Issue plesk backup with password not working

[mudassarkhan]

Server operating system version

ubuntu 22

Plesk version and microupdate number

obsidian 18.0.52

I had issues with my server and had to re-install linux.
I have acronis backup, so i tried to do a full server restore and fix the issue, but the issue remained.

I then found the plesk backups and did a restore on the fresh plesk install. however it changed all of the passwords (database, email accounts etc).
There are too many users to update all of the passwords individually.
I then did a full server restore from acronis with the old plesk and carried out a fresh backup of all settings and content with a password protection.
I did a wipe on the server and tried to reinstall from the backup files however it doesn't ask me for the password. It just says this backup was made from another plesk etc etc.

It is days now that I have been wiping and restoring the server, do I need to restore the entire old server and then try another backup?
Why did the backup not use the manual password I set instead of the plesk key?

Is it even possible to restore to another plesk server in this way??

 

[Peter Debik]

I then found the plesk backups and did a restore on the fresh plesk install. however it changed all of the passwords (database, email accounts etc).

This happens when the backup was password protected on creation, but on restore the password was incorrect or missing.

I then did a full server restore from acronis with the old plesk and carried out a fresh backup of all settings and content with a password protection.
I did a wipe on the server and tried to reinstall from the backup files however it doesn't ask me for the password. It just says this backup was made from another plesk etc

That can be correct, because each backup has a key that is compared to one stored on the server, so that it is not possible to accidentally overwrite one server with the content of another. When you create a fresh Plesk installation, the key is different from what the backup contains. To restore the backup to the new Plesk installation, please add this to /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini:

[pmm]
allowRestoreModifiedDumps = on

It is days now that I have been wiping and restoring the server, do I need to restore the entire old server and then try another backup?
Why did the backup not use the manual password I set instead of the plesk key?

It sure did, but maybe the password was wrong. There are no known issues with password based restores. I am doing at least one per month myself and never had an issue. However, it the password is wrong or missing, the restore routine will still work but replace the encrypted passwords from the backup archive with new passwords.

Is it even possible to restore to another plesk server in this way??

Yes. Please see explanation above.

 

[mudassarkhan]

This happens when the backup was password protected on creation, but on restore the password was incorrect or missing.


That can be correct, because each backup has a key that is compared to one stored on the server, so that it is not possible to accidentally overwrite one server with the content of another. When you create a fresh Plesk installation, the key is different from what the backup contains. To restore the backup to the new Plesk installation, please add this to /usr/local/psa/admin/conf/panel.ini:

[pmm]
allowRestoreModifiedDumps = on

It sure did, but maybe the password was wrong. There are no known issues with password based restores. I am doing at least one per month myself and never had an issue. However, it the password is wrong or missing, the restore routine will still work but replace the encrypted passwords from the backup archive with new passwords.


Yes. Please see explanation above.

Ok, so the issue for me was it never asked for the password.

I restored the backup files to the dump folder VIA acronis, however this also included the previous backups that were protected via key not my password. Could that cause an issue?

I will try and modify the ini file and restore and will come back with an update.

 

[Peter Debik]

Yes, the key is unique to each installation. It is a password replacement, but it has the downside that when the installation itself is changed, the key won't match and the passwords in the backup set won't be restored, but instead set to new values.