terrible backup and restore system in 9.2.3

[Chris Brown]

Dear Plesk,

I am incredibly disappointed with the backup and restore system in Plesk 9.2.3

I have been a plesk user since version 7.x and never had any problems with the standalone GUI backup and restore system of both plesk 7&8.

However, the system in Plesk 9 is beyond a joke, unusable in a commercial environment.

I have lots of issues with it, but I will list the main problems below.

1. Backups are not stored locally as a single PSA (zip file) for easy copying to other machines etc. Just a large list of folders and xml files, site files etc. for each and every application, client and domain on the server.
2. The backup stored on personal FTP IS a single ZIP file - if this can be done remotely, why do you not give the option locally so I can manage where I copy my backups to etc. myself.
3. When you restore you CANNOT choose a single domain etc to restore. It is a case of all or nothing? WHY WOULD YOU FORCE THIS ON US!?! With the old system, if I clients site needed restoring, I could simply select that one client and restore. This is IMPOSSIBLE using Plesk Panel (maybe the CLI can do this, but why should I be forced to use that?)
4. You still cannot have more than 1 backup scheduled despite their being an option to allow more than 1 backup to run at a time - I would like to have a backup for example of JUST mail etc running more frequently that a full server backup.
5. If you click the SAVE icon next to a backup, it then creates 1 large ZIP file (see point 2 above, why is this not a ZIP file or at least an option to store it all as a ZIP in the first place locally?). Now imagine the server has died, has been re-imaged etc. and plesk has been installed. You would copy that ZIP file to the server (which you got by clicking the save icon or simply from an FTP store) and then attempt to get this backup into plesk. You go to backup manager, click upload files to server repository, now YOU try uploading say a 10GB single ZIP file backup - the browser timesout, the process fails and you CANNOT get your backup into plesk to restore. Why on EARTH could we simply not select the backup file to restore from rather than have to upload it first?

I love plesk, but the backup and restore is not good. You need to put some serious development into this and give us some WORKING standalone tools to backup and restore with.

Thanks,

Chris Brown.

 

[IgorG]

Chris,

Please read carefully 'Plesk Backup and Restore Overview' chapter here http://download1.parallels.com/Plesk/PPP9/Doc/en-US/plesk-9.2-backup-cli-guide
I hope it will help you understand a reasons why backup engine/restore was changed in Plesk 9.2.x versions.

 

[Chris Brown]

this does not solve my issues or answer my questions

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I can see that the plesk CLI is powerful, but the link you have sent me simply does not explain why on earth plesk have dumbed down the backup and restore utility so that none of the features we need are available via a simple GUI!

The last thing I want to be messing about should I have an urgent restore to do is CLI! I want a nice simple GUI.

I also mentioned the lack of having more than 1 scheduled backup - the documentation you have given me gives absolutely no mention of automating or scheduling the backup viathe CLI? How do we do this?

The GUI in plesk 8 was great - why on earth is this not available in Pleks 9? I can see no logical reason why you have removed functionality - I thought plesk 9 was an upgrade, it seems to me more like a downgrade in the backup and restore system.

Sorry, you don't have a happy customer here. I would be grateful if you could answer the above for me so I can get someway to having working backups that I am happy with.

Providing your customers with a backup and restore GUI like Plesk 8 had would be a great thing to do and in the meantime, at least get the Panel's backup system fully working - at the moment it is a completely pointless element of the system as it simply does NOT work - probably the reason you pointed me to the CLI.

Thanks,

Chris.

 

[Richard S.]

I totally agree with Chris, and the reason I had Plesk on my servers was to avoid command line stuff and messing around with non-GUI interfaces.
So, here we are with version 9 and what seems a backwards step to me, I'm very unimpressed because of the backup & restore issue, not to mention the mess of the migration software (see other threads about that).

The backup system in version 8 was awesome, this version is a nightmare.
I mean, just when you need to restore certain domains, I'd imagine being stressed out (why else would a restore be performed other than data loss etc) - and then have to read the manual to perform it!

NEVER have I had to read instructions from Plesk before I "upgraded" to version 9, it was bad enough searching the documentation for the migration agent 9.2.3 which doesn't exist on your site, nor is it documented correctly.
Please consider a simple GUI front end, for now I'm having to consider an alternative.

 

[IgorG]

Hi Chris,

I can say that main reason why backyp tool has been recoded in that main backup/restore logic is in common file for both Windows and Unix versions of Plesk. There was not possibility for migration from Windows to Unix and vice versa in 8.x version but it was implemented in 9.x version. Also backup tool was recoded to reduce maintenance cost of the tool.
Why some functionality existing in previous versions was not implemented in 9.x? I should tell fairly - it hasn't been made because we weren't in time and it hasn't been made in time.
I was fair and now you know principal causes. If you have really actual problems and you don't know now to solve it, I can create corresponding requests to developers and we will try to help you to solve these problems.

 

[Chris Brown]

we don't a GUI because you don't have time?

Hi,

Thanks for the response - I can understand why the change of backup systems has been done and I approve of that.

What I don't approve of is Plesk not supplying a GUI to use the backup system! And the reason is that you guys havn't guven us one is that you didn't have time?!?
Do you have any plans to provide a GUI for the backup and restore?

Thanks,

Chris.

 

[IgorG]

Chris,

Complete support of all possibilities of CLI backup/restore utilities will be implemented in GUI of the next Plesk version.

