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Cron Jobs for backups

Regularly scheduled full-backup which is saved locally in your home directory

We all know how to use cPanel to create "instant backups", backups that only occur when you click a button, and only occur one time.

The drawback is that you have to remember to perform these backups. This becomes especially difficult if you have multiple cPanel accounts.

The script below will allow you to schedule a FULL cPanel backup to run at a regular interval. (A full backup will save all of your websites, databases, and emails per cPanel account.)

<?php

// PHP script to allow periodic cPanel backups automatically, optionally to a remote FTP server.
// This script contains passwords. KEEP ACCESS TO THIS FILE SECURE!
// Place it in your home directory (not www nor public_html).

// ***** THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS MUST BE CONFIGURED *****

// Info REQUIRED for cPanel access
$cpuser = "username"; // Username used to login to CPanel
$cppass = "password"; // Password used to login to CPanel
$domain = "example.com"; // Domain name where CPanel is run
$skin = "x3"; // Set to cPanel skin you use (script won't work if it doesn't match)

// Notification information
$notifyemail = "you@example.com"; // Email address to send results

// Secure or non-secure mode
$secure = 0; // Set to 1 for SSL (requires SSL support)

// Set to 1 to have web page result appear in your cron log
$debug = 0;

// ***** DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE *****

if ($secure) {
   $url = "ssl://".$domain;
   $port = 2083;
} else {
   $url = $domain;
   $port = 2082;
}

$socket = fsockopen($url,$port);
if (!$socket) { echo "Failed to open socket connection… Bailing out!\n"; exit; }

// Encode authentication string
$authstr = $cpuser.":".$cppass;
$pass = base64_encode($authstr);

// Make POST to cPanel
fputs($socket,"POST /frontend/".$skin."/backup/dofullbackup.html HTTP/1.0\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Host: $domain\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Authorization: Basic $pass\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Connection: Close\r\n");
fputs($socket,"\r\n");

// Grab response even if we don't do anything with it.
while (!feof($socket)) {
  $response = fgets($socket,4096);
  if ($debug) echo $response;
}

fclose($socket);

?>

Save this as fullbackup.php in your home directory (one above public_html). Enter a new standard cron job with this command to run:

php /home/your-username/fullbackup.php

(Be sure to replace your-username with your actual cPanel username.)

Also, be sure to schedule your backup about once or twice a week. If you schedule the backups too often, you may cause downtime on your server.

Regularly scheduled full-backup which sends results to a Remote Server via FTP

The script below is exactly the same, except that the backup file CANNOT be saved on the same account. Rather, you must deliver the backup file to a different computer or server.

<?php

// PHP script to allow periodic cPanel backups automatically, optionally to a remote FTP server.
// This script contains passwords. KEEP ACCESS TO THIS FILE SECURE!
// Place it in your home directory (not www nor public_html).

// ***** THE FOLLOWING SETTINGS MUST BE CONFIGURED *****

// Info REQUIRED for cPanel access
$cpuser = "username"; // Username used to login to CPanel
$cppass = "password"; // Password used to login to CPanel
$domain = "example.com"; // Domain name where CPanel is run
$skin = "x3"; // Set to cPanel skin you use (script won't work if it doesn't match)

// Info REQUIRED for REMOTE FTP host
$ftpuser = "ftpusername"; // Username for FTP account
$ftppass = "ftppassword"; // Password for FTP account
$ftphost = "ftp.example.com"; // Full hostname or IP address for FTP host
$ftpmode = "ftp"; // FTP mode ("ftp" for active, "passiveftp" for passive)

// Notification information
$notifyemail = "you@example.com"; // Email address to send results

// Secure or non-secure mode
$secure = 0; // Set to 1 for SSL (requires SSL support)

// Set to 1 to have web page result appear in your cron log
$debug = 0;

// ***** DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE *****

if ($secure) {
   $url = "ssl://".$domain;
   $port = 2083;
} else {
   $url = $domain;
   $port = 2082;
}

$socket = fsockopen($url,$port);
if (!$socket) { echo "Failed to open socket connection… Bailing out!\n"; exit; }

// Encode authentication string
$authstr = $cpuser.":".$cppass;
$pass = base64_encode($authstr);

$params = "dest=$ftpmode&email=$notifyemail&server=$ftphost&user=$ftpuser&pass=$ftppass&submit=Generate Backup";

// Make POST to cPanel
fputs($socket,"POST /frontend/".$skin."/backup/dofullbackup.html?".$params." HTTP/1.0\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Host: $domain\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Authorization: Basic $pass\r\n");
fputs($socket,"Connection: Close\r\n");
fputs($socket,"\r\n");

// Grab response even if we don't do anything with it.
while (!feof($socket)) {
  $response = fgets($socket,4096);
  if ($debug) echo $response;
}

fclose($socket);

?>

Same file name and cron job as above.