How to Restore a Moodle Site from Hosting Backups

Summary: This guide explains how to restore a Moodle site from hosting-level backups, including choosing the correct backup set, restoring into a controlled location, and validating the recovered site before reopening it.

Restoring from a hosting backup is straightforward only if you know exactly what was backed up, when it was taken, and where the restored data will land. This guide is about making that explicit.

Step 1: Restore into a dedicated location first

Do not restore straight into the live production directory unless you have no other option. Create a separate restore directory or environment first so you can inspect what you got back before switching traffic to it.

Step 2: Identify the right source backup

Before restoring anything, confirm:

• which VPS or host contains the backup
• the date and time you need
• whether the backup is full, incremental, or differential
• whether it contains code, database, and moodledata

This matters because a “successful” restore of the wrong backup set is still an outage.

Step 3: Restore all three Moodle layers

A Moodle restore is only coherent if these three layers match:

• the codebase
• the database
• moodledata

If the hosting provider restores only one layer first, check carefully whether you still need to recover the others manually.

Step 4: Validate before putting the site back online

After the restore, test:

• login
• course access
• plugin pages
• file delivery
• cron
• outbound email

Do not reopen the site just because the homepage loads. A restore that serves the front page but breaks uploaded files or plugins is not finished.

Understand incremental and differential restore implications

The SOP explicitly notes that restore behavior depends on whether the backup chain is full, incremental, or differential. If your provider uses a layered restore process, make sure the final recovered state represents the point in time you think it does.

Practice the process before a real incident

If you have never tested the hosting provider’s restore process, treat that as a risk in itself. The best time to discover restore limitations is not during a production outage.

Solin specializes in Moodle recovery planning, restores, and hosting operations. Need help? Contact us.