 

[Chris Brown]

great!

Hi Igor,

Thanks for letting me know - I assume you mean sub version as in 9.2.4 and not version 10?

Please confirm.

In the meantime, I have managed to get my backups running via the CLI - not much fun I have to say. I now want to schedule it - can I do this via the Plesk Panel or am I foreced into using Windows AT?

I have tried with the panel but without any luck...

In the scheduled tasks section I have created a new task with the following:

Path to executable file * = C:\SWsoft\Plesk\bin>pleskbackup
Arguments = --domains=domainname.com --suspend --output-file=z:\pleskzips\backup.zip

This doesn't work - just fails.

Cheers,

Chris.

 

[IgorG]

Chris,

Sorry, but I can not say anything about number of further versions, ETA, etc. It is not in my responsibility.
Regarding error with scheduled backup. Could you please provide me more details about this problem? Which sort of errors there? Is it possible to post it here?

 

[Chris Brown]

error details...

Failed with error: 'C:\SWsoft\Plesk\bin>pleskbackup.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.Tue Nov 17 14:20:12 2009

 

[Chris Brown]

oops!

ignore that last post, I spotted my error, I will let you know how I get on!

 

[Jaswinder Gill]

I have gone through post and no customer will be happy to hear this downgrade to CLI, Our Company is using Plesk and we end up paying the price for changes which are not small in design.

i am facing issue in backup, that it is adding space to customers account when I backup whole server for disaster recovery . Now i have to allow customer to use "Overuse. Please help on this if someone has idea how to keep the backup for whole server without adding space to customer account.

Regarding backup through CLI Plesk needs to give help till they get GUI in place. Sorry to say you have sold Plesk Panel and that is GUI and CLI panel, I hope we are not left out like this, my suggestion you can have backup CLI Forum and get as many solution/example there.

Plesk people who have to put GUI need to do ASAP, otherwise people are loose businesses and Plesk will loose Plesk customers.

My Plesk Version 9.2.1

 

[IgorG]

i am facing issue in backup, that it is adding space to customers account when I backup whole server for disaster recovery . Now i have to allow customer to use "Overuse. Please help on this if someone has idea how to keep the backup for whole server without adding space to customer account.

But why you can't use backup to external FTP server?

Regarding backup through CLI Plesk needs to give help till they get GUI in place. Sorry to say you have sold Plesk Panel and that is GUI and CLI panel, I hope we are not left out like this, my suggestion you can have backup CLI Forum and get as many solution/example there.

Why Backup/Restore documentation is not suitable for you?

 

[Jaswinder Gill]

Hi IgorG,

"But why you can't use backup to external FTP server?"

We want on both local server and FTP location, Workaround is not a solution which i am looking for it should be Plesk Panel should be flexiable enough for doing these things. Still i don't have solution

Regarding documentation I had used the same but had to test it before i get the out put i wanted like -vvvvv ( single -v or multiple) this did'nt work only -verbose works.

I was refering to command line forum for Plesk which makes it ease to get help for the same.

Thanks

 

[mikelegg]

Why Backup/Restore documentation is not suitable for you?

I cant make head nor tale of it.

I just want to restore one domain from the 20Gb zip file on my remote FTP backup server.

Am I correct in understanding that I first have to make an xml file defining what domain I want to restore and then execute the pleskrestore.exe utility with the xml file name as one of the paramaters?

 

[IgorG]

As possible way you can upload this backup file to local backup repository on Plesk server, then create domain with the same name and restore it from uploaded local backup.

 

[mikelegg]

As possible way you can upload this backup file to local backup repository on Plesk server, then create domain with the same name and restore it from uploaded local backup.

Yes, that's what I'm attempting now - the backup file is 20Gb and it's been going for about 2 hours and hasn't finished copying yet.

Although it's hard to tell via Plesk because it times out after 20 minutes or so, so I don't actually know if the "Please wait, Loading" is actually true or if it's just running in my browser and the session has actually timed out.

In either case, it seems a bit painful to copy a 20Gb file back to the web server in order to restore a 2Mb domain.

 

[IgorG]

Seems you have found solution in your other thread.

 

[Chris Brown]

Domain is temporarily disabled for backup/restoring

Hi,

Although I am now successfully using the CLI backup, I do get the odd domain that goes into complete shutdown after a backup for no apparent reason!

I am suspending the domains during the backup (which I was told was the best thing to do) and now and again, a domain does not restart after a backup.

I get the following error via the panel - "Domain is temporarily disabled for backup/restoring".

The only way to get this running again is to use another CLI domain.exe --on domain.com which starts the domain running again.

How do I ensure that this doesn't happen in the future?

Thanks.

Chris.

 

[Ricardo C]

MsSql also change at backup ?

I'm a software developer and host my client's software (most of them use MsSQL).

I have a daily scheduled backup to a remote FTP, once a week I download then to my local PC and install the MsSQL databases.

In prior versions I extract the MsSQL Backup's and restore them at my office.

Now at the backup ZIP file I have another zip with a script SQL and XML's with more information (IP, user, pass, etc).

But how can I restore the database at my office using the same backup file ?

I know that I can download from the database repository, but that is not an option, because:
a) The download file are not zipped (size is more than 10 bigger).
b) I dont to download full backup and each database backup
c) Database backup cannot be scheduled

Also don't what to download a file that I can't check if it is ok.

Waiting an answer..

Thanks in advance
Ricardo