Server Repository vs FTP

[zeroday]

I have told Plesk 9.2.1 that I want to have my backups sent to an FTP server. this is working great, but ...

all my backups also are kept in the server repository causing the HDD to fill and finally causing the server to crash

Why on certain sites the backups are kept? and how to reset it? or make sure it will work as configured?

 

[gshelton]

Is it possible the domains that are being "kept" are actually backing up under a seperate process? Maybe they are individually scheduled to back up.

 

[danliker]

no every backup is saved two times!
it is not only on ftp its every time you use the pleskbackup command!

the new backup IS HORRIBLE !

 

[zeroday]

nope. All instances are just entered 1 time per domain and all my backups are saved in my server and transferred to the defined FTP

causing a complete fill of the HDD every time again and again. Imagine I have a server with 30GB and a HDD with 250GB ..
everytime and everyweek I get 1 30GB file extra .. again and again ..
I did not configure it nor asked for it, but it is saved in the server repository and not deleted after it was successfully ftp-ed.

 

[Denis Sirochenko]

Hello Zeroday,

I guess you used Home > Backup Manager > Scheduled Backup Settings to set server-wide backup properties. Note that at the same screen you can choose a repository to store your backups in and the maximum number of backups in repository. The latter is used to save hard disk space.

Note also that every time you backup a domain you an choose where to store it.

Home > Domains > Domain Name > Backup Manager > Back up > Store backup in

Regards,
Denis.

 

[danliker]

we are talking about /var/lib/psa/dumps/, the backup will ALWAYS be stored there and at the end of the backup it will make a copy to the ftp or path you like to have it. BUT IT WILL BE ALWAYS SAVED TWO TIMES !

 

[zeroday]

denis,
nope I do not use server side settings. If I try that than the backup would exceed the size of HDD

Home > Domains > Domain Name > Backup Manager > Back up > Store backup in

correct that should state ftp .. but .. I use the scheduled backup settings

and the wierdest issue is: not all domains suffer same problem. Some domains do backup fine to ftp and do not leave stuff in the server side configuration.

So what I will do is remove the problematic backup configuration and reconfigure it. Maybe an old setting still keeps it on server & ftp .. but no idea where to look that in the shell what config file I need to pick

 

[ThiagoL]

I agree.

The new backup approach is ineficcient.
I have 50/60 GB backup sizes everyday, uncompacted. I have problems with server local storage. The partial solution is insert a 1 TB USB disk to make the backup in this HDD and then to send to the ftp repository.

Waiting for solution soon!

 

[thewolf]

We have a similar issue.

We upgraded a RHEL4 server from Plesk 8.6 to Plesk 9.2.3.

We have a nightly scheduled script that will backup all Plesk domains to an FTP server, e.g.:
/usr/local/psa/bin/pleskbackup -v all --skip-logs ftp://$ftp_username:$ftp_password\@$ftp_server/$backup_file

The script worked fine with Plesk 8.6: at the end of the backup process, only the FTP server had a copy of the dump file, there were no backup files kept on the Plesk server.

Now with Plesk 9.2.3, using the same script, a copy of the dump file is uploaded to the FTP server (and for some reason it's 30% bigger than the Plesk 8.6 dump file), but a copy of the backup files are also kept in the /var/lib/psa/dumps directory on the Plesk server and, since they are not deleted, that directory takes more and more space every day!

Is there a Plesk setting to prevent this from happening and to have it delete the local backup files?

This issue doesn't happen on another server, also using Plesk 9.2.3 and the same backup script.

Thanks.

 

[zeroday]

i am now using server side backup with transfer to Amazon S3 ..
that is working ok now. Selfcontrol ;-)

 

[sanpedro777]

@ zeroday: How do you manage the transfer to Amazon?

Hi Zeroday

We've been thinking about the exact same route, making backups to Amazon 3s. But since they are not providing an FTP access, we were not able to figure out how to use their platform as a backup solution.

Are you using a script in your Plesk? Or what is your solution?

 

[zeroday]

what I did was following
disclaimer:
I am really bad in scripting, but hey it works for me ;-), use it if you think you can enchance it
license: share wit me your changes if you can make it nicer ;-)
note: for every customer I made 1 file with its settings. Of course you can do it different, but for me it gave me some little more control ;-)

I decided that it was the best to backup all sites per client including databases to Amazon's S3 as it much easier to find back what you want

CLIENT=[name defined in plesk for 'client']
EXCLUDE=[name of domain defined in plesk you want to exlude for backup]
OBJECT=mixfreaks.nl ; this is main domain from client, to check some stuff
BASEDIR=/var/lib/psa/backupscript
BASEDIROBJECT=/var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered/*_
DATADIR=/var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/beheer/clients
LOGS="/var/lib/psa/backupscript/log`date +_%d%m`.log"
BACKUPFILE=backup*.xml

echo "start backup: `date`"
/usr/local/psa/bin/pleskbackup --clients-name $CLIENT --exclude-domain=$EXCLUDE
-s



cd /$BASEDIR
file="$BASEDIROBJECT$OBJECT"

### bash check if file exists

if [ -f $file ];

### first backup the new stuff

then python s3cmd put -r $DATADIR/$CLIENT/domains/ s3://[USE BUCKETNAME]/"$CLIENT"_`date +%d%m%Y`/
rm -rf $BASEDIROBJECT$OBJECT
touch "$BASEDIR"/logs/"$CLIENT"_backup-transferred`date +_%d%m%Y`.txt

else echo "nothing to backup"

fi

echo removing files in $DATADIR/$CLIENT
rm -rf $DATADIR/$CLIENT/*
rm -rf $DATADIR/$CLIENT/.??*

echo "finished backup: `date`"

echo "ready"

and this is working for me, it puts files in the bucket, it renames after 7 days the exported folder to another name so that you can check from what week you hold the backup. I mainly keep 3 to 4 weeks of about 6 clients and 25 domains