Acronis Backup Plugin for WHM & cPanel

Acronis Backup Plugin for WHM & cPanel

1. Introduction

This document describes how to install and use the Acronis Backup plugin for WHM & cPanel. The plugin integrates WHM and cPanel with the Acronis Backup and Acronis Backup Cloud solutions.

With the plugin, a WHM user can:

• Back up an entire cPanel server to the cloud storage with disk-level backup
• Recover the entire server including all of the websites
• Perform granular recovery of websites, individual files, mailboxes, mail filters, mail forwarders or databases
• Enable self-service recovery for cPanel accounts

Once the plugin is installed and configured, the server is backed up on a predefined schedule. A backup can also be started on demand. The backup schedule can be configured in the Acronis web console.

Recovery can be performed from the WHM and cPanel interfaces. It is not possible to back up individual websites. However, the rights for self-service recovery can be granted to each account separately.

2. System Requirements

• Granular recovery of databases is supported only for local MySQL. Granular recovery of PostgreSQL databases is not supported.
• If cPanel is running on Ubuntu, AppArmor should be configured as described in "Configuring AppArmor on Ubuntu" below.
• Besides the plugin, a backup agent must be installed on the same machine. If cPanel is running on a Virtuozzo container, the backup agent must be installed on the Virtuozzo host instead of the container.

2026 update: current official requirements are more specific — cPanel & WHM 11.102+, PHP 5.6+, MySQL 5.7+ or MariaDB 10.3.17+, and tested on AlmaLinux 8/9/10, CentOS 7, CloudLinux 6/7/8/9, RHEL 7, Rocky Linux 8/9, and Ubuntu 20.04/22.04 LTS. Remote database backup/recovery is still unsupported.

3. Obtaining the Acronis Product

An Acronis Backup Cloud or Acronis Backup 12.5 subscription is required to use the plugin. You can purchase an Acronis Backup Cloud subscription from your service provider. You will be given a link, user name, and password for the Acronis web console.

4. Installing the Plugin

Log on to the cPanel server as the root user, then:

2026 update: the original tar.gz + install.sh method below is retired. The current install command is:

sh <(curl -L https://download.acronis.com/ci/cpanel/stable/install_acronis_cpanel.sh || wget -O - https://download.acronis.com/ci/cpanel/stable/install_acronis_cpanel.sh)

Run as root; this single command downloads and installs the plugin. The steps below are kept for reference/history.

# mkdir AcronisBackupCloud
# tar -xf AcronisBackupCloud-1.0.tar.gz -C AcronisBackupCloud
# sh AcronisBackupCloud/scripts/install.sh

5. Installing the Backup Agent

To back up a Virtuozzo container, the backup agent must be installed on its host — see "Installing the Backup Agent on a Virtuozzo Host" in the Appendix.

To install the backup agent for cPanel running inside a physical or virtual machine:

1. Log in to WHM UI.
2. Click Plugins > Acronis Backup.
3. Specify the credentials of the account the machine should be assigned to. Use an account created within the customer group (Customer administrator, Unit administrator, or User) — do not use partner administrator credentials.

4. Follow the installation wizard. During installation, the software checks whether the ports required for cloud communication are open. If any are closed, it shows the port numbers and hostnames that need opening — open them, close the wizard, and restart the installation.

Completing installation may take several minutes; you can leave the page while it runs. The backup agent can also be installed from the command line.

2026 update: if two-factor authentication is enabled on the Acronis account used here, install with a registration token instead of a plain password.

6. Backup

6.1 Enabling Backup

1. Click Plugins > Acronis Backup.
2. Enable the backup switch.

For cPanel server backup, a backup plan with a specific configuration is required. When you enable backup, the plugin attempts to find and apply a suitable backup plan. If several are found, one is applied at random. If none are found, a default plan named "Webcp" is created and applied.

If you want to change the backup schedule or other parameters, do this in the Acronis web console — without changing the parameters described in "Configuring a Backup Plan for a cPanel Server" below, or granular recovery in WHM and cPanel will stop working. For the same reason, don't apply a different plan to this server that doesn't meet those requirements.

2026 update: the "Webcp" default-plan name and the pre/post-command requirement below are now considered the legacy method. Since plugin v1.9.0, the preferred method is enabling the "Application backup" toggle for cPanel directly in the protection plan's Application backup section (Cyber Protect Cloud console > plan > Application backup > enable cPanel > OK > Save). Use one method or the other, not both, on the same plan. Default schedule if no plan exists: once every 24 hours at 2 AM local server time.

6.2 Run a Backup on Demand

1. Click Plugins > Acronis Backup.
2. Click Run now.

7. Enabling Self-Service for cPanel Accounts

1. Click Feature Manager.
2. Select a feature list and click Edit.
3. Select the Acronis Backup checkbox.
4. Click Save.

2026 update: the checkbox is now labeled "Acronis cPanel & WHM". A separate "Acronis Backup For Resellers" checkbox exists for reseller-level self-service.

8. Recovery in the cPanel UI

Accounts with the Acronis Backup privilege enabled can browse backups in their cPanel interface and download or recover files, folders, databases, mailboxes, mail filters, and mail forwarders.

