What is CodeGuard?
CodeGuard is a service that provides an automatic website / database backup solution. It monitors your website / database regularly. If any changes are detected, it will notify you about the changes and backup your website / database. It also allows you to restore your website / database to a previous version.
How does CodeGuard connect to my website?
If your website is hosted on a Linux servers, use the SFTP option. Also, you must use the default FTP user that comes with your cPanel account. You cannot connect to CodeGuard using any other FTP user.
In case of other hosting providers, you can choose either the FTP or SFTP option, based on your service provider's settings.
Wouldn't the hosting provider's backup enough?
Hosting companies tend to keep your backups in the same place as your primary files. In case of any eventuality, along with your primary files, your backups too will be affected. CodeGuard provides safe, offsite backup that is 100% independent of your hosting provider.
Moreover, hosting companies provide you only the latest backup.
CodeGuard follows a versioning system and allows you to restore a backup
of an earlier date as well.
“The back-up systems of most web-services providers leave a lot
to be desired. The back-ups sound reassuring in theory – you are assured
that your data is always ‘backed-up’ on a system that is completely
separate from the main one … But then, when you dig, you often discover
that that means the data is simply copied to another file on the same
box or another box in the same data room.” – Business Insider, 4/28/11
After I add a website, how do I change what files are backed up?
After you add a website, any new files or directories that you add to your site will automatically back up. CodeGuard will only exclude files and directories that you don't select when adding your website. If you need to change how your website is backed up, you need to delete and re-add your website. However, this should be handled with care as you will lose your backups. This option is only recommended if you have just added your website.
What types of database are supported for backup?
CodeGuard supports MySQL and MS-SQL databases.
What database user permissions are needed to backup and restore?
The database user that you specify in CodeGuard must have the appropriate permissions granted. It is recommended that the user has the permissions for both backup and restore actions:
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Backup
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Select
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Show View
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Show Databases
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Restore
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Select
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Update
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Insert
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Delete
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Drop
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Create
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Alter
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Index
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How reliable is CodeGuard?
CodeGuard’s systems perform at 99.9% levels, which means that roughly 1 out of 1,000 websites encounters an issue on a daily basis. Hosting providers perform maintenance on servers, customers change FTP login credentials, and IP whitelisting settings for database connections can change, based upon hosting provider server admin activity. These are common behaviors and not cause for concern, as CodeGuard determines the root cause for the lack of connectivity, and emails the customer so they can remediate.
How secure is CodeGuard?CodeGuard relies upon industry best practices to protect customers’ data. All backups and passwords are encrypted, secure connections (SFTP/SSH/SSL) are utilized if possible, and annual vulnerability testing is conducted by an independent agency. To-date, there has not been a data breach or successful hack or attack upon CodeGuard.
Where are the Backup stored?Backups are stored on Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System, known as S3. S3 boasts object durability levels of 99.999999999%, achieved by storing redundant copies of data across multiple geographies and facilities. S3 is not the cheapest alternative for data storage, but it is one of the most reliable.
Are the backups encrypted?Our data stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) is stored utilizing Server Side Encryption (SSE). AWS handles key management and key protection for us, with one of the strongest block ciphers available, 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).
How are passwords stored?Two different types of passwords are stored on the system – customer account passwords to log in to CodeGuard, and passwords for customer server credentials (FTP/SFTP, MySQL). The customer account passwords are stored with a one-way salted hash. At rest, these passwords reside in Amazon’s Relational Database Service (RDS). Customer server credential passwords are stored in RDS with RSA 2048-bit key encryption.
How does CodeGuard store data? Is it encrypted?
CodeGuard uses Amazon Web Service’s Simple Storage Service (S3) to house website and database backup data. All customer backup data is encrypted using an AES-256 bit key.
How long are the backups stored in the CodeGuard account?
By default, only 90 days of backups are stored. You can choose to retain all backups, from the Backup Retention Settings section in the ACCOUNT SETTINGS view. You can navigate to this view through the SETTINGS -> ACCOUNT menu, within your CodeGuard account.
Will CodeGuard work with my website or blog platform?
Yes – CodeGuard works the same way regardless of the type of website or platform you use! We are compatible with popular Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento, but there are many others that CodeGuard can work with.
If the platform you use meets the following criteria, CodeGuard can be used for your website and database backup needs:
- You must have access to your website’s FTP/SFTP credentials in order to connect to CodeGuard. =
- Your site must use MySQL or MS-SQL databases.
- You must be able to whitelist the following CodeGuard IP addresses so that we can remotely connect to your database:
- – 54.236.233.46
- – 54.236.233.28
- – 54.174.91.34
- – 54.174.153.212
- – 54.174.115.171
Note: if your website doesn’t meet the above criteria, you can use the CodeGuard WordPress plugin to backup any WordPress website.
All file content is retrieved for the first backup using the “get” command over FTP or SFTP. Disk I/O is utilized as each file is retrieved and transferred to CodeGuard’s servers. CPU and memory needs are minimal.
Subsequent backups are differential and do not entail transferring all content. This is achieved by utilizing the “ls – list” command and examining the metadata for each file: name, size, timestamp, file type, permissions, and last modified date. If any of these have changed, or a new file has been added, CodeGuard will transfer the changed or added file to their servers. If a file has been deleted, CodeGuard takes note and adjusts the repository accordingly. Since only changed file content is transferred, the vast majority of subsequent backups cause minimal memory, CPU, and I/O server needs.
How does the restore/undo work?When a customer seeks to restore a previous version of their website, the first thing CodeGuard does is to check the live website to see what content is on it. This enables CodeGuard to quickly push (or pull) the differences to or from your site. For instance, you might experience a hack that changes your .htaccess file and nothing else. Rather than reload your entire site, CodeGuard would simply replace the infected .htaccess file with your old clean copy.
Will it bog down my server?
No. CodeGuard uses incremental backups with version control to minimize the load on your server.
Will I have to set up cron jobs?
No. CodeGuard handles scheduling and executing backups – automatically.
What credentials will I need?
For adding your website, you will need the following information:
– Website URL
– Hostname/IP Address
– SFTP/FTP Username
– SFTP/FTP Password
– Port Number
– Root Directory