Back up an account in the panel

Overview

This article walks you through backing up your entire DreamHost account in the panel. This is a simple way to back up your entire account, including all users, databases, and mailboxes.

Creating the backup

To back up your account in the panel:

1. Visit the Manage Account page.
2. Scroll down to the Back Up Your Account section.
3. Click the Create a Backup button to open the panel backup page.
4. Click the Back me up! button.

The backup process begins and takes some time to complete based on how much content there is to back up. You will be notified via email once this is completed.

How to download backups

Once the backup is created, you can download it to your computer using a browser or the command line.

The notification email you receive links you back to the Backup Your Account page in the panel, where you can view details like the following:

Each of the backups are listed as a .tar.gz or .sql.gz file and are available for 14 days to download locally.

• Mail users: mail/user@example.com.tar.gz
• Databases: mysql/databasename.sql.gz
• Users: user/servername_username.tar.gz

Downloading in a browser

Click each file link one at a time to download to your computer. Unfortunately, it is not possible to download all the files at once.

Downloading via command line

You can download these files directly to your computer using curl.

1. In a browser, right-click the backup link in the panel. In this example, it's the user/servername_username.tar.gz file.
2. From the popout menu, choose Copy Link Location/Address.
3. Paste this into a simple text editor to save for now. It will be a very long URL.
4. Open a terminal (if you're using Mac or Linux) or command prompt (if using Windows).
5. Run the curl command to download the file using the following syntax:

   curl --insecure --output FILENAME.tar.gz "COPIED_LINK_LOCATION"
   

   Note the following

   • The FILENAME.tar.gz is one of the file names in your panel on the Backup Your Account page. Make sure you DO NOT include the first part of the filename before the forward slash. For example, if the link in the panel is user/servername_username.tar.gz, the filename would just be servername_username.tar.gz.
   • The COPIED_LINK_LOCATION is the link you copied when you right-clicked the filename and saved to a text file. Make sure you place the full URL in double quotes. If you do not, the command will not download the file.

   Here is a complete example:

   [server]$ curl --insecure --output servername_username.tar.gz "https://objects-us-east-1.dream.io/accountbackup/1358572/2024-04-09-SLRG8WEQ57K6CQTE/user/server_username.tar.gz?AWSAccessKeyId=2XoecBOZcL8WQXo9DT9E&Signature=9HWxQE28LaYxxGXX6NsvcEELAwE%3D&Expires=1451659279"

How to decompress the downloaded files

The downloaded files are in a compressed .tar.gz or .sql.gz file format. You can decompress them using a tool or the command line.

Using software tools

Windows

If you're using a Windows computer, you'll need a program to decompress the file type, such as 7-Zip.

macOS

Just double-click the file on a Mac to extract its contents.

Using the command line

If you're using a Mac or Linux computer, you can run the following command to decompress the .tar.gz file:

[local]$ tar -zxvf user\@example.com.tar.gz

If the file has a .sql.gz extension, run the following to unzip:

[local]$ gunzip databasename.sql.gz

See also

• Manually backing up website data
• How do I restore my website?
• Backup or restore your Dedicated site files
• WordPress backup tools