Question How to restore a user's database without Plesk?

[PeopleInside]

Server operating system version

Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS

Plesk version and microupdate number

Version 18.0.46

Hi, if Plesk is not avaiable and I have a full Plesk backup,
how can I restore a database for example in XAMPP phpmyadmin?

Looking inside the backup file I see the folder database, inside there are folders with my database name but inside that database name folder there are multiple files


For unzip those files needed GitHub - mcmilk/7-Zip-zstd: 7-Zip with support for Brotli, Fast-LZMA2, Lizard, LZ4, LZ5 and Zstandard but after do that there are multiple dumps file, how I can import as single database in phpmyadmin without Plesk?

I expect to find a single sql file to upload, how I can do?

 

[PeopleInside]

Those files if uncompressed has no extension.
I'm watching this files on Windows.

How can I generate .sql file from those to be able to import on XAMPP phpmyadmin?

 

[Bitpalast]

Have you already successfully uncompressed the files, meaning that when you open them in a text editor you can see a MySQL dump (text) file? In that case you can simply import that file, no matter if it has an .sql extension or not.

If you have not yet successfully uncompressed the tzst files, this could become a bit more difficult. Many have reported issues with uncompressing tzst files. It is best to do it on Linux, because tar can to this with a native command like
# tar --use-compress-program=unzstd -xvf archive.tar.zst
Plesk is not needed for it.
If you want to try it on Windows, I think WinZip can do it, as Peazip Free Zstandard compression utility, open, extract ZST files and 7Zip should also be able to uncompress them.

 

[PeopleInside]

@Peter Debik yes I can open the uncompressed file in a editor like Notepad ++ and I see the database text but if I import file by file I get errors and the database is not restored correctly. I tested this and is not working

 

[Bitpalast]

Can you give an example what errors you are getting?

 

[PeopleInside]

2022-09-22_17-27-03

Shared from Screencast.com

www.screencast.com

831 errors were found during analysis.

1. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 36)
2. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 37)
3. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 38)
4. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 39)
5. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 40)
6. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 41)
7. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 42)
8. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 43)
9. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 44)
10. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 45)
11. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 46)
12. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 47)
13. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 48)
14. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 49)
15. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 50)
16. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 51)
17. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 52)
18. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 53)
19. Unexpected character. (near "" at position 54

 

[Bitpalast]

Probably the uncompressing did not work as expected. The first line needs to be removed from the result:

The lines after that look correct (in your video). Also check for lines at the end of your file. There might be some more that don't belong there.

 

[PeopleInside]

No line at the end and seems also if I look in all separated file this is not my fully Wordpress database. Just few database column is imported and I never recognize what is. This files are completely wrong. I'm not able to restore database from that files.

How to recover the database without Plesk and with this strange and not clear files?
There is a way I can generate a single .sql file and try to import without all this errors?

 

[PeopleInside]

I see I need remove the first line than seems works. LEt's see if I'm able to restore Wordpress. I will update here, thanks

 

[Bitpalast]

The problem is not the archive, the problem is the software that decodes zstd. It's just not working right. I recommend doing the uncompressing on a Linux machine. With tar and zstd extension it will work properly and you'll get the right file format back.

 

[PeopleInside]

I tested with other unzip file peazip the issue is the same.
File are extract same and after restoring all files in the database the website is not working.
Amen, I think will this just mean to me if I do not do a manual backup of the database or have not Plesk to upload the backup file I will loose my databases

 

[PeopleInside]

If I try to paste the first file content removing the first line I get:

Error​

Static analysis:

1 errors were found during analysis.

1. Missing expression. (near "ON" at position 25)

SQL query: Copy

Edit

SET FOREIGN_KEY_CHECKS = ON;

MySQL said:

#2006 - MySQL server has gone away

***
Maybe I should import the file instead of copy and paste the text in the SQL space.

 

[Bitpalast]

You do not need Plesk. You only need a Linux operating system with tar (standard) and the zstd extension for tar (pretty much standard, too). This has nothing to do with Plesk. Plesk is simply using the existing Linux tools to compress/uncompress backup files. If your software cannot handle the format correctly, that's a problem of that software, not a Plesk problem.

There has been a similar discussion here some while ago, and I still don't understand why users insist to use uncompress methods that are just not living up to the zstd format. Why not uncompress it on a system where it was compressed? You cannot make apply pie from pears.

Here are some more articles

https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4411171274770-How-to-extract-files-from-a-Plesk-backup-archive

Issue - Plesk backups, corrupt?

The warning 'There are data after the end of archive' is normal for Plesk backups. They actually contain additional info after the end of archive. Do you have other errors with 7zip? The above error i was getting in PeaZip, below issue i am getting while using 7zip BackUp Issue

talk.plesk.com

You can also revert your Plesk to the old "deflate" algorithm for backups so that your local compression software can unpack the files. To do so, simply add this directive to the pmm section of the panel.ini file:

[pmm]
compressionMethod = deflate

 

[PeopleInside]

Thanks for the help

 

[Cike76]

For Wordpress backups, use Akeeba Backup... works wonderfully...