cPanel Disaster Recovery Backups: Ownership responsibility

In all hosting environments managed by Comstat, the responsibility for data protection rests with the owner of the virtual server or hosting account.

That includes, but is not limited to:

• Website content and uploads
• Databases
• Email data
• Application‑specific files
• Configuration changes made by the account holder

This is in line with Internet Service Provider (ISP) practice. For instance, neither Google nor Outlook.com undertake to back up your email or files. Although Microsoft 365 guarantees service level availability, data remains the responsibility of the owner.

Every website owner should maintain their own backup strategy that aligns with their business, regulatory, and operational needs. This may include one or more of these approaches:

• cPanel backup (provided with your server)
• Backup utilities like Backuply which you can install using WordPress or cPanel Softaculous library
• off‑platform backups
• third‑party backup services
• or application‑level backup tools

We are glad to help you decide what is the best solution for your needs.

Importantly, although we do keep temporary backups which may be helpful as a last resort, our platform is not positioned as a primary backup service for end users.

Responsibility for data protection rests with the owner of the virtual server or hosting account. In the case of the services we provide to you, this includes but is not limited to:

• Website content and uploads
• Databases
• Email data
• Application‑specific files
• Configuration changes made by the account holder

Every website owner should maintain their own backup strategy. This makes sense because your strategy needs to align with your business, regulatory, and operational needs. This might include using:

• solutions available to you with your hosting (e.g. Backuply, Softaculous WordPress Manager)
• solutions provided to you by agreement with your agents
• off‑platform backups
• third‑party backup services
• application‑level backup tools

Our data recovery backups are designed to cope with force majeure risks that your hardware is exposed to. Therefore, our platform is not positioned as a primary backup service for end users.

Although responsibility for content and data ownership lies with an account holder, Comstat performs disaster recovery backups for clear and limited reasons:

• Platform‑level disaster recovery
• Server migration
• Administrative resilience
• Infrastructure failure scenarios
• Major security incidents

In this way, our backup regime exists to protect the integrity of the hosting platform as a whole, not to replace user‑managed backup solutions.

Our backup framework is designed to support hardware management and recovery in exceptional circumstances—not routine file restoration or historical data retrieval.

Unfortunately, web site owners do not always deal with backups. In this situation, our operational backups might be able to restore a recent working configuration. However, this might not accomplish a most recent known working configuration. Also, our backup library extends to a 90-day rolling window.

Backup Scope

• Full cPanel account backups
• Incremental – file changes made since baseline/last increment
• No guarantee of granular file‑level recovery
• No long‑term archival storage
• System files are excluded

Retention Model

• Daily backups: retained for 7 days
• Weekly backups: retained for 4 weeks
• Monthly backups: retained for 3 months

This schedule provides a maximum recovery window of approximately 90 days, which is appropriate for disaster recovery while avoiding unnecessary data retention.

Backup Access

• Backups are governed using native WHM and cPanel tools
• Restore actions are typically administrator‑controlled
• In some cases, backups may be visible to account holders in cPanel
• Access is provided only as a last resort, not as a service guarantee

This model ensures that cPanel disaster recovery backups remain predictable, auditable, and aligned with platform boundaries.

Firstly, it helps to understand how a web server operates.

WHM – Web Host Manager

Web server (platform) administrators use an operating system called WHM (Web Host Manager) to manage servers. Think of WHM as an equivalent of Microsoft Windows (admin user). Usually, web site owners do not have access to this hierarchy level. This is because WHM requires specialist knowledge

cPanel – where daily work happens

Web site owners typically use cPanel (Windows standard user) to manage their web site, email, etc.cPanel provides a broad toolset to deal with web sites, email, file management, and many other end-user features. Like a Windows (standard) user, cPanel users have daily control of the web server for email, WordPress, and other features. However, some functions are omitted because they are not likely to be needed, and pose elevated security or operational risk.

How our backup policy fits

We operate backups at WHM level. These backups are executed by a WHM admin account which is not available to the web site owner. Using WHM’s built‑in backup utilities offers several advantages, but some limitations, too:

• Tight integration with cPanel account structure
• Correct handling of permissions and metadata
• Well‑tested restore paths during emergencies
• Clear separation between platform and user responsibility

Custom or script‑based backup systems can introduce ambiguity, complexity, and increased operational risk. For disaster recovery, reliability and predictability matter more than flexibility. This also means that because our backups are executed at an “admin” level, restoration of data usually requires adjustment to ownership and read/write permissions. This is why owner-operated backups work more efficiently. Also, restoration from our WHM environment entails cost.

In practical terms:

• You must maintain your own backups
• You should not rely on platform backups for routine “restores”
• Platform backups may help in exceptional circumstances
• No backup availability is guaranteed beyond the defined retention window

This approach keeps expectations clear and ensures that responsibility is properly aligned.

If you have questions about suitable backup strategies for your workload, we are always happy to discuss best practices. Backup utilities are already available to you at cPanel level, including Backup for cPanel which allows you to download and store your site in a backup file. WordPress can be backed up using plugins like Backuply, and your installation can also be backed up using Softaculous WordPress Manager. This is available on your server too. Lastly, we publish articles about options like:

• How to back up your web server with cPanel
• cPanel WordPress Backup: A Practical Guide for Virtual Host Owners

We continually introduce new content to our support section, so please do check our How To pages periodically.

Bear in mind that different solutions have their own merits. For instance, Softaculous WordPress Manager is great for ease of use. If you want to export your WordPress website to a new server, though, it is not a viable option. For that eventuality the second article in the list above is desirable. Admittedly, this approach is seemingly daunting, and you may need to contact us about this methodology. So, when you plan a backup strategy, you should define what the backups need to accomplish.

Remember, ownership of the data remains exactly where it should be: with you.

If you need help adopting this workflow, or you need disaster recovery planning or assistance, please get in touch, or use our contact page to organize an appointment which suits your timetable. You can return to our Index of Articles by clicking here .