Why do server and website backups fail sometimes?

In this little piece I am going to highlight some reasons of why backups may fail.

While many of the reasons below are common and apply to a wide range of different backup methods, I am specifically assuming you are using a backup service like simplebackups.com to back up your servers and databases.

Server-related causes:

• Not enough disk space
• Server runs out of memory
• Server has been placed behind a firewall and cannot be accessed
• The backup is taking too long to be created and eventually times out
• Trying to back up a non-existent directory or one that has been deleted
• Trying to back up a directory which you don’t have permissions to read
• Invalid/changed server credentials (host, port, username, ssh key, or password)

Storage-related causes:

• A problem uploading backup to remote storage
• Invalid/changed storage credentials (key, secret, region, or bucket)

Database-related causes:

• Trying to back up an empty database
• Invalid/changed database credentials (db host, db port, db username, db password, or db name)