How to backup your website

Backup of Joomla! website is not only the part of its security strategy and the way to restore a broken or hacked site, it also makes possible to transfer a Joomla! website on a different server and may be used for other user purposes. You can follow several ways to make it: to create backup manually through hosting panel or use special backup component for Joomla!

Akeeba Backup component enables you to create a backup of Joomla! site (both files and database) and to move it on any server meeting the Joomla! requirements. This product comes as free and pro version.

How to create a backup with Akeeba Backup

To download this component, you need to go to the author's website (see URL above) and choose the latest stable version.

Install

Installing Akeeba Backup is similar to any other Joomla! extension. Access your website administrator area and select Extensions → Extension Manager → Install.

If you want to change the language for Akeeba, it’s easy to download the language pack directly from the page “Akeeba Backup Language Files” and install it like any other extension.

Akeeba Backup is now installed on your website. To access the Akeeba control panel, go to Components → Akeeba Backup.

When you access the control panel for the first time, you will be forwarded to the post-installation configuration and general information page. There is no need to change the default configuration, just click the Accept the mandatory information and apply preferences button.

Taking A Backup

Now you will need to browse to the 'Akeeba Backup' component by selecting 'Components' -> 'Akeeba Backup’.

By default a backup profile exists already and backups everything including your database and all the files within your web-space. To take a backup of your whole website (and database) you should click the 'Backup Now' button. Nothing can be easier – just browse to the 'Akeeba Backup' component and click the 'Backup Now' button.

Once you click the 'Backup Now' button they will take you to a progress screen showing all the steps that are involved with the backup and the stage Akeeba Backup is currently at.

Note: After you had backed-up your website you should download or store the backup files off and away from your server. If your server is down for a long time you won't be able to get access to your backup and find alternative hosting for your site if needed.

The user can also set several configuration settings within 'Akeeba Backup' from sending the backup to the 'cloud', from disallowing some folders within your web-space or even disallowing some database tables. It’s also useful to read component author's documentation about his extensions by clicking here.

How To Restore Akeeba Backup archive

Restoring website from the backup is quite simple and won’t take long. This process is launched by Akeeba Kickstart, which you can download for free by clicking here.

Step 1

After creating a backup you should put it to a safe place and to install it on local or another sever for testing and making sure the backup is complete. Your backup is stored in a .jpa archive like: backup20141028-113420.jpa.

You can transfer the backup through your Back-end → Components → Akeeba Backup → Manage Backups → Manage & Download, though this way is not considered the best one.

You can also transfer your backup through hosting panel or FTP. There are 2 ways to do this: you should connect to your server via a FTP client or go in files manager of hosting panel and access the folder that you configured in the option "Backup Directory". If you didn't change this directory, you will find your backups in administrator/components/com_akeeba/backup.

You also need to upload Akeeba Kickstart to your web space. The files that should be uploaded are 'kickstart.php' and the specific language file that you need (in this tutorial it’s English) will be en-GB.kickstart.ini file.

Files to be uploaded to your web space:

All the files that Akeeba Backup produced of your website and database 'kickstart.php' language file ('en-GB.kickstart.ini' or another one for a chosen language).

Step 2

After uploading the files to your web space you should go to the following URL:

http://mysite.com/kickstart.php (keep in mind that ‘mysite.com’ should be changed to your real domain name).

By going to the above location you will launch the extraction process.

After you finish reading the information and click the 'Click here or press ESC to close this message', the below screen will appear.

Step 3

Then you need to click the 'Start' button that you will see at the bottom of the first main screen. This will launch extraction process which will extract all of the files from '.jpa' file and add an installation folder that may be used later in the next extraction stage.

As soon as the extraction process is finished, the final fourth step comes, 'Restoration and Clean Up' screen with the 'RUN THE INSTALLER' button.

Step 4

Once you click the 'RUN THE INSTALLER' button, you will see a new tab within your browser launching the installation process.

The first stage of the installation process shows all the recommended settings and the actual settings configured on your server.

At the top right of the screen you will see the 'Next' button, clicking it will take you to the database restore step. Then the database details are to be entered, these can be the same details as you enter for the installation process (in case you are restoring the backup on the same server) or the different ones if you have moved your website to another server.

A dialog box will 'pop up' with the status of the database import process.

The next screen will enable you to configure some of the site settings, e.g. 'Site Name, Site e-mail address, Live site URL' and others. In most cases these settings needn’t to be changed so you can just click the 'Next' button located in the top right of the screen.

That means the completion of the restoration process, and now you can close your current tab. Now go back to the original tab and click the 'CLEAN Up' button, this will remove the 'installation' folder and your website will go back to normal.

Clicking the 'CLEAN UP' button will take you either to the 'Front End' or the 'Administrator area' of your website at your option.