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Backup generic system and server config files

Besides cPanel accounts, JetBackup can also backup generic system files & folders on the server. This is very useful if you want to backup important files and server config files that are not directly related to cPanel accounts. In the following screenshot, we created a directories job that will backup important folders on a cPanel server. The job is scheduled to be executed right after the full accounts backup job finishes.

Including generic system and server config files

In order to backup specific files/folders from your cPanel server, you would need to choose either a "Directories" or "Replicate" backup type. Click on Backup Job Types for more information.

Here is a base list of files/folders we recommend to include on your backup job. This is a generic list -- please see the next section if you'd like to generate a list automatically that's unique to your cPanel version/setup.

/etc/cpanel
/etc/proftpd
/etc/ssl
/etc/valiases
/etc/vdomainaliases
/etc/vfilters
/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/mailman
/var/cpanel
/var/lib/rpm
/var/lib/mysql
/var/named
/var/spool/cron
/etc/dovecot/sni.conf
/etc/exim.conf
/etc/exim.conf.local
/etc/exim.conf.localopts
/etc/fstab
/etc/group
/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/ips
/etc/localdomains
/etc/mail/sni/map
/etc/my.cnf
/etc/named.conf
/etc/passwd
/etc/pure-ftpd.conf
/etc/quota.conf
/etc/remotedomains
/etc/reservedipreasons
/etc/reservedips
/etc/rndc.conf
/etc/secondarymx
/etc/shadow
/etc/wwwacct.conf
/root/.my.cnf
/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
/etc/rc.d/rc.local
/etc/sysconfig/network
/etc/resolv.conf

You can copy this list and use it for your own backup jobs. Note that “/var/lib/mysql” folder will backup the entire mysql directory. This will backup the mysql folder “as is”, without proper mysql dumps. This backup type should be used only to recover from disaster, when the mysql dumps are not useful.

Use cPanel to Generate a list of Includes and Excludes

Using cPanel/WHM, you can generate a comprehensive list of ALL potential system files/configs on a cPanel/WHM environment. Please note that each individual cPanel server may vary depending on the software/features you have installed and NOT all paths in the list generated may exist on your server.

Files/Folders to Include

The following command will generate a list of files and folders to INCLUDE in your backup job.

You can choose the "Prepared" tab for a customized command to output in a format that's easy to copy/paste into your backup job INCLUDES. You can choose the raw output if you'd like to do this yourself.

/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl -MCpanel::Backup::SystemResources -MData::Dumper -e'print Dumper( Cpanel::Backup::SystemResources::get_resource_paths() )'

/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl -MCpanel::Backup::SystemResources -MData::Dumper -e'print Dumper( Cpanel::Backup::SystemResources::get_resource_paths() )' | awk '/\//{print $1}' | tr -d "\'",","

Sample Output:

$VAR1 = {
         'files' => [
                     '/etc/apache2/conf/httpd.conf',
                     '/etc/dovecot/sni.conf',
[...]
-TRUNCATED-

Files/Folders to Exclude

The following command will generate a list of files and folders to EXCLUDE from your backup job.

You can choose the "Prepared" tab for a customized command to output in a format that's easy to copy/paste into your backup job EXCLUDES. You can choose the raw output if you'd like to do this yourself.

/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl -MCpanel::Backup::SystemResources -MData::Dumper -e'print Dumper( Cpanel::Backup::SystemResources::get_excludes_args_by_path("/var/cpanel") )'

/usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl -MCpanel::Backup::SystemResources -MData::Dumper -e'print Dumper( Cpanel::Backup::SystemResources::get_excludes_args_by_path("/var/cpanel") )' | awk '{print "/var/cpanel/" substr($3,12)}' | cut -d\' -f 1