Plesk 9.01 backup to FTP

[mycool]

Hi guys,

I am having trouble with plesk 9 runnings bckups to a remote FTP server. When I use the backup feture at admin level it fails to complete a backup. I have tried at reseller level and it also fails to complete the backup. At domain level it comepletes successfully.

This does not seem to matter if it is a scheduled backup task or a backup task I start manually.

Please advise what I can try or test to resolve this?

Thanks.

 

[risede]

I have been frustrated and angry about this ever since "upgrading" (that's a joke), to v9.x. I review this forum on a daily basis looking for answers from Parallels about this issue. About 2 months ago, we finally got an acknowledgment of the issue, but since then - nothing.

I'm surprised that you are able to get the ftp backup working for individual domains though. I cannot get that to work either, and it's the most important part of my business. For my hosting clients, I used to offer off-site (off-server) backups for their individual domains that they could then backup themselves. I would set plesk up to backup individual domains to an offsite server via ftp. I would then give my clients access to that ftp server to pull their own backups if they so chose. It relieved the web server from having to serve each customers ftp traffic for backups.

The new v9 backup program does not even create an archive - only an xml file of what the archive would contain. It seems that the actual archive is ONLY built when you tell it to FTP the file OR, if you click the "download" link in the Plesk interface. So at this point, I cannot even run the backup to the server repository and have my clients ftp (pull) their backups off the server.

This has *really* caused a problem with my business and my customers. It's so bad, that I have had to resort to extreme measure (manual - weekly backups). So I comb this forum daily to see if there's any word on fixing this broken mess of an "upgrade" and for months - no word at all.

At this point, I think I am waiting for something catastrophic to happen to make me move away from Plesk and fix this horrendous problem and lack of support from parallels. Yuck... What a sucky solution...

 

[zebrafilm]

Fully agree. It gives me soooo much extra work to make local backups of all domains and delete the old ones, since this is another " feature" that does not work.

Please please fix this asap, its been month ago that this was reported.

IN another thread there is a suggested option to switch of the App Layer Gateway service but that has been off for years on my system and does not make a difference.

 

[mycool]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your posts. I have tried backing up to the server repository and it fails also with error "This file is not a valid backup file."

Plesk staff. Can you please update us with any news or progress on this issue. Even if it is only to state that "this issue will be fixed in the next upgrade to be released on date 'X' "

I just need to know how to get a valid backup running FTP or otherwise.

Thanks

 

[indi]

As of now there seems to be no easy way to make a complete backup of your Plesk installation. Shouldnt this be a priority issue?

 

[risede]

You would think this would be a priority for parallels, but contrary to the earlier post that this was reported a month ago, I was working with my ISP that had a ticket open with Parallels on this issue over 3 months ago. Needless to say that I am angry and coping with this issue by ranting on this forums whenever someone posts about this issue. Trust me... It provides a little relief to me, but my customers are still the ones that are suffering - got my fingers crossed that nothing happens before this is fixed.

 

[Michael Schoppa]

Did you deaktivate Windows Firewall?

I had the same Problems.
But when i deaktivate windows Firewall it works
Guess WF block something.

but i do not search for settings in WF
Greets
Michael
Germany

 

[indi]

It's turned off, has always been. We have a hardware FW sitting in front of the Plesk server. I've tried uploading zipped files through the hardware FW to our designated external FTP and have had zero problem with it. It's only the Plesk FTP backup that doesn't work.

Also it seems as only a certain percentage of the backup is being sent. The offsite files have increased in size but only about 3,5% of the complete backup is transfered.

We always end up with a corrupt file...

 

[mycool]

Hi All,

Just checking in on progress on this issue. Can anyone from Plesk respond and give us some idea of when this issue will be resolved? Or steps to work around the issue?

Thanks.

 

[indi]

Workaround

Hi, I'm using the following for workaround:

Manual commandline backup using pleskbackup
FTP from commandline with -s:ftpcommands to script FTP-session
blat to send a piped output logfile to someones mail

pleskbackup.bat:

@echo off
del <plesk_temp_backupfile> /Q
del <plesk_temp_backuplog> /Q
set todaysdate=%date:~2,2%%date:~5,2%%date:~8,2%
c:
cd \Program Files\Parallels\Plesk\bin
pleskbackup --server --output-file=<plesk_temp_backupdir>\plesk_%todaysdate%.zip -v -v -v >> <plesk_temp_backupdir>\pleskbackup_%todaysdate%.log
ftp -s:<plesk_scriptdir>\ftpcommands.txt >> <plesk_temp_backupdir>\pleskbackup_%todaysdate%.log
<plesk_scriptdir>\blat <plesk_temp_backupdir>\pleskbackup_%todaysdate%.log -server <smtpserver> -f pleskbackup@<yourdomain> -subject "Pleskbackup %todaysdate%" -to <you@yourmail> -attach <plesk_temp_backupdir>\pleskbackup_%todaysdate%.log

<plesk_temp_backupfile> = A zip file in some temp folder, ex. "c:\temp\pleskbackup*.zip"
<plesk_temp_backuplog> = A log file in some temp folder, ex. "c:\temp\pleskbackup*.log"
<plesk_temp_backupdir> = A directory used for storing your exported backups temporarily, ex. "c:\temp"
<plesk_scriptdir> = Directory that holds the script and ftpcommands.txt
<yourdomain> = Your domain?
<you@yourmail> = The address you want the backuplog to be sent to

ftpcommands.txt:

open <ftpserver>
<ftp_username>
<ftp_password>
cd <ftp_backupdir>
lcd <pleskserver_temp_backup_dir>
put plesk*.zip
ls
quit

<ftpserver> = FTP server address
<ftp_username> = FTP server username
<ftp_password> = FTP server password
<ftp_backupdir> = The FTP directory that should hold your backups
<plesk_temp_backupdir> = The directory that holds your exported backups temporarily, ex. "c:\temp", must match the one in pleskbackup.bat

Look at the attached files for blat and the other scriptfiles. Also, dont forget to schedule this!

BTW, if someone knows a nice commandline tool to calculate dates from string input, please let me know! Would make it possible to delete older backups. Something like %todaysdate%-5

 

[mikelegg]

Here's the ultimate solution ...

http://www.cpanel.net/windows/overview.html

It's in beta right now and about to enter beta2 in the next few weeks. They are looking to jump to RC0 at hostingcon2009.

Bye Bye Plesk

 

[jamescrown]

pleskbackup.exe in 9 is not as fast as backup.exe in 8...