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Chapter 4. Akeeba Solo / Akeeba Backup application reference

Table of Contents

First steps
The login page
An overview of the interface
The main page (control panel)
Main operations
Configuration wizard
Configuration
The main settings
Basic Configuration
Advanced configuration
Optional filters
Quota management
Fine tuning
Database dump engines
Native MySQL Backup Engine
File and directories scanner engines
Smart scanner
Large site scanner
Archiver engines
ZIP format
JPA format
Encrypted Archives (JPS format)
DirectFTP
DirectFTP over cURL
DirectSFTP
DirectSFTP over cURL
ZIP using ZIPArchive class
Post processing engines
No post-processing
Send by email
Upload to Amazon S3
Upload to BackBlaze B2
Upload to Box.com
Upload to CloudMe
Upload to DreamObjects
Upload to Dropbox (v2 API)
Upload to Google Drive
Upload to Google Storage (JSON API)
Upload to Google Storage (Legacy S3 API)
Upload to OneDrive and OneDrive for Business
Upload to OneDrive (LEGACY)
Upload to OneDrive (App-specific Folder)
Upload to Microsoft Windows Azure BLOB Storage service
Upload to OVH Object Storage
Upload to OpenStack Swift object storage
Upload to RackSpace CloudFiles
Upload to Remote FTP server
Upload to Remote FTP server over cURL
Upload to Remote SFTP server
Upload to Remote SFTP server over cURL
Upload to SugarSync
Upload to iDriveSync
Upload to WebDAV
Backup now
Manage backups
Downloading backup archives
Manage remotely stored files
View Log
Troubleshooter - ALICE
Site Transfer Wizard
Import archives
Import archives from S3
Update (a.k.a. "Live Update")
Include data in the backup
Multiple Databases Definitions
Off-site Directories Inclusion
Exclude data from the backup
Files and Directories Exclusion
Database Tables Exclusion
RegEx Files and Directories Exclusion
Regular Expressions recipes for files and directories
RegEx Database Tables Exclusion
Regular Expressions recipes for database tables
System Management
User manager
Resetting your password or creating a new user if you can't log in to Akeeba Solo
Two Factor Authentication
Two factor authentication with Google Authenticator
Two factor authentication with YubiKey
Profiles management
Schedule Automatic Backups
System configuration
Automating your backup
Taking backups automatically
Front-end backup, for use with CRON
Native CRON script
Alternative CRON script
Scheduling backups with WP-CRON (WordPress only)
Supported CRON Expressions
Caveats of using WP-CRON for backup scheduling
Checking for failed backups automatically
Front-end backup failure check, for use with CRON
Native CRON script for failed backup checks
Alternative CRON script
WordPress and the wp-config.php file
Remote Storage and OAuth2 Helpers
Understanding OAuth2
Custom OAuth2 helpers for more than one sites
Custom OAuth2 helpers by storage provider
Box.com
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
Dropbox
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
Google Drive
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
OneDrive
Creating the custom helper
Using the custom helper
Miscellaneous features
Enabling the debug mode
WordPress admin dashboard widgets
WordPress CLI (WP-CLI) integration

In this chapter you are going to find detailed reference of all the pages, options and features of the Akeeba Solo / Akeeba Backup application. To get things organized in a logical manner, we chose to present the individual pages in the same order they appear on the component's Control Panel page, i.e. the first page which is presented to you when you launch the component's back-end.

Akeeba Solo / Akeeba Backup implements responsive design, which means that it is designed to be usable on any device with a modern capable browser: desktops, laptops, tablets, smartphones, PDAs, smart TVs and so on. It automatically adapts its interface depending on the available screen width, trying to show you the most relevant information and options on the smaller screen sizes. We chose to write our documentation depicting the layout on desktop / large tablet (8" and higher) displays. When using a device with a smaller resolution your display will look slightly different but the operating principle will be the same.

First steps

The login page

[Note]Note

This only applies to Akeeba Solo (standalone). Akeeba Backup uses the native user system of the site it runs inside.

The login page

The login page is the first thing you encounter when accessing Akeeba Solo. You need to enter your username and password, then click on the blue Log in button, or press the ENTER or RETURN key on your keyboard.

The Secret Code field is where you can enter your Two Factor Authentication secret code. By default this feature is disabled for newly created user accounts and anything you enter in the Secret Code field will be ignored. If you want to enable two factor authentication on your user account for added security please consult the documentation of the user manager page.

Why do you need to log in?

Backups taken by Akeeba Solo contain a full site snapshot, including its files, its database contents and its configuration files (where your database connection information and other sensitive information is stored). Likewise, Akeeba Solo also stores the connection information to your site's database and other potentially sensitive information in its configuration. Therefore if someone has access to Akeeba Solo they can implicitly access this sensitive information about your site, leading to a security risk. In order to prevent unauthorised and malicious users from doing that, access to Akeeba Solo is protected by a username and password.

Can I use a server-level username/password protection as well?

Yes, you can enable this paranoid-level protection as long as you are an advanced user with experience in server setup. You can find detailed instructions in the protection by .htaccess section of this documentation. If you do not understand these instructions don't worry; Akeeba Solo can be used perfectly well without this optional extra protection layer.

What do I do if I get locked out?

Please read the password reset information page.

What do I do if two factor authentication doesn't work or I've lost my two factor authentication device?

