Protect your VPS with automatic backups
Your VPS contains applications, configurations, databases, and data. Bad updates, accidental deletions, or security incidents can undo hours or days of work.
Our backup service creates automatic daily backups stored separately from servers, providing recovery options when things go wrong.
Some call these “snapshots,” but they’re the same thing. We call them backups.
How it works
Every day, we create complete VPS backups:
- Full disk image: Everything on VPS is captured
- Automatic scheduling: Backups run daily without action required
- Separate storage system: Backups stored separately from ColossusCloud platform
- One-click restore: Restore entire VPS from any available backup
If something goes wrong (bad update, accidental deletion, security incident), roll back to previous states.
Where backups are stored
Backups are stored on dedicated storage systems not part of the ColossusCloud VPS platform. VPS infrastructure problems won’t affect backups.
Backups are stored in the same data center as VPS. They are not kept off-site. For off-site copies for disaster recovery or compliance, maintain your own copies in separate locations.
Backup plans
Two backup plans for VPS hosting:
Plan 1: 4-day retention
Lowest-cost backup plan keeping last 4 days of daily backups.
- 4 recovery points: Restore from any of last 4 days
- 2 permanent backups included: Create up to 2 permanent backups kept indefinitely
- Ideal for: Development servers, testing environments, applications where recent backups suffice
Plan 2: 30-day retention
For production workloads needing more recovery options:
- 30 recovery points: Restore from any of last 30 days
- 10 permanent backups included: Create up to 10 permanent backups kept indefinitely
- Ideal for: Production applications, e-commerce sites, databases needing weeks-old recovery
Permanent backups
Beyond automated daily backups, create permanent backups anytime. Included with backup plans (2 with Plan 1, 10 with Plan 2) at no additional cost.
Permanent backups:
- Never expire: Stay until deleted
- On-demand creation: Create whenever preserving current state
- Deployable: Use backups to deploy new VPS instances
- Multiple allowed: Keep several for different purposes (pre-upgrade, known-good configs, templates)
Use cases
Before major changes: About to upgrade OS or deploy major updates? Create backup first. If something breaks, known-good state is available.
Server templates: Configure VPS exactly as wanted, then back it up. Deploy new servers from that backup instead of configuring from scratch.
Clone your environment: Need staging matching production? Back up production VPS and deploy new VPS from that backup. Instant clone.
What gets backed up
Backups capture entire VPS disk:
- Operating system and all installed packages
- Application code and configurations
- Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, etc.)
- User files and directories
- System settings and cron jobs
Everything on VPS disk is included. Nothing to configure, nothing to exclude.
Database note
Databases present special challenges for disk-level backups. If databases are actively writing when backups run, backups might capture inconsistent states.
To protect against this:
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Configure frequent disk flushes: Most databases have settings controlling write frequency from memory to disk.
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Set up daily database dumps: Use tools like mysqldump or pg_dump to create consistent exports at least daily. Store dumps on VPS disk for automatic backup capture.
Backups are not downloadable
For security, backups aren’t available for download. Staff cannot provide direct backup file access.
Daily backups only restore VPS. Permanent backups restore VPS or deploy new instances. For downloadable data copies, install third-party backup software uploading to destinations you control (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, or own storage servers).
Explore VPS plans and add backup protection to servers.