How to Backup Your Enhance v12 Backups (Full System Restore)

Backups are meant to protect against worst-case scenarios, but how confident are you that your Enhance v12 backup server can be fully recovered if it’s completely lost? In this guide, we’re not just backing up our backups—we’re deleting the backup server entirely and restoring everything from scratch.

If you rely on Enhance for hosting, this method ensures that your backup system is bulletproof. Whether it’s a hardware failure, accidental deletion, or a migration to a new server, you’ll be able to bring everything back exactly as it was with minimal effort.

Key Features :

– Securely back up your Enhance v12 backups to a remote server.
– Ability to sync only selected sites.
– Ability to exclude specific sites from the backup.
– Seamlessly restore your entire backup infrastructure without skipping a beat.

Let’s get started.

Before You Begin: Important Notes

1- Ensure Both Servers Have the Same Time Zone
Mismatched time zones can cause rsync to keep syncing metadata unnecessarily, leading to performance issues. Run this on both servers to check:

timedatectl

If they don’t match, update the timezone:

timedatectl set-timezone [Your/Timezone]

2- Set Up Password-less SSH Login
For smooth operation, ensure the local server can SSH into the remote server without a password. Run a manual test before you begin.

3- Tested on Enhance-Powered ext4 Servers
This guide was tested on two Enhance v12 servers using the ext4 filesystem. Your setup may vary if you’re using a different filesystem.

4- Use the Same Backup Directory Name on Both Servers
Make sure that the backup directories on both the local and remote servers have the same name.

Step 1: Run a Dry Run of the Backup

Before committing to a full sync, let’s simulate the backup process to verify everything works as expected:

./enhance_backup_sync.sh --dry-run

This will display the files that would be transferred but won’t make any actual changes.

Step 2: Perform the Backup

If everything looks good, proceed with the actual backup:

./enhance_backup_sync.sh

This script will:

• Sync all backups from /backups to the remote server.
• Ensure users and permissions match on the remote system.
• Preserve all snapshot-*, wip-snapshot-*, and the current symlink.

Once complete, your Enhance backups are now safely stored remotely.

Step 3: Add a New Backup Server

Now, we’ll create a completely new backup server.

1. Deploy a new Enhance-powered server.
2. Add it to your Enhance cluster.
3. Assign the Backup Role to it.

Right now, this new backup server has no backups—just an empty backup role.

Step 4: Decommission and Delete the Backup Server

Now, let’s go all-in and delete the backup server to prove this system works.

1. In the Enhance control panel, navigate to your backup server settings.
2. Click the three-dot menu and select Mark as Decommissioned.
3. Confirm the action (this cannot be undone!).
4. When the server appears in the ‘Decommissioned’ server group, select Restore websites. This will take you to the ‘Move server’ page with all the website on the decommissioned server preselected. From here you can select the new backup sever for the websites.
5. Once migration to new backup server is done, delete the old backup server entirely.

At this point, your backups no longer exist. If you check the Enhance UI, you’ll see that all backups are gone.

Step 5: Restore All Backups to the New Server

Here comes the fun part. We’ll now restore everything from the remote backup server:

./enhance_backup_sync.sh --restore

This will:

• Restore all snapshot-*, wip-snapshot-*, and current symlink.
• Ignore all other system files (like .profile & .bashrc ..etc) to prevent breaking Enhance’s backup system.
• Ensure your backup data is restored exactly as it was before deletion.

Step 6: Verify That Backups Are Fully Restored

Go back to the Enhance UI and check the Backups section. You should now see all your backups fully restored just as they were before.

To confirm everything works:

• Try creating a new backup manually—it should save successfully.
• Restore a previously deleted website backup—it should restore without issues.

And just like that, your backup server is fully recovered, proving that this disaster recovery method works perfectly.

Conclusion

Disasters happen, but losing your backups shouldn’t be one of them. With this script, you can confidently:

• Backup your Enhance v12 backups securely to a remote server.
• Decommission and completely replace your backup server without worries.
• Restore your entire backup infrastructure smoothly and reliably.

We’ve battle-tested this process in real-world scenarios, making sure your Enhance v12 backups remain bulletproof even in the most extreme cases.

Ready to bulletproof your Enhance backups? Download the script and start protecting your hosting infrastructure today.