Dreamhost provides a free and automated site backup and restoration system called Snapshots. Though this service is not guaranteed by DreamHost it deserves a mention and some praise as such backups are almost unheared of in a shared hosting environment.

So if you accidentally erased a needed file off the server, messed up your site with a software upgrade or your site was hacked… you can use Snapshot Backups to restore your site back to good.

Snapshot data restoration can be accessed easily through the DreamHost Web Panel under Domains > Manage Domains. The restore button for each domain hosted is listed in the rightmost column under “Actions”.

Clicking on the restore button for a domain will bring up a option menu like the following:

Giving you the option of restoring backups from 3 different time periods, as well as the option to directly restore a backup over top of the existing site, or just place a copy of the backup to an accessible spot on the server.

Remember this is a not a guaranteed service, and you should also keep your own offline backups.

Further info:

Support Wiki’s page on Snapshots - Detailed instructions on Snaphot restoration and troubleshooting.