8.1 Downloading Files

1. Click Acronis Backup.
2. Open the Backups tab.

3. Select a recovery point. The corresponding backup is mounted to the cPanel server — this can take a few minutes.
4. Click Files.

5. Select the files and folders to download.

6. Click Download.

A single file downloads immediately. Multiple files are zipped and placed in your home folder — download the archive from the notification bar, the Operation Log, or File Manager once it's ready.

8.2 Recovering Files to the Original Location

1. Click Acronis Backup > Backups tab, select a recovery point, click Files.
2. Select the files/folders to recover, click Recover.
3. If at least one folder is selected, you can enable "Delete any files in the original location that were created after the backup" — useful if the site was hacked, to remove malicious files.
4. Click Recover to confirm. The selected files are replaced with their backed-up copies.

8.3 Downloading Database Dumps

1. Acronis Backup > Backups tab > select a recovery point > click Databases.
2. Select the databases to download, click Download.

A .zip archive with SQL dumps is placed in your home folder.

8.4 Recovering Databases to the Original Location

1. Acronis Backup > Backups tab > recovery point > Databases.
2. Select databases to recover, click Recover.
3. Ensure "Add suffix to the recovered database name" is cleared, click Recover.

The selected databases are recovered to their original location and overwritten (or recreated if no longer present).

8.5 Recovering Databases as New Ones

1. Acronis Backup > Backups tab > recovery point > Databases.
2. Select databases to recover, click Recover.
3. Check "Add suffix to the recovered database name", enter a suffix, click Recover.

New databases named %original_name%%suffix% are created; existing databases are unaffected.

8.6 Downloading Mailboxes

Acronis Backup > Backups tab > recovery point > Mailboxes > select mailboxes > Download. A .zip of the mailbox content is placed in your home folder.

8.7 Recovering Mailboxes to the Original Location

Same navigation > select mailboxes > Recover and confirm. Recovered mailboxes are recreated automatically if they no longer exist.

2026 update: a "keep or delete emails created after the backup" option is now offered during mailbox recovery.

8.8 Downloading Mail Filters

Acronis Backup > Backups tab > recovery point > Mail filters > select > Download.

8.9 Recovering Mail Filters to the Original Location

Same navigation > select > Recover and confirm.

8.10 Downloading Mail Forwarders

Acronis Backup > Backups tab > recovery point > Mail forwarders > select > Download.

8.11 Recovering Mail Forwarders to the Original Location

Same navigation > select > Recover and confirm.

9. Recovering from the WHM Interface

Recovery here works the same as in "Recovery in the cPanel UI" above, with these differences:

• Mailbox, mail filter, and mail forwarder recovery is not available from WHM.
• Downloaded .zip archives are placed in /usr/local/psa/var/modules/acronis-backup/archives — clean this up once the data is no longer needed.
• Recovering a user database as a new one creates it under the user the original database belongs to.
• You can recover the entire server (see below).

9.1 Recovering the Entire cPanel Server

To revert a running cPanel server to a previous state:

1. Click Plugins > Acronis Backup.
2. Open the Backups tab, select a recovery point.
3. Click Recover entire server and confirm.

The entire server is reverted to the selected recovery point; all changes made after that backup are lost. Progress can be tracked in the Acronis web console. If WHM itself is unavailable due to server failure, recover using the Acronis web console or Acronis bootable media instead.

10. Tracking Recovery Progress

A cPanel user can see recovery operations in the Operation Log, filterable by status and type, with download links for download operations.

In the WHM UI, the same information is visible across all customers on the server:

Recovery operations performed from the WHM and cPanel interfaces do not appear in the Acronis web console.

Appendix: Configuring a Backup Plan for a cPanel Server

You can change the default backup plan or create a new one. The plan must:

1. Back up the entire server, or at minimum all volumes containing cPanel data.
2. Have Pre-post data capture commands configured:
   • Execute a command before the data capture = Yes; Command = /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/webcpprecapture; Arguments = {RESOURCE_ID}; Fail the backup if the command execution fails = Yes.
   • Execute a command after the data capture = Yes; Command = /usr/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/webcppostcapture; Arguments = {RESOURCE_ID}; Fail the backup if the command execution fails = Yes.
3. Have encryption disabled.

2026 update: pre/post commands are now the legacy method, kept for plans configured before this requirement changed. The current default method is the "Application backup" toggle in the plan's Application backup section (enable cPanel > OK > Save) — use one method or the other, never both on the same plan. Avoid exclusions in the plan either way, or mounting/recovery will slow down dramatically.

Appendix: Configuring AppArmor on Ubuntu

If the cPanel server runs Ubuntu with AppArmor enabled, make these changes to the AppArmor usr.sbin.mysqld profile:

1. Add the following lines to the bottom of /etc/apparmor.d/local/usr.sbin.mysqld:

   capability sys_nice,
   /opt/psa/var/modules/acronis-backup/srv/** rwk,
   /var/lib/Acronis/mount/** rwk,
   /proc/** r,
   /sys/devices/system/** r,

2. Reload the AppArmor profiles:

   service apparmor reload

Otherwise, database recovery will not work.