How to backup your WordPress site to Amazon S3 using BackWPup backup plugin (Part 4 of 5)

In this step we will configure your backup job to store the backup file in Amazon S3. If you want to learn how to setup a backup job read the second article in the series. If you have not signed for an Amazon S3 account yet, read the third article in this series for step-by-step instructions on signing up for Amazon S3.Ok, now that you have setup a basic backup job, lets open it in Edit mode. Scroll down to the section titled Backup to Amazon S3:

1. Enter your Amazon Key ID
2. Enter your Amazon Secret Access Key
3. If you have created any buckets in S3 already then they will appear in the Buckets drop-down. You can choose an existin bucket here
4. If you don’t have any buckets yet (or you want to use a new one), just enter the name for your new bucket in the “Create bucket:” textbox.
   A bucket is like a folder on your computer.
5. You can store your backup file in the bucket, or you can create a sub-directory under the bucket to store your backup file. This is optional and you can leave this field blank.
   In the screenshot above, I have chosen to create a sub-directory called “backwup”
6. To avoid filling up your S3 storage with lots of old backup files, specify the number of backup files that you want to retain.
   I do not keep more than 5 backup files.
   You may choose to keep more or less backup files.

Automating the backup program to run on an automated schedule is easy.In the “Job Schedule” section, do the following:

1. Check the “Activate scheduling” checkbox. This configures the program to run on an automated schedule.
2. Then choose the frequency at which you want to create the backup.
   If you update your website very frequently, say you poost articles on a daily basis, then you should consider creating a backup on a dily basis.
   If you update your website infrequently, then a weekly or even monthly frequency may be appropriate for you.
   Simply choose your frequency and the time of the day (and the day and date if choose a frequency less than daily) that you want to create the backup.
3. Click the “Save Changes” button to save your job configuration.

Now lets test the backup job. In order to test it we will:

• run the job manually
• check the progress displayed on the screen and ensure there are no errors
• check the Amazon S3 bucket and confirm that the backup file got uploaded properly by the backup jobTo run the job manually, go to tje Job Overview page and hover the mouse ober the job name.
  A list of links will appear below the job name.
  Click the “Run Now” link.
  This will start the backup job and display the progress on the screen as shown below.

And finally, log on to your Amazon S3 account and check if the backup file made it.

Congratulations! You have created a backup job using the BackWPup plugin and configured it to create and store backups to Amazon S3 automatically on a periodic schedule!

In the next article (Part 5 of 5) you will learn how to restore your WordPress site from your backup.