have the Provider Mount the Cloud Server as a NEW Server and restore your files from the restored image.
– Many web based applications have built-in file level and database backups. WordPress , Plesk LAMP and Plesk ASP.NET to name a few. These applications can even connect to a Dropbox account to upload your files. UpdraftPlus is a WordPress plugin that can backup your WordPress web site to Dropbox. This plugin coupled with Cloud Snapshots is an effective backup and restore solution.