As stated, Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup are designed to make your life easier. It does that by streamlining the workflow of backing up and restoring (or migrating) your site. From Akeeba Solo's and Akeeba Backup's perspective, restoring to the same host and location, copying your site in a subdirectory / subdomain of the same host or transferring your site to a completely new host is identical. That's right, Akeeba Solo and Akeeba Backup doesn't care if you are restoring, copying, cloning or migrating your site! The process is always the same, so you only have to learn it once. The learning curve is very smooth, too!
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RESTORE TO A DIFFERENT DATABASE TECHNOLOGY. IT WILL NOT WORK, IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK AND IT CANNOT BE MADE TO WORK. For example if you took a backup from a site using a MySQL database you CANNOT restore this database on a PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server or Windows Azure SQL database.
The typical workflow involves using two utilities from the Akeeba backup and restoration suite: Akeeba Solo or Akeeba Backup itself, and Akeeba Kickstart. Here is the overview:
Install Akeeba Solo or Akeeba Backup and configure it to taste. Or use the automated to automatically configure it with the perfect settings for your server and site. Hit on the button and let your site back up. When it finishes up, click on the button. Click on the download links on the far-right of the only backup entry from the list - or, better yet, use FTP to do that - saving all parts of the backup archive somewhere on your local PC.
Extract the kickstart-VERSION.zip file you downloaded from our Downloads repository. The only contained files are kickstart.php and the translation INI files. Upload them to the server on which you want to restore your site to.
Upload all parts of the backup archive (do not extract it yet, just upload the files) to the server on which you want to restore your site to (called from now on the target server ). Your server's directory should now contain the kickstart.php and the parts of the backup archive (.jpa, .j01, etc).
Fire up your browser and visit the Kickstart URL on your target server, for example http://www.example.com/kickstart.php .
Change any option - if necessary - and hit the button. Sit back while Kickstart extracts the backup archive directly on the server! It's ultra-fast too (especially when compared to FTP uploading all those hundreds or thousands of files). If it fails with an error, go back, select the Upload using FTP option and supply your FTP connection information, then click on Start again.
A new window pops up. It's the Backup Restoration Script, which was placed inside your archive at backup time. Do not close the Kickstart window yet!
Follow the prompts of Backup Restoration Script, filling in the details of the new server (most importantly, the new database connection).
When the Backup Restoration Script is done, it prompts you to close the tab or window it's running in. Do so.
Back to the Kickstart window, click the button titled . Kickstart removes the installation directory, restores your .htaccess file (if you had one in the first place), removes the backup archive and itself.
Believe it or not, you have a working site! Honestly! Click on the button to visit your new site.
If you are restoring to a different subdirectory on the same server as the original site, or to a whole different host, you might need to edit your .htaccess file for your site to work properly. This is all described in the restoration section of this guide. If you need help backing up your site, take a look in the Backup Now section of this guide.