What does BackupWall back up, and what does it not?

Backed up for every account

Each of these is a switch under Content to back up in the job form, and all are on by default:

• Files & directories: the account's home folder (minus the excludes), with directories, symlinks, modes, owners, groups and modification times.
• MySQL databases: MySQL and MariaDB databases, their users and grants. Dumps use --single-transaction.
• Email accounts: mailboxes and mail, laid out per the panel's mail folders.
• DNS zones: every record type of each zone the account owns.
• SSL certificates: certificates and, unless you switch it off, their private keys.

Also captured, as the panel allows:

• Cron jobs and FTP logins.
• PostgreSQL databases, with their roles and grants, backed up with pg_dump (cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin with PostgreSQL, and servers with no panel).
• Mail settings: forwarders, catch-all or default address, autoresponders and mail filters (cPanel, DirectAdmin and Plesk).
• cPanel mailing lists (Mailman: settings, members, archives up to 50 MB) and webmail data (Roundcube address books, identities and settings).
• Suspension state. A suspended account is backed up and restored.
• A cPanel account archive (a small metadata-only pkgacct archive per point) that lets BackupWall recreate an account that was deleted: PHP settings, reseller data, feature lists and the password hash.
• Account settings that let a restore or migration recreate the account on each panel: package or plan, domains and contact email.

A backup point records which sections it captured and names any read that failed. A failed read is shown as a gap on the point, not as "the account has none".

Other job types

• Directory / system files jobs back up absolute paths you choose. See Directory and MongoDB jobs.
• MongoDB jobs back up the databases of one MongoDB instance with mongodump.

Not backed up

• The operating system, the control panel itself and server-wide settings such as WHM tweak settings, the EA4 profile, firewall, mail server configuration and hosting packages. There is no whole-server (bare-metal) recovery. See Rebuild a server from a DR bundle.
• Data behind a symlink. Symlinks are stored as links and never followed. Back up the target with a Directory job.
• Files outside the account home reached through a link or a swapped directory. The point names them.
• ACLs, extended attributes, SELinux labels, file capabilities and chattr flags. Sockets, pipes and device files are skipped. Hard links come back as separate copies and sparse files come back full size.
• Redis, Microsoft SQL Server and Elasticsearch databases. SQLite databases are only files in the home folder.
• WP Toolkit, Softaculous and Installatron registries, and PHP ini and FPM pool settings, Node, Python and Ruby app registrations.
• Malware. There is no malware scan; infected files are stored and restored as they are.
• Default excludes. A server-wide list of 72 patterns skips logs, caches, temporary files and old backup archives. See Exclude files and folders.
• Mount points are crossed: NFS, FUSE and bind mounts inside a home folder are backed up. There is no "one filesystem" option.

A file that changes while it is read

BackupWall uses no snapshot (no LVM, btrfs or filesystem freeze). A large file being appended to, such as a mailbox, a SQLite database or a VM image, can be stored torn; the next run re-uploads the parts that changed. Use logical dumps, or stop the writer, if that matters. Database dumps and file trees are taken at different moments.