Backups, restore and cloning

Xagio > Backup & Restore backs up the whole site (files and database) or one part of it, and restores it later. Backups can stay on the server or go to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Amazon S3. Local backups work without a Xagio account. Xagio > Clone uses the same backup process to copy another site onto this one.

Create a backup now

Go to Xagio > Backup & Restore and open the Backup tab.
Choose Create Full Backup, Create Files Backup or Create Database Backup.
Choose where to save it: Local Backups, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Amazon S3.
Select Create Backup and confirm “This will create a new backup. Continue?”

Local backups appear in Local Backups, where you can download, restore or remove them. Cloud backups appear under Remote Backups after you choose the storage in View Backups from….

Connect cloud storage

Open the Backup Settings tab, then Backup Location Settings:

OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox: select Authorize Now and sign in to the service. Deauthorize disconnects it.
Amazon S3: enter the Access Key, Secret Key, Bucket Name and Region, then select Save & Verify.

Each shows Authorized or Not Authorized.

Schedule automatic backups

Under Automated Backup Settings:

Choose the Backup Location.
Choose the Backup Frequency: Never, Daily, Weekly or Monthly.
Choose Copies to keep: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 50. Older copies are removed.
On a cPanel main domain with addon domains inside it, turn on Backups Ignore Domains so their folders are left out.
Select Save Settings.

These settings also sync with your Xagio account when the site is connected. See Backups in the panel.

Check backup health

The Information panel shows:

Backup Grade: how reliably this server can run backups, out of 10. Select Refresh Grade to test again. Below 8, the plugin warns that backups may fail and suggests asking your host for a stronger plan.
Backup Estimated Size: sites over 1000 MB can fail from server or browser timeouts, especially behind Cloudflare.
Cloud Upload Hooks Status: cloud uploads are sent in chunks by WP-Cron every 10 seconds. If WP-Cron is disabled on your server, cloud backups do not finish.

Restore a site

Restoring replaces your current site with the backup. A full backup restores files and database, a files backup restores only files, and a database backup restores only the database.

Restore a stored backup

Go to Xagio > Backup & Restore.
Find the backup under Local Backups, or choose the storage in View Backups from… to list Remote Backups.
Select Restore this backup and confirm “This will restore the selected backup. Continue?”

Restore from a file

Open the Restore tab.
Drag the backup .zip file into Restore Website, or select it from your computer.

The file must be a Xagio backup. Xagio reads the file name to tell a full, files or database backup apart, so keep the original name.

A full backup must contain wp-content, mysql.zip and wp-config.php. When it finishes you see “Successfully restored full backup! Refreshing this page…”

Clone a site to a new domain

Xagio > Clone pulls a whole WordPress site from another URL onto the site you are on, and replaces the old domain with this site’s domain throughout the database. Run it on the new (empty) site, not on the one you are copying.

Before you clone

Both sites run the Xagio plugin, updated to the latest version.
Both sites are connected to the same Xagio account. The clone asks your Xagio account for the source site’s key, and it fails with “Retrieved domain is not activated for this account.” if the source site is not in your account.
Check the Cloning Requirements on the page for BOTH sites. They are soft requirements, so cloning can still work without them:
- PHP max_execution_time of at least 120 seconds.
- PHP memory_limit of at least 256 MB.
- PHP cURL and ZipArchive modules.
- Large sites behind Cloudflare or another CDN can time out during transfer.

Run the clone

On the new site, go to Xagio > Clone.
Under Clone Entire Website, enter the source site in Website to clone from…, for example https://abc.com.
Select Verify Connection. You see “Communication with … is successful. You can proceed with cloning.”
Tick I Understand, and I have checked the Requirements.
Select Start Cloning and confirm “This will completely override this website with the new data from the selected website!”
Wait while Xagio backs up the source, downloads the backup, and merges it into this site.

After cloning

Refresh the page to see the cloned site. The clone copies the source site’s users, then adds back the account you ran the clone with, so your current login keeps working. The source site’s users can also sign in with their own logins. The site’s Xagio connection is kept.

The success message says “Please use credentials(username and password) from cloned website in order to login to WordPress.” Both logins work: your current one and the source site’s.

Troubleshooting

Restore

“Unsupported file type. Please upload a Xagio backup file.”: upload the .zip created by Xagio.
“Failed to upload backup file! Make sure that PHP uploads are allowed on your server and maximum upload size is enough to support backup size.”: raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size, or restore from Local Backups instead.
“ZipArchive is not installed.”: ask your host to enable the PHP ZipArchive extension.
“Backup archive is damaged! Backup core file << … >> is missing from this archive…”: use a different, complete backup.
“Backup file does not exist.”: the local backup was removed. Pick another one.

Clone

“There was a problem communicating with … Make sure that xagio is updated to the latest version.”: update and connect Xagio on the source site, then verify again.
“Provided “url” argument is not an actual URL.“: enter the full address with https://.
“ZipArchive is not installed.”: ask your host to enable the PHP ZipArchive extension.
“There was a problem while downloading a copy of the Remote Website.” or “Backup either did not download properly…”: raise the PHP time and memory limits, pause Cloudflare, and try again.
“Failed to merge databases!”: restore this site from a backup and try again.