This tutorial will cover the information on how to manually restore a cPanel backup (sites, databases and emails). It will help you to protect your data and will allow you to merge/separate a few cPanel accounts.
There is no automated way to separate/merge a few cPanel accounts or to restore the partial backups. So you might need to restore them manually.
If you have a Stellar Plus or Stellar Business plan, you can download the full cPanel backup using the
AutoBackup plugin. As for Stellar, our
24/7 Live Chat can provide you with the link to download the backup.
Legend
domain.com – primary domain associated with your cPanel account
addon.com – domain added as an addon to the same cPanel account
domain.com has a Prestashop (popular e-commerce engine) installed on it and WordPress (blog engine) on addon.com
Below you will find an easy step-by-step example with the general tips to do so:
1. Files restoration
2. Databases restoration
3. Updating configuration files
4. Emails restoration
1. Files
Let’s take a look at the situation where you have a full cPanel backup on PC.
Upload the
backup-11.23.2016_06-28-49_domain.tar.gz to your home folder via
FTP.
Keep in mind that the .tar.gz files might be not recognized by Windows OS by default. They can, however, be extracted with almost any featured archivers such as
7-Zip
or
WinRar.
You can also load the backup directly to your cPanel account if your disk space allows you to. You will need to run the following command in the
Terminal menu of your cPanel account:
wget https://domain.tld/path-to-file/
You can copy the link directly from the AutoBackup plugin to the terminal by right-clicking. Then, press Enter to run the file download:
Go to cPanel > Files section > File Manager menu.
Click on Settings button in the upper right corner, check the box for Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) and click Save. If this option is not selected you will not be able to see hidden files and they will not be copied:
Next, select the backup file, right-click on it and choose Extract or click on the corresponding button in the top bar:
In the next pop-up window you will be able to specify the path to restore the archive to, and click on Extract files.
NOTE: You may extract the archive in some backup folder, in case files inside the archive are not organized in a folder or leave the path empty, and the files will be extracted in the same folder you have uploaded the backup:
You will see the extraction results table with the list of the restored files, just close it.
Now click on the Reload button on the top and you will see the newly created backup folder backup-11.23.2016_06-28-49_domain, let's open it:
There will be many different folders. The important are “mysql” and “homedir.” In the “mysql” directory, you can find the database dumps for your hosting account. In the other, “homedir,” the files can be found. Other directories store the information related to your hosting account such as cron jobs, SSL certificates, addon domains, some metadata about your account, etc.
Find the homedir, open it, there you will find your home folder:
Next, open the public_html folder:
It is the document root (folder with files) for domain.com, so it contains all Prestashop files. Also, there is a folder addon.com, which is the document root for addon.com domain with WordPress files.
So we can just copy everything to our home/user/public_html folder (which is currently empty).
Click on Select all, right-click and choose Copy:
In the pop-up window enter /public_html and click on the Copy files button:
Now you can check public_html folder, all the files should be already there:
2. Databases
Now let’s get back to the /backup-11.23.2016_06-28-49_domain folder as we need to restore the databases as well.
As soon as the files have been located, let's check which database is assigned to it. If your website does not use a database, this step is not necessary.
Each content management system (CMS) or framework has its own path where the connection to the database is established. Fortunately, these files are usually named as “config.php” or “settings.php.”
Below, you can find the default paths to the config files for various CMS and frameworks.
Application name
| Path to the config file
|
|---|
WordPress
| website_directory/wp-config.php
|
Joomla
| website_directory/configuration.php
|
PrestaShop
| website_directory/app/config/parameters.php
or
website_directory/config/settings.inc.php
|
Moodle
| website_directory/config.php
|
Laravel
| website_directory/.env
|
Codeigniter
| website_directory/application/config/database.php
|
Drupal
| website_directory/sites/default/settings.php
|
OpenCart
| website_directory/config.php
|
MediaWiki
| website_directory/localsettings.php
|
WHMCS
| website_directory/configuration.php
|
In case your CMS or web framework is not listed in the above table, we suggest looking for a file similar to the one which has some configurations inside. These files are usually named as “config.php”, “configuration.php”, “db.php”, “database.php”, “settings.php” and are easy to find.
Find the mysql folder and open it:
You will see some .sql files. These are backups of your mysql databases. They will be named respectively to your domain name. Hereinafter we will use nctests_pres574.sql (Prestashop database) and nctests_wp369.sql (WordPress database) as examples.
Let’s right-click on them (one per time) and download to our PC:
Now we need to restore them. There are several ways to do this:
1. Restoration from cPanel > Backups menu:
Choose the previously downloaded .sql file on your PC and click Upload.
Then you will need to create a database, user and add the user to the database in cPanel > MySQL databases menu (you can use the same database user and password or create new).
Create a database:
Create a database user (save the password, we will need it later):
Add the user to the database, in the pop-up window check the option All Privileges and click on save changes:
If everything is correct, you will be able to see your newly created database with the assigned user:
If you need more detailed information, refer to this guide.
2. Restoration from cPanel > phpMyAdmin menu.
You can follow it if you are not familiar with SSH and your database size is less than 1 GB.
At first, you need to create the database, database user and password MySQL Databases menu. We have already done but the database itself is still empty.
Now open cPanel > phpMyAdmin menu:
Click on + on the left of the cPanel username and click on the database name:
Click on Import in the right top bar and browse to the corresponding .sql file on your PC (here nctests_pres574.sql):
Scroll down and click Go to start the import. You will see a green notification that your database was successfully imported. If you need more detailed information, refer to this guide.
You will need to go through the same process in order to upload a database for addon.com.
3. Restoration via SSH
For SSH instructions, please read them
here. The command you should run for importing would be as follows:
mysql -u nctest_example_dbuser_restored -p nc_test_example_sitedb_restored < /home/nctest/backup/mysql/nctest_example_sitedb.sql
3. Database configuration files
We are almost done. The last step is to update the configuration files of WordPress and Prestashop with the correct database details.
Browse public_html folder and find the config folder:
Open it, select settings.inc.php (Prestashop config file with database details) file, right-click on it and choose Edit:
Find the following 3 lines and make sure that they have valid data:
That’s all for Prestashop, now it’s needed to perform the similar changes with WordPress.
Open the restored public_html folder and browse to addon.com folder, find the WordPress wp-config.php file, which contains database details. Select it, right-click and choose Edit:
Find the following 3 lines and make sure they have valid data (database name, user and password), change the characters inside quotes if needed and save the file:
If your domain is already pointed to the hosting server, you will be able to open domain.com or addon.com in the browser and see Wordpress/Prestashop up and running.
4. Emails
In case you had some important emails, you will be able to restore them from a full cPanel backup as well.
For example, we had an email account admin@domain.com with some emails and occasionally deleted it. But we have a full cPanel backup or Home folder backup.
First, it is necessary to recreate the same mailbox from cPanel > Email Accounts menu. You may refer to this guide.
Now, browse to the backup folder > homedir folder in File Manager menu and open the mail folder, select domain.com.
NOTE: It is necessary to turn Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) option on before copying any folders. Otherwise, hidden folders and files will not be copied. You can do that by clicking on Settings button in the upper right corner. Check the box for Show Hidden Files (dotfiles) and click Save:
See admin folder? It contains all our folders with emails:
Open it, click the Select all button and click Copy:
Then in the pop-up window put the following path /mail/domain.com/admin and click Copy files:
That’s all, check your emails via webmail or an email client.
Config files and folders may vary from one hosting provider/script template to another, but the main points remain the same.
If you cannot find the corresponding files or not sure what details to put, feel free to contact us via live chat or ticket using our HelpDesk.
