Configuring Remote Storage

By default, Plesk stores backups on the server. However, this presents a risk. If the server’s hard disk fails, you can lose both your website data and your backups. To avoid this, we recommend storing backups in remote storage. This topic explains how to configure remote storage for backups in Plesk.

You can configure the following types of remote storage:

  • FTP storage
  • Amazon S3 Backup storage
  • S3-compatible storages:
    • DigitalOcean Spaces
    • Various S3-compatible storages (Minio, OpenStack, and others)
  • Google Drive Backup storage
  • Microsoft OneDrive Backup storage

Note

Storing scheduled backups in a remote cloud storage is a premium feature. Ask your hosting provider to unlock it or store backups in the server storage, in the FTP storage, or use manual backups.

You can configure more than one remote storage, but you can only have one S3-compatible storage configured at a time. For example, you can configure both Amazon S3 Backup and Google Drive Backup, but not Amazon S3 Backup and DigitalOcean Spaces.

When creating backups, you can only use one remote storage at a time. If you want to store backups in more than one remote storage, create a backup once for every remote storage you want to use.

FTP Storage

To configure the FTP storage:

  1. Set up a server that would act as the FTP storage. It must be possible to connect to that server from the Plesk server via FTP.
  2. Go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > FTP.
  3. Select the “Use FTP Storage” checkbox.
  4. Specify the settings for the server you set up during step 1, including the server’s hostname or IP address, the path to the directory for storing backups, and the FTP username and password.
  5. If the Plesk firewall is configured to ban incoming connections from FTP servers, select the “Use passive mode” checkbox. Make sure that the server you set up during step 1 supports the passive FTP mode.
  6. (Recommended) Select the “Use FTPS” checkbox to use an encrypted connection when transferring backups to the remote storage. This ensures that your data cannot be intercepted by a third party. Make sure that the server you set up during step 1 supports FTPS connections.
  7. Click OK.

The FTP storage is configured. Now you can select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

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Amazon S3 Backup Storage

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage, you need an IAM user account. We call this account restricted because it has a limited number of permissions necessary for the Amazon S3 Backup extension to operate.

The extension can automatically create a restricted IAM user account, or you can do it manually.

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage automatically:

  1. Create an AWS account.
  2. Log in to your AWS account, go to My Account > Security Credentials and then copy the access key ID and secret of the AWS account root user.
  3. Log in to Plesk and go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.
  4. Keep the “I will use the root account credentials (will not be stored)” option.
  5. Paste the ID and secret copied during step 2 into the “IAM User Access Key ID” and “IAM User Access Key Secret” fields respectively.
  6. Provide a bucket where your backups will be stored. You can use an existing bucket in your AWS account. You can also have the extension automatically generate one for you (if you do, we do not recommend changing the bucket’s name).
  7. To store backups in a specific folder inside the bucket, type the folder’s name into the “Path” field. To store backups in the bucket’s root, type “/” into the “Path” field.
  8. Click OK.

To configure the Amazon S3 Backup storage manually:

  1. Create an AWS account.
  2. Create an IAM user account. Make sure to grant the s3:CreateBucket, s3:ListBucket, s3:GetObject, s3:PutObject, s3:DeleteObject, s3:ListMultipartUploadParts, s3:AbortMultipartUpload, and s3:ListAllMyBuckets permissions to the account.
  3. Create an IAM user access key and write down its ID and secret because you will need them later.
  4. Log in to Plesk and go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.
  5. Select the “I have created a restricted IAM user account” option.
  6. Paste the IAM User Access Key ID and the IAM User Access Key Secret, which you have copied during step 3, into the corresponding fields.
  7. Provide a bucket where your backups will be stored. You can use an existing bucket in your AWS account. You can also have the extension automatically generate one for you (if you do, we do not recommend changing the bucket’s name).
  8. To store backups in a specific folder inside the bucket, type the folder’s name into the “Path” field. To store backups in the bucket’s root, type “/” into the “Path” field.
  9. Click OK.

The Amazon S3 Backup storage is configured. Now you can select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

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Google Drive Backup Storage

To configure the Google Drive Backup storage:

  1. Create a Google account if you do not have one.
  2. Go to  Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Google Drive Backup.
  3. Sign in to the Google account whose storage you will use to store backups.
  4. Click Allow to allow Plesk to view and manage the files in your Google Drive.
  5. Click the link to send the Google Drive authorization data to Plesk.
  6. Select the “Use the storage” checkbox.
  7. (Optional) By default, Plesk creates the “My Plesk” folder in your Google Drive and stores backups there. If you want to store backups in another location, type the desired path in the “Path” textbox.
  8. Click OK.

