Announcing One-Click Restores, Disaster Recovery, and More
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Announcing One-Click Restores, Disaster Recovery, and More
Are you not sure how to create a Cloudflare R2 backup?
Cloudflare R2 is a new cloud storage service that rivals more expensive options like Amazon S3. By sending your backups to Cloudflare R2, you’ll save your data to the cloud without overspending your budget.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to back up your WordPress site to Cloudflare R2!
Cloudflare R2 is an object storage service for storing large amounts of unstructured data like pictures, videos, data lakes, website backups, and more. Similar to other providers like Amazon S3, Wasabi, and Google Cloud, Cloudflare R2 organizes data as objects inside buckets.
With Cloudflare R2, you won’t have to worry about any egress bandwidth fees. This means that you can transfer data to and from cloud storage as much as you need to.
Here are some extra benefits of using Cloudflare R2 as your cloud storage service:
Plus, Cloudflare R2 is much cheaper than other popular options. Its storage is free for the first 10GB and then costs $.015 per GB. This is more affordable than AWS storage, which starts at $.023 per GB.
Because Cloudflare R2 is so scalable and affordable, it is a great choice for website owners who need to store backups off-site. Let’s show you how to send your WordPress backups to this cloud storage service!
Duplicator Pro is a flexible WordPress backup plugin that supports a variety of S3-compatible storage services. With this tool, you’ll be able to instantly connect your website with Cloudflare R2, securing backups in the cloud.
Along with Cloudflare R2, here are all of the cloud storage providers you can use with Duplicator:
To get started, choose a subscription for Duplicator Pro. There is a free version of the plugin, but you’ll need to upgrade to start creating cloud backups.
Next, install and activate Duplicator in your WordPress dashboard. If you’re not sure how to do this, check out this helpful guide on installing WordPress plugins.
As a final step, head over to Duplicator Pro » Settings » Licensing:
Paste your license key and hit Activate. You’ve just unlocked Duplicator’s cloud storage features!
Once you set up Duplicator, it’s time to create a Cloudflare R2 account. The first 10GB of storage is free, so you can hit Get Started for Free.
Enter an email and password for the new account. Be sure to verify your email address.
In your Cloudflare dashboard, click on the R2 tab. Here, enter your payment information. You’ll only be charged if you exceed the monthly storage limits:
After this, click on Create Bucket:
Name the new bucket. You can allow Cloudflare to automatically choose your bucket’s region or specify one yourself. Then, hit Create Bucket again:
Now you’ll have a cloud storage bucket to store your website backups!
To allow Duplicator to save backups to your Cloudflare R2 storage account, you’ll need to generate access keys. On the Overview page in your dashboard, click on Manage R2 API Tokens:
Then, hit Create API Token:
After naming the token, select the Object Read & Write permissions level:
Apply these permissions to all of your buckets, or the one you just created. You can also decide how long this token will stay active:
Once you create the API token, you’ll get access keys. Copy these so you can use them in the next step:
You’ll also need your S3 API endpoint. This will be in your bucket settings:
With all of this information, you can fully authorize Duplicator to send backups to Cloudflare R2 cloud storage!
At this point, open your WordPress dashboard and go to Duplicator Pro » Storage » Add New:
Name the new storage location. Select Cloudflare R2 as the Type:
Under Authorization, paste your access key, secret key, and endpoint. If you allowed Cloudflare to choose your region, enter auto. Finally, add your bucket name:
You can adjust the Max Packages value if you want to avoid storing too many backups in your Cloudflare account. Duplicator will delete old packages, optimizing your storage space.
To make sure the setup is correct, click Test Storage. If Duplicator can create and delete a small file on Cloudflare R2, you have a new cloud backup location!
Now you can back up your website to the cloud! First, head over to Duplicator Pro » Packages » Create New:
Give the backup a name or keep the automatically generated one. Under Storage, choose Cloudflare R2:
If you expand the Archive section, you can customize the backup. Select All Components if you want to save a full copy of your website. However, you can easily uncheck certain elements like inactive plugins, themes, or the media library:
Hit Next. Then, Duplicator will fully scan your site:
If everything looks fine, click on the Build button. During the backup process, Duplicator will make a copy of your WordPress site and automatically send it to the cloud.
To make sure your site is backed up as often as it should be, consider setting up automatic backups. This way, you’ll never forget to save your data. Plus, it takes one maintenance task off your hands.
With Duplicator, you can automate backups in just a few minutes. First, find Duplicator » Schedules » Add New:
Give the schedule a descriptive name. You can choose the default package template or create a new one for custom backups:
Under Storage, select Cloudflare R2 as your cloud provider:
Then, you can choose how often you want your site automatically backed up. Duplicator supports hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly auto backups.
If you’d like to, select a custom start time. At the bottom of the page, enable the schedule and save it.
You might panic after you experience an unexpected WordPress error, cyber attack, server downtime, or other critical issue. This is why it’s so important to have your backups stored in the cloud.
If you regularly send backups to Cloudflare storage, they’ll help you restore your website to its normal functionality. All you’ll need to do is open your bucket and find the folder where your backups are stored:
Here, you’ll see your most recent backups:
Each backup will have two files: the archive and the installer. The archive contains a copy of your site files, database, and any other data you included in the backup. The installer, on the other hand, helps you unpack the backup in a new location.
If you can still access your WordPress dashboard, all you’ll need is the archive file. Click on the three-dot icon to the right and hit Download:
Then, go back to your website and find Duplicator Pro » Import. Upload the backup archive file:
After it uploads, you’ll see information about the backup:
Hit Continue. On the next page, click on the Launch Installer button:
Now, the Duplicator installer wizard will walk you through the restoration. Be sure to select Restore single site as the Install Type:
On the other hand, some errors could lock you out of your dashboard entirely. In this case, use your favorite file manager to upload both the archive and installer files into your root directory:
Then, open a browser window and paste this URL: https://your-domain/installer.php
To launch the Duplicator installer, replace “installer.php” with the name of your installer file.
Cloudflare R2 can be a worthwhile cloud storage service if you’re looking for a more affordable solution than Amazon S3. Cloudflare R2 offers the same data durability, scalability, and security, without any egress bandwidth fees.
When it comes to pricing, Cloudflare R2 offers 10GB of storage space for free every month, while Amazon S3 only offers 5GB. Both have pay-as-you-go pricing, but Cloudflare R2 plans start at $.015 per GB per month and Amazon S3 increases this to $.023 per GB.
You can easily upload backup files to Cloudflare R2 using Duplicator Pro, the best WordPress backup plugin. After adding your Cloudflare R2 bucket as a new storage location, create a new backup. If you choose Cloudflare R2 as the storage location, Duplicator will automatically back up your website to the cloud.
The maximum upload size for Cloudflare R2 is 4.995GB. This applies whenever you’re uploading a file or uploading one part of a multi-part upload. You can increase this limit by contacting Cloudflare’s account team.
We hope this guide helped you create a Cloudflare R2 backup for your WordPress site!
Along with sending them to the cloud, here are some other ways to optimize your backups:
Do you want to protect your data from unexpected errors? Download Duplicator Pro to save your site backups in 11 different cloud storage locations!
