Operations5 min read
Backups that actually restore
Why a backup on the same disk is not a backup, what happens to yours when a server is deleted, and how to test a restore before you need one.
Everybody sells backups. Far fewer will tell you where they are kept, and that is the only part that decides whether they help on the day something goes wrong.
A copy on the same disk is not insurance
An archive stored on the same storage pool as the thing it protects covers exactly one failure: you deleting your own world. It covers nothing about the disk, the pool or the machine. That is why ours are pulled off the machine they protect.
Deleting a server deletes its backups
Deliberately, and including locked ones. A lock stops you deleting a backup by accident; it is not a claim on the disk after the server is gone. If you are cancelling, download what you want to keep first - the panel lets you, from the same list.
A backup nobody has restored is a hypothesis. Restore one into a test server occasionally; it takes ten minutes and it is the only way to know.
How many you get
Every plan carries slots - two on the entry tiers and more further up - and they are taken on demand or on a schedule you set. Restoring is a button, not a support ticket.