CodeGuard?

[Tony]

So I see Cpanel now offers CodeGuard. Seems like a good idea, except nowhere on their website do they tell you:

• it's only free for up to 250mb (is that a joke?)
• they don't yet backup your databases (ouch!)
• how long it would take to restore (probably too long)

Anyway, if you're interested I see some alternatives in the comments at CodeGuard Is A Simple Time Machine For Your Website | TechCrunch , but it really seems server cloud backup is still a ways away for smaller websites.

[Matt R.]

It's a freemium model. Some features are included for free, some you have to pay for. We can definitely request some clarification / comparison between the packages.

Matt

[Matt R.]

Looks like we had the old plugin version on a few servers. This has now been upgraded and you should see the free and paid options for CodeGuard.

[Tony]

Nothing looks different on SS3. Still just one icon in Cpanel, and that takes me to the CG home page (with steps 1,2,3) where I'm still signed on. Still no explanations anywhere.

But maybe you can answer my third point. Do they have a special fat FAST pipe and a 1-button "easy restore"? How fast is say a 1gb site back in operation?

[Matt R.]

I'll see if I can get someone from CodeGuard to come in and comment while we do a round of feedback / testing.

Matt

[DavidMoeller]

Tony-
I want to answer your questions, and also let you know that some things have changed since our launch at TechCrunch. While we initially were only offering up to 250MB for free, after getting feedback from users, we expanded the free storage to 2GB. The current free plan provides up to 2GB of space with manual monitoring and backup. https://skitch.com/jmanuzak/g7k7q/cpanel-x

Our database backup is in beta testing and if you have a CodeGuard account, we can activate the feature for you. If things go according to plan, it will be released to everyone at the end of February.

As far as restoration time, there are a number of factors at play. While our connection speed to your server plays a large part, the size and number of the files that we would push also impact a site restore.

We are open to your feedback and any suggestions. While we are hard at work on deploying the database backup, completing our WordPress plugin, and supporting our cPanel integration, we listen to our users and their input impacts our product development roadmap.

-David

So I see Cpanel now offers CodeGuard. Seems like a good idea, except nowhere on their website do they tell you:

• it's only free for up to 250mb (is that a joke?)
• they don't yet backup your databases (ouch!)
• how long it would take to restore (probably too long)

Anyway, if you're interested I see some alternatives in the comments at CodeGuard Is A Simple Time Machine For Your Website | TechCrunch , but it really seems server cloud backup is still a ways away for smaller websites.

[Matt R.]

Welcome aboard David

We'll reference this forum thread in our Feb newsletter so we can get some good QA / feedback.

Tony - we're an early adopter of CodeGuard, so any feedback and suggestions we offer will definitely be appreciated by them.

[DavidMoeller]

Tony-
Before you created your account, you should have seen this screen: https://skitch.com/jmanuzak/g7k7q/cpanel-x. Did you ever see it? If not, I think we have the old plugin on your server. We wanted to provide more explanation and expanded the text. What do you think of it?

We do not have a special fat FAST pipe and the initial backup time for a 1GB site varies. On our website, we state that the initial backup can take anywhere from 24-72 hours, depending the site size and complexity, and your server. Most initial backups are much quicker, though.

-David

Nothing looks different on SS3. Still just one icon in Cpanel, and that takes me to the CG home page (with steps 1,2,3) where I'm still signed on. Still no explanations anywhere.

But maybe you can answer my third point. Do they have a special fat FAST pipe and a 1-button "easy restore"? How fast is say a 1gb site back in operation?

[Tony]

Did you ever see it?

No, and that was one of my biggest issues - a total lack of any sort of explanation prominently displayed on your website. I suppose a page in cpanel is better than nothing, but why the secrecy? Look at what it got you here - complete misconception.

My full site backup this month was 2.21gb gzip so I can't see paying as much for backup as for hosting, especially if lethargic restoration is involved. And I would sure hate to go through the setup only to find it was too large anyway. A few more questions come to mind:

1. Is that "Up to 2gb" zipped?
2. Will web browser access be available to restore individual files?
3. Will automatic daily db backups be offered separately (weekly backups are fairly useless for active forums)?

I'd also like to get on WHB's case about ease of restoring sites and the charges and procedures to do so, but this sure seems like the wrong thread to do it in!

[DavidMoeller]

Tony - I believe our newest plugin version should take care of your need for a greater explanation. What do you think of this -https://skitch.com/jmanuzak/g7k7q/cpanel-x? To answer your questions:
1. The "Up to 2GB" is unzipped - but we could look at changing that since we do zip everything on S3
2. Individual file manipulation isn't available now though it is on the roadmap for 2012
3. When we offer the db backups, you will be able to choose the frequency - and it can be a different frequency than the source code backups.

To your earlier point, we are still figuring out the right way to price the service. What do you think is reasonable to charge on a monthly basis?

[Matt R.]

All - our tech team is double checking to make sure we're at the latest version on all servers.

[Tony]

What do you think is reasonable to charge on a monthly basis?

We're paying .15 cents/gig/mo now for cloud storage via Rackspace. I think I've seen it for .14/mo. I'm not sure I understand the justification for subscription fees at all, but maybe $5/mo for businesses (multiple account access) and free+storage for personal users.

It looks like my favorite desktop cloud backup, Jungle Disk, is going to a subscription. They want anywhere from $2 (first 5gb free) to $5/mo.

[Dennis A.]

Guys,

We have double-checked installed plugin versions, and looks like we have the latest version on our servers.

[Alan B]

Does the backup include mail accounts, or is it just the web site (public_html, and later databases)?

[Tony]

No response. I sort of assumed it would just run a cpanel "full site backup", and copy that to their cloud server. That would include email accounts, wouldn't it?

[Alan B]

I would not assume. Their own information says that CodeGuard offers "a range of backup options at a website level." It says nothing about cPanel account.

That's why I opened a thread asking about it, as I'd like to know what's included. "website level" is a strange term, and might just be public_html and nothing else. Mail accounts are not part of a web site, they are part of the larger cPanel account.

[DavidMoeller]

Alan & Tony - The cPanel plugin backs up and monitors public_html. Once you have an account with CodeGuard, if you want to add mail accounts or content that is part of the larger cPanel account, you should be able to if you configure a separate ftp login for that content.