How to Backup Your Website with DirectAdmin

Why Website Backups Are Essential

No matter the size of your website, maintaining regular backups is non-negotiable. Accidents happen at unexpected moments — a plugin update that breaks your site, an accidental file deletion, a hack, or even a hardware failure on the server side. Without a backup, any of these scenarios can mean losing everything you have built.

Here are the situations where a backup will save your website:

• A WordPress core, theme, or plugin update causes a white screen or fatal error
• A team member accidentally deletes files or database records
• Your site is compromised by malware or an attacker
• You need to migrate to a new host or clone the site to a staging environment
• A server hardware failure or storage corruption at the hosting level
• Rolling back after a code change that broke something

The golden rule of backups: create them before you need them — once disaster strikes, it is too late to back up.

Two Types of Backup You Need

A complete website backup consists of two separate components that must both be saved:

1. Website Files (File Backup)

This covers all files inside the public_html directory — PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, videos, theme files, plugins, and CMS core files. Backing up files preserves the look, feel, and functionality of your site.

2. MySQL Database (Database Backup)

For websites using a CMS like WordPress, all content — posts, pages, comments, product data, order history, and settings — lives in the MySQL database. Backing up files alone is not enough; without the database, a restore is incomplete.

How to Backup Website Files via DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin includes built-in backup tools that work right away — no extra software required. There are two main approaches:

Method 1: Backup via File Manager

Best for quick, targeted backups of specific folders or files:

1. Log in to DirectAdmin and open File Manager
2. Navigate to the public_html directory and click Select All
3. Click Compress (or Archive), choose .zip or .tar.gz format
4. Name the file with the date for easy identification — e.g., backup-2026-05-09.zip
5. Wait for the archive to be created, then download it to your local machine

Method 2: Backup via Create/Restore Backups

DirectAdmin has a dedicated Backup menu that can back up files, email accounts, and databases together:

1. From the DirectAdmin home screen, go to Advanced Features or Create/Restore Backups
2. Select what to include: Domains, Email, Databases
3. Click Create Backup — the system saves a backup file to the Backup Directory
4. Go to File Manager to download the completed backup file

How to Backup MySQL Database via phpMyAdmin

The database is the most critical component for WordPress sites and any site with substantial content. It must be backed up separately from the files:

1. In DirectAdmin, go to MySQL Management and click phpMyAdmin
2. Select the database you want to back up from the left-hand panel
3. Click the Export tab in the top navigation bar
4. Set Method to Quick and Format to SQL
5. Click Export (or Go) — the browser will download the .sql file immediately

For very large databases (over 100 MB), switch Method to Custom and enable gzip compression to reduce the file size significantly.

Backup Database Directly from MySQL Management

DirectAdmin also offers a built-in database backup option within MySQL Management. Select the database and click Backup Database — the system creates a compressed .sql.gz file ready to download, without opening phpMyAdmin.

How to Restore Your Website from a Backup

Knowing how to restore is just as important as knowing how to back up. Here is the process when something goes wrong:

Restore Website Files

1. Open File Manager in DirectAdmin
2. Optionally, rename the current public_html folder as a precaution before overwriting
3. Upload the .zip backup file to File Manager
4. Right-click the .zip file and select Extract
5. Confirm that the files are extracted into the correct public_html directory

Restore MySQL Database

1. Open phpMyAdmin and select the target database
2. If restoring over existing data, drop all tables first — or create a fresh database
3. Click the Import tab and select your .sql backup file
4. Click Import (or Go) and wait for the process to complete

After restoring the database, open your site in a browser. If content appears correctly, the restore was successful.

Manual Backup vs AsiaGB Automatic Backup

Relying on manual backups alone is risky because people forget. AsiaGB provides an automatic backup system for every customer at no additional cost.

AsiaGB Automatic Backup System

AsiaGB runs automatic backups twice per month — on the 1st and 15th of every month. Each backup captures both website files and the MySQL database, stored on separate storage from the live SSD your site runs on. These automatic backups are retained for 1 full year, giving you the ability to request a restore from any backup point within the past 12 months.

Manual Backup by the User

Beyond the automatic system, you can perform manual backups at any time through DirectAdmin using the methods described above. This is especially important before major changes — so you always have a backup more recent than the last scheduled automatic run.

Comparison at a Glance

• AsiaGB Auto Backup: Fully automatic, runs on the 1st and 15th, retained 1 year, covers files and DB, restore via support ticket
• Manual Backup: Run on demand, frequency is your choice, store anywhere you like, full control, restore immediately without waiting for support

The best approach is to use both: rely on AsiaGB's automatic backup as your safety net, and create manual backups before any significant work on the site.

WordPress-Specific Backup Tools

WordPress users have access to dedicated backup plugins that streamline the process beyond what DirectAdmin's built-in tools offer.

UpdraftPlus (Recommended)

The most widely used WordPress backup plugin. It supports scheduled automatic backups and can send them directly to Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, or FTP. The free version has enough features for most websites.

Setup: Install the plugin → go to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups → set a schedule (e.g. daily for DB, weekly for files) → choose remote storage → Save Changes.

All-in-One WP Migration

Primarily a migration plugin, but also functions well as a backup tool — it creates a single .wpress package containing both files and database, which is easy to restore later from the same plugin.

Backup Best Practices

Having a backup is only half the work — managing backups properly is the other half:

• Test your restores regularly — an untested backup may be corrupted. Restore to a staging environment at least once every three months to confirm the backup is valid
• Use descriptive file names — include the date, e.g. backup-files-2026-05-09.zip, so you can find the right version quickly
• Store backups in multiple locations — never keep the only copy on the same hosting account. Download to a local machine or cloud storage
• Apply a retention policy — delete old backups that are no longer needed, for example keeping only the most recent 4 copies, to avoid filling up disk space
• Always backup before major changes — PHP version changes, WordPress major updates, new themes, or large code deployments all warrant a fresh backup first