How to create a backup of your site and restore it?
You can create a backup of your site quite easily. Account backups can be performed using the cPanel -> Backups functionality for your hosting account. If your account is not too big in size (under 500Mb) you can perform a full account backup just with one click.
If the account is too large (over 500Mb) for the full automatic backup the files and the databases should be backed up separately. In this case you would need to know what your web site consists of and thus what should be backed up/restored. Sites consist of files and databases. You must take care of them all if you want to have your site exactly the way it has been before.
How to backup/restore your files?
In order to backup your files, you should download all the files from your public_html folder to your computer using your favorite FTP client. After that you can easily upload back the files to your hosting account and your website will be restored.
How to backup/restore your database?
Once having all the files on your computer, you should make a dump of your MySQL database. Click here to learn how to backup/restore your MySQL database.
You may also request an affordable backup creation of your whole account by posting a ticket from the Exclusive Professional Services tab inside your Help Desk area.
The FTP management allows a user to do many different tasks involving FTP accounts. This includes creating FTP accounts, removing accounts, anonymous FTP access, FTP session control and more.
All files on UNIX (including Linux and other UNIX variants) machines have access permissions. In this way the operating system knows how to deal with requests to access the files. There are three types of access:
Read - Denoted as r, files with read access can be displayed to the user.
Write - Denoted as w, files with write access can be modified by the user.
Execute - Denoted as x, files with execute access can be executed as programs by the user.
Access types are set for three types of user group:
User - The owner of the file.
Group - Other files which are in the same folder or group.
World - Everyone else.
The web server needs to be able to read your web pages in order to be able to display them in a browser. The following permissions need to be set in order for your web site to function properly.
All HTML files and images need to be readable by others. The value for this is 644 (readable by User, Group and World, and writable by User). It is set automatically when you upload files.
All folders need to be executable by others. The value for this is 755 (readable by User, Group and World, writable by User, executable by User, Group and World). It is set automatically when you create a folder.
All CGI files (all files in the cgi-bin folder) need to be executable by other. The value for this is 755 (readable by User, Group, and World, writable by User, executable by User, Group, and World). It is not set automatically when you upload files. You need to change file permissions manually.
Step 1: Open your File Manager and navigate to the file or folder that you need to change.
Step 2: Click on the name of the file or folder.
Step 3: Click on the Change Permissions link in the top menu of the File Manager page.
Step 4: Click on as many check boxes as you require to create the right permission. The permission numbers underneath the check boxes will update automatically.
Step 5: Click on the Change Permissions button when you are ready. The new permission level is saved and the display updated to show the modified file.
To access the File Manager click on the corresponding icon in the Files section of your cPanel.
Then you will be able to pick the directory for which to open File Manager:
The File Manager appears as follows:
Creating a new folder
Folders are a very useful way of adding an organization and a structure to your account. They make the maintenance of the site much easier. You can easily list the files in every folder. Most web sites include at least an /image folder to keep all the image files separately.
STEP 1Click on the New Folder link.
STEP 2Enter the name of the new folder and define the location where it will be created.
STEP 3Click on the Create New Folder button. The new folder will appear in the chosen location.
Uploading files in File Manager
You can start uploading files through File Manager by clicking on the Upload icon.
How to upload files in File Manager:
STEP 1Navigate to the folder where you want to upload your files.
STEP 2Click on the Upload icon.
STEP 3Click on the Browse button next to one of the top fields.
STEP 4Search for and double-click on the first file to upload. The upload will start automatically.
STEP 5Repeat the above steps for each file you want to upload.
STEP 6: Click on the Overwrite existing files check box if you want to overwrite existing files with the same name.
You can download files from the server to your personal computer through the Download option.
You can copy and move files between the account's folders through the Copy and Move File functionalities. You can Rename and Delete the existing files through the corresponding options.
Creating a new file
For small files it can be easier to create them online rather than on your home computer.
To create a new file please follow the steps listed below:
STEP 1Step 1: Click on the New File link.
STEP 2Enter the name of the file to be created. Please mind to add the correct extension. For example if you create a Perl file, the extension will be .pl.
STEP 3Pick the destination where the file should be saved and click on the Create New File button. The file is created.
Editing a file
Editing an existing file through the File Manager allows you to make immediate changes to your web site without having to upload a new version of the file. This is useful for small changes but would be inefficient for large alterations. To edit a file please follow the steps below:
STEP 1Navigate to the folder where the file is located.
