Virtualmin File Backup - A hardened, auto-discovering backup module

[MrZaKaRiA]

Hi everyone,

Following up on the Docker module I shared recently, here is the next one from the batch of third-party modules I’ve been working on: Virtualmin File Backup.

I built this because I got tired of relying on standard bash scripts—like running a zip -r loop over /home/*/public_htmlcombined with a find ... -exec rm -rf for cleanup. Those scripts are fragile, they run as root, they often leak cloud credentials into ps, and they can wipe the wrong directory if something goes wrong.

I wanted a secure, point-and-click UI directly inside Virtualmin that handles everything safely.

What it does: The module automatically discovers every public_html directory across your server (it reads Virtualmin layouts, plus cPanel/Plesk if you have legacy structures migrated over) and creates a clean, individual .zip archive named exactly after the domain or sub-domain.

Main Features:

• Auto-Discovery: No manual typing of paths. It finds your web-roots and gives you a checklist.

• One Zip per Domain: Each site gets its own archive (e.g., example.com.zip, shop.example.com.zip) stored in a timestamped folder.

• Cloud Uploads: Built-in rclone support for Amazon S3, Dropbox, and Google Drive. It can even import existing remotes you already have in rclone.conf.

• Safe Retention: It only ever deletes its own timestamped backup sets. No dangerous rm -rf commands.

• Security First: Passwords and cloud tokens are never passed on the command line where they can be sniffed. It also supports optional GnuPG AES-256 encryption at rest.

• Scheduling: Set up “all web-roots” cron jobs directly from the UI, so new Virtualmin domains you add later are backed up automatically.

Requirements:

• Webmin or Virtualmin

• zip and unzip installed on the host

• Perl JSON::PP (ships natively with Perl 5.14+)

• Optional: rclone (for cloud uploads) and gpg (for encryption)

Installation: You can review the source and download the .wbm.gz package from my GitHub here:GitHub - MrZaKaRiA/Virtualmin-File-Backup: Full Virtualmin Webmin Public_html Backup · GitHub

1. Grab the filebackup.wbm.gz file from the Releases page.

2. Log into your panel and navigate to Webmin > Webmin Configuration > Webmin Modules.

3. Upload the package and click Install.

4. You’ll find it under Servers > File Backup.

Just like the Docker module, this is fully open-source (GPLv2). Let me know what you think! If you spot any bugs or have ideas for improvements, please feel free to drop an issue on the GitHub repo.