How to change the location for Plesk backup files on a Linux server

Question

How to change the location for Plesk backup files in Linux?

Answer

By default, all backup data is stored in the directory /var/lib/psa/dumps.

To change the default backup location, follow these steps:

1. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.

2. Create a new directory for backups. In these example, we are using /plesk_backups:

   # mkdir /plesk_backups

3. Set necessary ownership for the created directory:

   # chown psaadm:psaadm /plesk_backups
   # chmod 755 /plesk_backups

4. Modify the backup location in the Plesk configuration file /etc/psa/psa.conf:

   4.1. Open the file /etc/psa/psa.conf in a text editor. In this example, we are using the vi editor:

   # vi /etc/psa/psa.conf

   4.2. Change the value of DUMP_D to the created directory from step 2:

   # Backups directory
   DUMP_D /plesk_backups

   4.3. Save the changes and close the file.

   4.4. Verify that the directory has been changed:

   # grep -v '#' /etc/psa/psa.conf | grep -w DUMP_D
   DUMP_D /plesk_backups

5. Move all backup data and the hidden .discovered directory from the old location to new:

   # mv /var/lib/psa/dumps/* /plesk_backups/
   # mv /var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered/ /plesk_backups/

6. Restart the "sw-cp-server" service:

   # service sw-cp-server restart

   Now all backup files will be stored in the directory /plesk_backups.

Additional Information

To change the location for temporary backup files, visit this KB article.