How reliable is CodeGuard?
CodeGuard’s systems perform at 99.9% levels, which means that roughly 1 out of 1,000 websites encounters an issue on a daily basis. Hosting providers perform maintenance on servers, customers change FTP login credentials, and IP whitelisting settings for database connections can change, based upon hosting provider server admin activity. These are common behaviors and not cause for concern, as CodeGuard determines the root cause for the lack of connectivity, and emails the customer so they can remediate.
How secure is CodeGuard?
CodeGuard relies upon industry best practices to protect customers’ data. All backups and passwords are encrypted, secure connections (SFTP/SSH/SSL) are utilized if possible, and annual vulnerability testing is conducted by an independent agency. To-date, there has not been a data breach or successful hack or attack upon CodeGuard.
How long has CodeGuard been around?
CodeGuard was started in 2010, inspired by problems faced by small business owners. Technology angel investors and venture capitalists funded CodeGuard in the early stages and the company is now profitably growing – so there is no need to worry about your backups going anywhere!
Where are the backups stored?
Backups are stored on Amazon Web Services Simple Storage System, known as S3. S3 boasts object durability levels of 99.999999999%, achieved by storing redundant copies of data across multiple geographies and facilities. S3 is not the cheapest alternative for data storage, but it is one of the most reliable.
Are the backups encrypted?
Our data stored on Amazon Web Services (AWS) is stored utilizing Server Side Encryption (SSE). AWS handles key management and key protection for us, with one of the strongest block ciphers available, 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-256).
How are passwords stored?
Two different types of passwords are stored on the system – customer account passwords to log in to CodeGuard, and passwords for customer server credentials (FTP/SFTP, MySQL). The customer account passwords are stored with a one-way salted hash. At rest, these passwords reside in Amazon’s Relational Database Service (RDS). Customer server credential passwords are stored in RDS with RSA 2048-bit key encryption.
I already use my hosting provider’s backup. Won’t that protect me?
Not necessarily. Hosting companies tend to keep your backups in the same place as your primary files. You don’t carry around a copy of your birth certificate along with the actual one – you keep the real one safe at home for emergencies. So why not do the same for your backups? CodeGuard provides safe, offsite backup that is 100% independent from your hosting provider.
But don’t just take our word for it – there are plenty of folks who agree.
“The back-up systems of most web-services providers leave a lot to be desired. The back-ups sound reassuring in theory – you are assured that your data is always ‘backed-up’ on a system that is completely separate from the main one … But then, when you dig, you often discover that that means the data is simply copied to another file on the same box or another box in the same data room.” – Business Insider, 4/28/11
Will CodeGuard work with my website or blog platform?
Yes – CodeGuard works the same way regardless of the type of website or platform you use! We are compatible with popular Content Management Systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Magento, but there are many others that CodeGuard can work with.
If the platform you use meets the following criteria, CodeGuard can be used for your website and database backup needs:
- You must have access to your website’s FTP/SFTP credentials in order to connect to CodeGuard. =
- Your site must use MySQL or MS-SQL databases.
- You must be able to whitelist the following CodeGuard IP addresses so that we can remotely connect to your database:
- – 54.236.233.46
- – 54.236.233.28
- – 54.174.91.34
- – 54.174.153.212
- – 54.174.115.171
Note: if your website doesn’t meet the above criteria, you can use the CodeGuard WordPress plugin to backup any WordPress website.
How do backups work?
All file content is retrieved for the first backup using the “get” command over FTP or SFTP. Disk I/O is utilized as each file is retrieved and transferred to CodeGuard’s servers. CPU and memory needs are minimal.
Subsequent backups are differential and do not entail transferring all content. This is achieved by utilizing the “ls – list” command and examining the metadata for each file: name, size, timestamp, file type, permissions, and last modified date. If any of these have changed, or a new file has been added, CodeGuard will transfer the changed or added file to their servers. If a file has been deleted, CodeGuard takes note and adjusts the repository accordingly. Since only changed file content is transferred, the vast majority of subsequent backups cause minimal memory, CPU, and I/O server needs.
How does the restore/undo work?
When a customer seeks to restore a previous version of their website, the first thing CodeGuard does is to check the live website to see what content is on it. This enables CodeGuard to quickly push (or pull) the differences to or from your site. For instance, you might experience a hack that changes your .htaccess file and nothing else. Rather than reload your entire site, CodeGuard would simply replace the infected .htaccess file with your old clean copy.
Will it bog down my server?
No. CodeGuard uses incremental backups with version control to minimize the load on your server.
Will I have to set up cron jobs?
No. CodeGuard handles scheduling and executing backups – automatically.
Will it be easy?
Yes!
What credentials will I need?
For adding your website, you will need the following information:
- – Website URL
- – Hostname/IP Address
- – SFTP/FTP Username
- – SFTP/FTP Password
- – Port Number
- – Root Directory
Does CodeGuard have a WordPress plugin?
Yes! For those using WordPress CodeGuard has a WordPress plugin for daily automatic website/database backups and automatic restore. You can download the plugin from within your CodeGuard account – setup takes less than 1 minute.
Does CodeGuard backup databases?
Yes. You have several options in backing up your databases. CodeGuard can connect directly to your MySQL database, typically through Port 3306, or by tunneling over SSH with your FTP credentials or different credentials.
How does it work?
A mysqldump command is executed each time CodeGuard retrieves the database content. Most MySQL databases are not large enough to create noticeable server load.
What credentials will I need?
For adding your MySQL database, you will need the following information:
- – Database Name
- – Database Hostname or IP
- – MySQL Username
- – MySQL Password
- – MySQL Port (Typically 3306)
If you are tunneling through SSH, you will also need the following information:
- – SSH Username
- – SSH Password
- – SSP Port (Typically 22)
For MS-SQL databases, you will need the following information:
- – Database Name
- – Database Hostname or IP
- – MS-SQL Username
- – MS-SQL Password
- – MS-SQL Port (Typically 1433)
Will I need to whitelist any IP addresses?
Yes, you will need to whitelist the following IP addresses:
- – 54.236.233.46
- – 54.236.233.28
- – 54.174.91.34
- – 54.174.153.212
- – 54.174.115.171
What types of databases does CodeGuard back up?
At this time, CodeGuard is compatible with MySQL and MS-SQL databases.
There are different types of MySQL database storage engines such as MyISAM and InnoDB, and CodeGuard is compatible with all of them.
CodeGuard can also back up a MariaDB database. MariaDB is a community-developed fork of MySQL that has intentions of continuing high compatibility with MySQL databases. Because of this compatibility, CodeGuard backups work well with MariaDB databases.
A few common database types that CodeGuard is not compatible with at this time are PostgreSQL, SQLite, and MongoDB.
Connections to MySQL databases are available through direct MySQL connections or by tunneling over SSH, and direct MS-SQL connections are available for MS-SQL databases.
Is my database locked during backup?
CodeGuard does not explicitly lock database rows or tables at any time during the backup process.
For databases using modern storage systems like InnoDB, backups are performed using a single transaction. This allows for backup consistency while avoiding any lock or contention issues. As a result, this process will not impact the operation of your database.
However, if you have large tables using the legacy MyISAM storage engine, that could lead to undesirable behavior. Since MyISAM does not support transactions and enforces table-level locking for read operations, write and update requests to a table may be delayed while the data export is occurring. In the case of a very large table, they could be delayed for several minutes, giving the appearance that the database or application has become unresponsive.
The CodeGuard database backup process uses the industry-standard mysqldump tool to export your database content.