Setting up offsite backups to Amazon S3 (dedicated VPS)

First enable backups from WHM

1. Log into WHM (probably https://server.yourmaindomain.com:2087)
2. Left side, click on Backup > Backup Configuration
3. Check Enable Backups.
4. Choose Compressed.
5. Scheduling and Retention – we recommend backing up only Weekly (super early Sunday morning) and Monthly (any day you like). It’s best to do during the lowest traffic periods. For daily backups, we recommend installing UpDraft directly on your most critical sites.
6. Files – check Back up User Accounts, Back up Suspended Accounts, and Back up System Files. The others can be ignored.
7. Configure the Backup Directory – uncheck Retain Backups in the Default Backup Directory as this wastes tons of server space. It’s fine to leave it if your sites are small and only take up 5-10% of entire server space.
8. Click Save Configuration.

Enabling Amazon S3 as an additional destination

1. At the top, click on the Additional Destinations tab.
2. Enter any Destination Name you want. It’s only descriptive label. (E.g. “XYZ Company S3”)
3. Check Transfer System Backups to this Destination.
4. In Bucket, enter the bucket name. You should have already created this is S3.
5. Enter in the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key for your AWS account. (You can get these from your AWS Management Console, click your user name at the top-right of the page, then Security Credentials and then Access Credentials section.)
6. Click Save and Validate Destination.
7. In the random occasion that the S3 destination doesn’t validate and you’re absolutely *sure* you’ve put in the proper settings, we’ve noticed it helps to wait one week, then come back and try again and it’ll magically work. This seems to be the case for brand new AWS accounts.