Question FTP Server Backup

[LuisM]

Server operating system version

Debian 12.8

Plesk version and microupdate number

Plesk Obsidian 18.0.66 Update 1 Web Host Edition

Hello everyone,

I have the following problem. We have set up an external server as a backup server under ‘Tools & Settings’ -> Backup Manager.
The backups are also running successfully.

However, we have the following problems:
1. It is still possible to back up to the Plesk server manually, but this should be disabled. You should only be able to back up to the external server.

2. The bigger problem is that when I select a subscription or a domain and click on Backup, no backups are displayed.

How can I solve these problems?
Many thanks in advance!

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Hello, @LuisM . Do you see any error/warning in the subscription Backup section? If not, could you please check the following log files and confirm if you see any errors:

/var/log/plesk/PMM/backup-XX/pmmcli.log

/var/log/plesk/PMM/pmmcli.log

 

[LuisM]

Hey @Sebahat.hadzhi ,

as far as I can see, there is no apparent error. But I think there are also backups in the log, right?
Log paste

 

[Sebahat.hadzhi]

Thank you, @LuisM . I am also unable to see any error message in the provided entries. Could you please confirm if you are checking the subscription with the admin user or the corresponding customer/reseller account? If you are not logged as admin, not seeing the backups is expected behavior.

 

[LuisM]

Hi @Sebahat.hadzhi ,

I checked this with the admin user.

 

[Kaspar]

1. It is still possible to back up to the Plesk server manually, but this should be disabled. You should only be able to back up to the external server.

As an administrator you always have to option to choose where you want to store your backup (locally, remote or both). There is no option to hide any storage locations for administrators.

 

[LuisM]

@Kaspar

Where can I choose the location for my customers?

If I start a backup, I can choose both storages.
How can I deny the local the storage?

 

[Kaspar]

You can prohibit your customers to store subscription and account backups locally in the Service Plans by disabling the relevant permissions on the Permissions tab. Note that even when these permissions are disabled, administrators can still store backups locally for subscriptions using these service plans. It only affects customers.

 

[LuisM]

Thank you very much!
Now I still have the problem that I don't see any backups (even as admin) when I open the domain directly in the plesk panel.

 

[Kaspar]

I am not sure completely why that is. I suspect that only when a full server backup has been stored locally, this backup is also accessible on subscriptions for a restoration of the subscription.

 

[LuisM]

Hey @Kaspar and @Sebahat.hadzhi

thank you for your feedback.

However, I don't quite understand the logic here. It looks like a bug. Can I submit a bug report somewhere?

 

[Kaspar]

I suspect this is expected behavior, not a bug. To my knowledge this has always been how the backup functionality worked in Plesk.

In any case it should not matter much. As full server local backups are only visible in subscriptions to administrators any way (not to customers). And as an administrator you can still select to restore a single (or multiple) subscription(s) from any full server backup via Tools & Settings -> Backup Manager. So the fact that remotely stored full server backups aren't shown in a subscription does not prohibit the restoration of the subscription from any remote full server backup.

 

[LuisM]

But what sense does that make?

After all, I've outsourced the backups to a remote server to save storage space? So I don't want to create a local full backup first in order to see the remote backups (full backups are also stored remotely). Then I would be using the local storage space again, which I don't want to do

 

[Kaspar]

It's a matter of perspective I guess.

To make an analogy, imagine a big department store in a city. The department has a entrance at the front of the store along the main street. In this analogy, to me, this is accessing any full server backup via Tools & Settings -> Backup Manager. The tools & Settings page being the main street in my imagination. Now maybe the department store has a another entrance in it's basement connected to a subway station. Which allows subway travelers to enter the department store directly from the station, without needing to leave the station. This entrance is of course only accessible to subway travelers. To me this is having the option to view local full server backups on a subscription. It's possible, but with some limitation.

Maybe not the best analogy, but the point I want to make is that you could see this as Plesk actually not showing any full server backups on subscription level, expect for local backups. While you could also see it as Plesk only showing local backups while remotes are missing.

I am sure there is a different perspective on this as well, which might be equally valid.

But like I mentioned in my previous post, as far a functionally goes, it doesn't matter. You're still able to restore a subscription from a remote backup.

 

[LuisM]

Thank you for the explanation.
Yes, that's right, I as admin can restore it. But what about the customer? How can he restore himself if he doesn't see any backups?

 

[Kaspar]

Customers can only access their own backups. Meaning a backup that they have created (or which you as an administrator have created while being logged on as a customer). Customers do not have any access to full server backups.

 

[LuisM]

Okay, thank you very much. I thought the customers also have access to the automatic backups.