Just enable the debug mode of Akeeba Solo. When it's enabled the two factor authentication feature is disabled and you don't even see the Secret Code field. You can log in by just entering your username and password.

An overview of the interface

All pages of Akeeba Solo / Akeeba Backup have some common interface elements at the top and the bottom of the page.

At the very top of the page we have the header area. On a desktop browser it looks like this:

The header on a desktop browser

On the left-hand side you see the logo and name of the application. Next, if you have a non-stable version you have a label that reads Alpha, Beta or RC depending on the stability level. Alpha versions are the least stable, usually including cutting-edge features that have undergone minimal testing. Beta versions are a little more stable than Alphas, but some minor breakage and rough edges are expected. RC versions are found to be quite stable, but some mostly harmless artifacts (e.g. user interface glitches or missing translation strings) could still be present. Stable versions do not display a stability badge at all. We recommend that you only use RC and stable releases on live sites.

Next up you have the application menu. These are quick links to the most commonly used pages of the application. For full access to all pages of the application please click on the Home menu item which takes you to the main page.

If you are using the Akeeba Solo standalone application, at the right-hand corner you see a small button. That's the log out button. Clicking on it will log you out of Akeeba Solo, terminating your user session. You are advised to always do that whenever you finish working with Akeeba Solo, for optimum security of your sites. It's the same reason why your bank, for example, asks you to do the same.

On mobile browsers and smaller screens the header shrinks a little bit, taking the following form:

The header on a mobile browser

The logo, name and information indicators are the same as the full desktop version. The main difference is that instead of the application menu and the logout button you have the familiar "panel open" button at the far right, the one that has the three horizontal lines. Tapping on it reveals a pane below the header containing the menu and log out buttons:

The header on a mobile browser with the pane expanded

At the bottom of the page you have the footer area with the copyright notice and debug information:

The footer area

Please note that the last line displaying the page generation time and memory consumption is only visible when you have enabled the debug mode.

The main page (control panel)

This is the first page you see when you log in to Akeeba Solo or open Akeeba Backup and whenever you click on the Home menu item in the header area of the page. From here you can see if everything is in working order and access all of the application's functions and configuration options.

The profile selection box

Under the quick links, there is the profile selection box. It serves a double purpose, indicating the active backup profile and letting you switch between available backup profiles. Clicking on the drop down allows you to select a profile. Changing the selection (clicking on the drop down list and selecting a new profile) automatically makes this new profile current and the application notifies you about that. Should this not happen, you can manually click on the Switch Profile button on the right to forcibly make the selected profile current.

[Tip]Tip

The active profile is applied to all functions of the application, including configuration, filter settings, inclusion options, etc. The only settings which are not dependent on the active profile are those in the System Configuration page. Keep this in mind when editing any of Akeeba Solo's / Akeeba Backup's settings!

On the right hand side of the page, you will find a column with useful information.

There are three areas:

Version information

Here you can see your currently installed version (dark blue label). You can also review the change log of the application by clicking on the cyan Changelog button. This button will open a popup with the changelog. When you are done you can press the ESC key on your keyboard or click on the Close button at the bottom of the popup.

Status Summary

In this area you can find information regarding the status of the application.

If your backup output directory is not writeable the application will warn you. If the text reads that there are potential problems you must take a look at the details below to find out what these might be!

[Important]Important

No matter what the PHP Safe Mode setting is, it is possible that your host enforces open_basedir restrictions which only allow you to have an output directory under a handful of predefined locations. On this occasion, the application will report the folder unwritable even though you might have enforced 0777 (read, write and execute allowed for all) permissions. These restrictions are reported in the section below the overall status text as an item entitled "open_basedir restrictions".

If any potential configuration problems have been detected, right below the overall status you will find one or several warnings links. Just click on each warning's description to get a pop up window explaining the potential problem, its impact on your backup and precautionary or corrective steps you can take. If this section is empty, no detectable problems were found and you'll be greeted by a green "Akeeba Solo / Akeeba Backup is ready to take a backup" message; this is a good thing, indeed!

Latest backup

This panel informs you about the status of your latest backup attempt. The information shown is the date and time of backup, the origin (e.g. remote, backend, frontend and so on), the profile used and the backup status.

The navigation panel set

The left navigation panel allows access to the different functions of the component, by clicking on each icon. Each of them is explained in detail later in this documentation.

A button that deserves special mention is the Update button. This button has a dual functionality. Clicking on it takes you to the Live Update page of the application where you can see if there are updates available and install new updates with minimal fuss. At the same time, it informs you at a glance whether an update is available. When it displays the green "Up to date" label you have the latest version installed. If it displays an orange "Update available" label there is a newer version of the application available for installation.

[Important]Important

For this feature to work you must ensure that your server can communicate with www.akeeba.com. If you are behind a firewall, make sure that you open TCP traffic over port 80 and 443 to www.akeeba.com and cdn.akeeba.com. Please note that cdn.akeeba.com is a CDN and as such does not have a fixed IP address. If your host asks you for the IP address do tell them to run "host cdn.akeeba.com" from their server to determine which IPs serve the location where their server is located.

If you are a subscriber to the Professional release, the live update will not work properly unless you also specify your Akeeba Download ID in the System Configuration page. Since the Professional release is provided on a subscription basis, whenever you ask the application to update itself, it has to provide your Download ID to our site to verify that you have a valid subscription before downloading the update installation package. You can find out your Download ID by logging in to www.akeeba.com and clicking on the My Subscriptions item on the top menu.