STEP 2Click on the name of the file.
STEP 3Click on the Edit link in the top menu of your window. This will open a new window with the content of the file displayed.
STEP 4Alter the text of the file.
STEP 5Click on the Save Changes button when you are ready. The file is saved and the changes will take effect from now on.
You can use more sophisticated editors as the Code Editor and the HTML Editor. You can also click on the View link in the File Manager main menu. The file will be opened for reading and you will not be able to edit it.
Extracting/Compressing a file
You can extract archive files using the Extract function.
You can also create your own archives. Select the files and folders which you want to include in the archive, click Compress and then Compress File(s).
cPanel comes with several tools that provide the customers with detailed statistics. In this section we will give you a brief description of their functionality.
Bandwidth - here you can check the bandwidth usage of your account.
Webalizer - this is a complex statistics program which visualizes the visits to the web site in graphics and charts.
Webalizer FTP - this is a complex statistics program which visualizes the visits to your account through the FTP protocol in graphics and charts.
Raw Access Logs - this tool provides you with the access log data in the way it was stored on the server, without any further modifications.
Analog Stats - this tool provides you with a list of all the people who have visited your web site for a specific month.
Error log - logs all errors generated by your web site. This tool allows you to determine if there is a problem with your web site pages and scripts.
Awstats - the most comprehensive visual statistics tool in cPanel. Lists the visits to your web site with many details.
On the left cPanel menu there is a Statistics section. There you can monitor the resource usage of your account.
The items are as follows:
Main Domain - your primary domain name is listed
Disk Space Usage - shows the disk space usage of your account in MB
Inode Usage - the total number of files and folders in your account
Monthly Transfer - shows the consumed monthly bandwidth by your account. It is a sum of the incoming and outgoing traffic
Email Accounts - the number of email accounts you have created
Subdomains - shows the number of created subdomains
Parked Domains - shows the number of parked domains under your account
Addon Domains - shows the number of addon domains attached to addon slots under your account
FTP Accounts - shows the number of FTP accounts under your account
All SQL Databases - shows the number of MySQL Databases created under your account
To see even more stats about your account, click the expand stats button. On the expanded space you will see:
CPU Time Usage - the amount of CPU time in seconds your scripts consume
Account Executions - the number of scripts executed per certain period of time
Detailed Statistics
To access the detailed statistics for your account and domain name, you can either click on the green Detailed Stats button in the left column, or through the SiteGround Account Stats icon in the Visitor Stats section.
Once you go to the Detailed Stats page, you will see multiple stats for your account and domain names separated into two different tabs.
Account Executions and Scripts
In this tab, you will see information about the most commonly executed scripts in your entire account. The graphic can show the Script Executions and the CPU Usage graphs. You can switch between daily and weekly mode too in order to find out when your account is accessed the most.
Under the graphic, you will see the list of Top 10 Executed Scripts.
It will allow you to quickly find out which scripts your site is executing the most and if you have some sort of a performance issue, to pinpoint the exact script that's causing it.
Domain Hits Stats
In this tab, you can see detailed stats for each one of the domain names you have associated with your account.
First, you will see top 10 IP addresses that have accessed your site. This information is usually useful to detect DOS or Brute Force attacks agains your domain name.
Next, you can see the most popular URLs for this domain name. That's another useful stat that can both show you the most popular pages or potential problems.
Finally, the User Agent table will show you the different browsers or robots that have accessed this domain name. It's extremely useful to detect spam bots for example.
The Account Information section is located on the down left part of the cPanel main page.There you can find important information about your hosting account.
The details are as follows:
Hosting Package - Shows the name of your hosting account package.
IP Address - Shows the main IP address of the server where your account is hosted. If you have a Dedicated IP address set for your account, it will be listed in this field.
Server Name - Shows the hostname of the server where your account is hosted.
Name Servers - Shows the name servers (NS records) of the SiteGround server where your account is hosted.
Home Directory - This is the absolute path to your account's home directory.Theme - Shows the theme for the cPanel software.Operating System - Shows the OS set on your hosting server.Server Time - Shows the server time including the corresponding time zone.Program Paths - Shows the paths to your home and web root folders and to programs which are essential for your web site functionality.
