Today, nothing is complete without a good backup. For sure, this also counts for websites. Akeeba Backup is for me by far the best one I already have seen: easy to configure, it does what it has to do and it's free for the basic stuff.

There is plenty of information on the developers website about installation and configuration of this component, but this manual is just meant to be a very quick overview on how to install the component in a default way so you can setup your new site very quickly with all necessary components ready. As usual, we will work with 3 parts, which are

1. Pre Installation Process
   This part will describe what you have to do before you can actually install the plugin
2. Installation Process
   This part will of course describe the steps in the installation process of the plugin itself
3. Post Installation Process
   where we will walk through the steps necessary to make the plugin available on all pages, menus, ... so it can be used throughout the site.

Pre Installation Process

1. Log in to the Administration Panel of your website
2. Go to Extensions > Extensions Manager
3. Search for 'Akeeba'
4. Click on the Akeeba link to go to the download screen
5. Click on the Install Button

Installation Process

1. Confirm the fact that you want to install the component by clicking the Install Button.

Post Installation Process

1. After the installation, you just need a limited configuraton before you can start using your plugin. On the screen you get after the installation has finished, click on the 'Post Installation Wizard' link as indicated
2. READ the information you get on the Post Installation Configuration CAREFULLY (images Steps 2 & 3). You have to check all marks except 'Backup before updating Joomla' but make sure that you understand what your read and accept!
3. Click on the 'Apply these preferences' button
4. Now the Benchmarking process for Akeeba will be started automagically. Let the process run and don't click away from the page. Be aware this can take up to a couple of minutes, depending on your server speed.
5. Once the benchmarking has been finished, you get the image just like you can see in Step 5. Click on the Backup Now button.
6. You're ready to take your first full site backup. Please be careful and take your backups on a regular basis. Scheduled backup is part of the PRO version of Akeeba, if you are running a real critical site, it's most probably worth the money to have this option enabled.