The Google Drive Backup storage is configured. Now you can select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

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If you want to store backups in Google Drive storage associated with a different Google account, go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Google Drive Backup and click the “Log out” link.

This will disconnect the currently connected Google Drive Backup storage. You can then connect a different one following the steps above. Disconnecting the Google Drive Backup storage does not remove the Plesk backups stored in it. If you reconnect it at a later date, you will see the stored backups in the Backup Manager and will be able to restore them.

DigitalOcean Spaces Storage

To configure DigitalOcean Spaces Storage:

  1. Create a DigitalOcean account.
  2. Create a space.
  3. Create a directory for storing backups inside the space. Note the path to this directory and the space URL. You will use them later to configure DigitalOcean Spaces storage.
  4. Create an access key and secret. Note them because you will use them later to configure DigitalOcean Spaces storage. Keep in mind that the secret is only displayed once, when it is created. There is no way to retrieve it later.
  5. Go to  Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.
  6. Under “Service provider”, select “DigitalOcean Spaces”.
  7. Paste the space URL, the path to the directory where the backups will be stored, the access key, and the secret into the corresponding fields, and then click  OK.

The DigitalOcean storage is configured. You can now select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

S3-compatible storage

A number of services offering remote storage use APIs compatible with Amazon S3. We call them S3-compatible. Of those, Plesk explicitly supports DigitalOcean, Minio, and OpenStack.

You can try configuring any other S3-compatible storage in Plesk, but there is no guarantee that it will work as expected. You can use the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) to check an S3-compatible storage for compatibility with Plesk. If you can upload or download a file from the storage via the AWS CLI, you can probably use the storage with Plesk.

To configure an S3-compatible storage:

  1. Go to  Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Amazon S3 Backup.
  2. Under “Service provider”, select “Custom (Minio, OpenStack, etc)”.
  3. Fill in all the fields. Pay particular attention to the “Bucket” and “Path” fields. A bucket is a place that you create to store data in an S3-compatible storage. You need to note the bucket name and paste it in the “Bucket” field. In the “Path” field, you need to paste a path to the directory inside the bucket where you want to store backups.
  4. Click  OK.

The S3-compatible storage is configured. You can now select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

Microsoft OneDrive Backup Storage

To configure the Microsoft OneDrive Backup storage:

  1. Go to  Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Microsoft OneDrive Backup.
  2. Sign in to your Microsoft account. Plesk will store backups in the OneDrive storage associated with the account. If you do not have a Microsoft account, create one.
  3. Click the link to send the Microsoft authorization data to Plesk.
  4. Select the “Use the storage” checkbox.
  5. (Optional) By default, Plesk stores backups in the “Apps/plesk-backup/<subscription name>” folder in your Microsoft OneDrive storage. You can specify a different folder, if desired.
  6. Click OK.

The Microsoft OneDrive Backup storage is configured. You can now select it when creating a manual or scheduled backup.

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If you want to store backups in OneDrive storage associated with a different Microsoft account, go to Websites & Domains > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings > Microsoft OneDrive Backup and click the “Log out” link.

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This will disconnect the currently connected OneDrive Backup storage. You can then connect a different one following the steps above. Disconnecting OneDrive Backup storage does not remove the Plesk backups stored in it. If you reconnect it at a later date, you will see the stored backups in the Backup Manager and will be able to restore them.

Securing Backups in Remote Storage With a Password

You can secure backups stored in remote storage with a password. Doing so encrypts the passwords stored in the backup, such as mail account passwords or database user passwords. Even if a third party obtains a backup, they will not be able to get the passwords stored inside.

When you restore a password-secured backup, you need to provide the password. If you cannot, all passwords stored in the backup are generated randomly.

To secure remote storage backups with a password:

  1. Configure at least one remote storage.

  2. Go to Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Remote Storage Settings. The section “Backup security settings” has become available.

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  3. Under “Password Protection”, click the “change” link next to “Disabled”.

  4. Select the “Use password protection (recommended)” checkbox.

  5. Type in the password in the corresponding fields.

  6. Click OK.

Now all backups stored in remote storage will be secured with the password.