CyberPanel backup and restore demonstration — publication evidence
Prepared 26 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi)

Environment: existing owner-controlled test VPS, CyberPanel 3.0.7, Ubuntu 24.04, OpenLiteSpeed, PHP 8.3, MariaDB. No customer website was used.
Demo website: backup-lab-20261026.cyberpanel.net
Synthetic data only: three database records including CP-DEMO-1042 and BACKUP-PROOF-20261026.

Sequence:
1. Created a dedicated demo website and registered its MariaDB database through CyberPanel utilities.
2. Captured the original page and baseline file hash, ordered database rows, and HTTP JSON response.
3. Used the actual CyberPanel Create Backup UI with destination Home.
4. Verified archive completion, size (4,395 bytes), contents, and SHA-256.
5. Copied the archive to /home/backup for discovery by Restore Backup.
6. Downloaded a private second copy to the operator laptop and checked its SHA-256 against the server copy.
7. Changed the demo PHP file and two database values; captured the changed page and verification state.
8. Deleted only the newly created disposable website using CyberPanel CLI. Browser then returned a real HTTP 404.
9. Used the actual CyberPanel Restore Backup UI and Start Restoration button with the original archive.
10. Captured Completed / Done and the recovered website; independently rechecked the PHP file hash, all three database rows, and HTTP proof.

Result: 7/7 checks passed. The recovered file and database records match the baseline exactly. The off-server archive has the same checksum as the on-server archive. See verification.json, baseline.json, changed.json, and restored.json.

Scope and limitations:
- This is the manual full-site account-recreation workflow on this installed 3.0.7 build, not WordPress Manager restore or an in-place overwrite of an existing account. Inspection confirmed this path rejects an account that already exists.
- The drill used the same lab server. It did not test a second-server migration, disaster recovery of the whole VPS, database point-in-time recovery, mailbox delivery, application logins, SSL renewal, automated schedules, remote/SFTP jobs, Google Drive or retention policies.
- Home is local storage. The additional laptop download proves a separate copy existed; it does not demonstrate a configured automated off-site destination.
- The archive is very small; the panel rounds its size to 0MB. Actual verified size is 4,395 bytes, not zero bytes.
- Server timestamps are UTC and show 25 October. The test ran shortly after midnight on 26 October in Pakistan.
- The deletion utility retained the disposable Unix account because PHP workers had not exited within its 60-second wait. Website files and registered database were removed; account recreation and recovery succeeded. No manual restore of content was used.
- Restore emitted statusWriter(None) diagnostics while recreating the account; the UI still reached Completed / Done and the independent file/database/HTTP comparisons all passed. These messages are not evidence of a clean server log and are retained here as QA observations.
- The restored test website and archive are retained for review. The existing DNS tutorial lab was not removed. One new DNS-only A record was created for the dedicated backup demo hostname.

Media disclosure:
Actual browser screenshots from this run, edited with crops, motion graphics, timed English captions, locally synthesized English narration, and an original generated instrumental bed. No CyberPanel UI or completion result was fabricated. Idle time is omitted; video duration is not a restore-time benchmark.

Publication: The user approved publication on 26 October 2026. These are the verification notes captured before publication; current campaign permalinks are recorded separately. Credentials and the private backup archive are excluded from public assets.