How to use automated backups on a VPS

Objective

The Automated backup option for VPS offers a convenient way to have complete system backups available from your OVHcloud Control Panel without having to connect to the server to create and restore them manually. Another advantage is that you can also choose to mount a backup and then access its files remotely.

This guide explains the Automated backup option for your OVHcloud VPS.

Requirements

• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel.
• An active Virtual Private Server in your OVHcloud account
• Administrative access (sudo) via SSH to your VPS (optional).

Instructions

Content overview

• How to upgrade to Premium Automated Backup
• How to configure the backup time
• How to restore a backup from the OVHcloud Control Panel
• How to mount and access a backup
  • Using Secure Shell
  • Using Windows
• Best practice for using Automated backups
  • Configuring the QEMU agent on a VPS
    • Debian-based distributions
    • Redhat-based distributions
    • Windows

When you order a VPS, a single daily Automated backup is included as a free service option. This standard backup option allows you to:

• Mount and restore the daily backup.
• Set the time of day this backup will be created.

For more flexiblity with your backups, you can activate the Premium Automated Backup option.

How to subscribe to Premium Automated Backup

The Premium Automated Backup option creates a backup of your VPS every 24 hours at the specified time.
You will have access to all daily backups of the last 7 days. Once 7 backups are created, each new backup will replace the oldest one.

Log in to your OVHcloud Control Panel, open the Bare Metal Cloud section, select Virtual Private Servers and then click the name of your VPS.

Click the Automated backup tab in the horizontal menu.

Click the link Order a premium backup (for services ordered from 7 AUG, 2025) or the button Enable Automated backup.

In the next step, please take note of the pricing information, then click on Order. You will be guided through the order process and receive a confirmation email.

How to configure the backup time

You can change the time of day at which the backup will take place.

After selecting your VPS, click on the Automated backup tab in the horizontal menu.

Click on ... above the table and then on Edit.

In the window that appears, edit the time of day (24-hour UTC time standard). Click on Confirm.

How to restore a backup from the OVHcloud Control Panel

After selecting your VPS, click on the Automated backup tab in the horizontal menu.
Click the button ... next to the backup you would like to restore and select Restoration.

If you recently changed your root password, make sure to tick the option "Modify the root password on restoration" in the popup window to preserve your current root password and click on Confirm. You will receive an email as soon as the task is complete. The restoration might take a while, depending on the disk space used.

How to mount and access a backup

It is not necessary to completely overwrite your existing service with a restoration. The "Mounting" option allows you to access the backup data to retrieve your files.

After selecting your VPS, click on the Automated backup tab in the horizontal menu.
Click on ... next to the backup you need to access and select Mounting.

When you use this option, a read-write copy of the backup is created and mounted. The original backup will remain available unchanged for future restorations.

After the process is completed, you will receive an email. You can now connect to your VPS and access the partition where your backup is located.

Using Secure Shell

First, connect to your VPS via SSH.

You can use the following command to verify the name of the newly attached device:

lsblk

Here is a sample output of this command:

NAME    MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda       8:0    0   25G  0 disk 
├─sda1    8:1    0 24.9G  0 part /
├─sda14   8:14   0    4M  0 part 
└─sda15   8:15   0  106M  0 part 
sdb       8:16   0   25G  0 disk 
├─sdb1    8:17   0 24.9G  0 part 
├─sdb14   8:30   0    4M  0 part 
└─sdb15   8:31   0  106M  0 part /boot/efi

In this example, the partition containing your backup filesystem is named "sdb1".
Next, create a directory for this partition and define it as the mountpoint:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/restore
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/restore

You can now switch to this folder and access your backup data.

Remember to unmount the backup once you have finished using it. Click on the button Unmount the backup in the Automated backup tab, then confirm in the popup window.

Using Windows

Establish an RDP connection to your server.

Once logged in, right-click on the Start Menu button, and then click Disk Management.

When the disk management tool opens, your mounted backup will appear as a basic disk with the same storage space as your main disk.

The disk will appear as Offline, right-click on the disk and select Online.

Once done, your mounted backup will be accessible in the File Explorer.

Remember to unmount the backup once you have finished using it. Click on the button Unmount the backup in the Automated backup tab, then confirm in the popup window.

Best practice for using Automated backups

The Automated Backup functionality is based on VPS snapshots. We recommend to follow the steps below to prevent any issues before using this option.

Configuring the QEMU agent on a VPS

Snapshots are instantaneous images of your running system ("live snapshot"). To ensure the availability of your system when the snapshot is created, the QEMU agent is used to prepare the filesystem for the process.

The "qemu-guest-agent" agent is not installed by default on most distributions. Moreover, licensing restrictions may prevent OVHcloud from including it in the available OS images. Therefore, it is best practice to verify and install the agent in case it is not activated on your VPS. Connect to your VPS via SSH and follow the instructions below, according to your operating system.

Debian-based distributions (Debian, Ubuntu)

Use the following command to check whether the system is properly set up for snapshots:

file /dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0

The expected output is:

/dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0: symbolic link to ../vport2p1

If the output is different, for example "No such file or directory", install the latest version of the package:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qemu-guest-agent

Reboot the VPS:

sudo reboot

Start the service to ensure it is running:

sudo service qemu-guest-agent start

Redhat-based distributions (Centos, Fedora)

Use the following command to check whether the system is properly set up for snapshots:

file /dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0

The expected output is:

/dev/virtio-ports/org.qemu.guest_agent.0: symbolic link to ../vport2p1

If the output is different, for example "No such file or directory", install and enable the agent:

sudo yum install qemu-guest-agent
sudo chkconfig qemu-guest-agent on

Reboot the VPS:

sudo reboot

Start the agent and verify that it is running:

sudo service qemu-guest-agent start
sudo service qemu-guest-agent status

Windows

You can install the agent via MSI file, available from the Fedora project website: https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-qemu-ga/.

Verify that the service is running by using this powershell command:

PS C:\Users\Administrator> Get-Service QEMU-GA
Status   Name               DisplayName
------   ----               -----------
Running  QEMU-GA            QEMU Guest Agent

Go further

How to use snapshots on a VPS

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