# How to Back Up Files with SnapShooter

SnapShooter is a cloud backup and recovery solution. Use SnapShooter to back up servers, volumes, databases, and applications from DigitalOcean and other cloud providers.

Use SnapShooter to automatically create a full or incremental backup of your server files, compress it, and schedule future backups.

## Connect a Server and Storage Provider

First, [connect your server to your SnapShooter account](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/connect-servers/index.html.md).

[How to Connect Servers Using SSH](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/connect-servers/index.html.md): Connect servers directly to SnapShooter to set up backup jobs, which run using SnapShooter’s custom engine to back up hosted resources (like files, databases, and applications) to your chosen S3-based storage provider.

Next, choose a storage provider.

You can use SnapShooter as your storage provider with [SnapShooter Simple Storage](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/details/features/index.html.md), which lets you store backup data without setting up your own storage. Alternatively, you can [set up DigitalOcean Spaces Object Storage](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/use-spaces-for-storage/index.html.md) or [other storage providers](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/use-other-storage-providers/index.html.md), like AWS S3.

## Create the Backup Job

Then, from the [SnapShooter app](https://app.snapshooter.com/), in the left menu under **Backups**, click **Backup Jobs**. On the **Backup Jobs** page, click the green **Create New Job** in the top right to go to the jobs creation page.

To create an incremental file backup, click **Incremental File**. To create a full file backup, click **Server File**.

When you click the backup job you want to create, a new section about the job appears at the bottom of the screen. Enter a name for the job, then click **Continue**.

On the **Choose Server** page, select the server you want to back up. If you didn’t add it earlier, you can also connect it from this page.

Once you select a server, click **Next**.

On the **Configure Backup** page, in the **Set Config Variables** section, you can customize the backup job. In the **Root Path** section, enter the directory paths that you want to back up. In the **Exclude list** section, add any directories you want to exclude from the backup.

Optionally, on the **Configure Backup** page, in the **Scripts** section, you can add any [pre- or post-backup scripts](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/add-pre-and-post-backup-scripts/index.html.md).

When you finish filling out the options, click the **Test** button to confirm that the configuration works. Then, in the **Test Output** section, underneath the successful output, click **Save and Continue**.

On the **Connect Storage** page, select the storage provider that you want to use to store the backups. You can also connect a new storage provider from this page.

Finally, on the **Setup Schedule Primary** page, choose the frequency of backups. For incremental backups, enter your cron syntax and retention policy. For full backups, choose your backup frequency and retention policy. Then, click **Set Schedule and Finish**.

On the detail page for your server, you can see the backup configuration and schedule. You can also click **Backup Now** to run a backup job manually.

We recommend manually running the first job to confirm that it works. Depending on the compression level and the size of the backup, it may take some time to complete. Every minute, SnapShooter checks the job’s progress and reports it on the **Log** section.

Once the job completes, check your storage provider for the backup files.