Local backup structure in Plesk for Linux

Question

What is the structure of the local backups in Plesk for Linux?

Answer

The Plesk backup storage is specified by the DUMP_D variable defined in the /etc/psa/psa.conf configuration file. The default location is /var/lib/psa/dumps.

• Each backup consists of:

  1. <info>.xml - file which contains settings of the server/reseller/customer/subscription, etc.
  2. <backup>.<tar|tgz|tzst> - archived backup files which include website content, databases, etc.
  3. The directory .discovered , which contains backup's technical information.

• Backup objects hierarchy is the following:

  Warning: Modifying Plesk backup structure is not recommended.

  1. Root backup directory where server backups, daily dumps, subdirectories with backups of resellers, clients, and domains, etc. are stored:

     /var/lib/psa/dumps/
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered

  2. Subdirectory domains/ where backups of domains owned by the Plesk admin and objects owned by the domains are stored:

     /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/databases/
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/sites/<domain.name>

  3. Subdirectory clients/ where client's owned by admin and objects owned by the clients are stored:

     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/sites/<domain.name>

     Directories are identified by the customer's login and the domain name.

  4. Subdirectory resellers/ where backups of resellers, their clients, domains and other objects owned by resellers and resellers' clients are stored:

     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/domains/<reseller.domain>
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/domains/<reseller.domain>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/.discovered
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>
     /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/.discovered

     The repositories are identified by reseller login, reseller's domain name, customer login and customer's domain name.

• To distinguish files belonging to different backups of the same object, a specific prefix and suffix are added to the file names:

  • The backup is added by default.

  • A suffix designating the backup creation date is always added to each backup file, and the date format is <yymmddhhmm>.

    Note: For example, the files of a backup created on 29 May 2021, 03:08 PM…