Download a home directory Backup is not working.

[dpika23]

My Customers complaining that the "Download a home directory Backup" is not working.

We've tested it, and seems not working. When using this backup option, they download a file. But zero bytes.

I am using cPanel 10.

Someone can help me in this regard ?

[LiNUxG0d]

Hi there,

Out of curiosity, is your disk (partition) full? I know this might sound like a silly question, but it might be part of the problem. Is the file system read-only? You can know by using the `dmesg` command in a shell as root... it's not always apparent up front, unless you look for it.

Example of a dmesg with a bad filesystem:

Aborting journal on device sda2.
ext3_abort called.
EXT3-fs error (device sda2): ext3_journal_start_sb: Detected aborted journal
Remounting filesystem read-only

Regards,

[cPanelDavidG]

...
I am using cPanel 10.
...

cPanel 10 is a bit outdated. You may wish to migrate to cPanel 11 (there is no additional cost for doing so at this time).

[seby]

I have also the same issue on all account in server.

[root@server1 ~]# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda5 9.7G 399M 8.8G 5% /
/dev/sdb1 227G 162G 54G 76% /backup
/dev/sda1 99M 10M 84M 11% /boot
tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda7 195G 148G 37G 81% /home
/dev/sda8 996M 206M 739M 22% /tmp
/dev/sda3 9.7G 6.3G 3.0G 68% /usr
/dev/sda2 9.7G 4.2G 5.1G 45% /var
[root@server1 ~]#

[woodp5]

My Customers complaining that the "Download a home directory Backup" is not working.

Hi, I am a reseller customer at a different host who is experiencing similar problems. I have asked my host for assistance but he said nothing is wrong at the host and has closed the ticket. I'm now looking for help here. By the way, this host is running cpanel11.

Starting sometime after 3/30/2008, backups of Home Directory (http://www.domain.com:2082/getbackup...14-2008.tar.gz) started aborting early. The tar.gz file is smaller than expected, and opening it reveals that indeed only some of the files have been backed up. Repeating the backup process will yield another aborted backup - The interesting thing being no two backups are the same size - They all seem to abort at a different places.

I don't know if this is related, but I use WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) for SCP transfers and they stopped working on the same date as backups started aborting. SFTP still works, but SCP doesn't.

Finally, one last observation - If I have WinSCP open while backing up - At the same moment the backup aborts, my copy of WinSCP closes with the following error "Connection has been unexpectedly closed. Server sent command exit status 0."

I'm just wondering if my problems could be related to a cpanel configuration, and if so, if anyone else has experienced these problems. I'll try anything because being unable to make backups is making me very uncomfortable.

[cpanelkenneth]

Hi, I am a reseller customer at a different host who is experiencing similar problems. I have asked my host for assistance but he said nothing is wrong at the host and has closed the ticket. I'm now looking for help here. By the way, this host is running cpanel11.

Starting sometime after 3/30/2008, backups of Home Directory (http://www.domain.com:2082/getbackup...14-2008.tar.gz) started aborting early. The tar.gz file is smaller than expected, and opening it reveals that indeed only some of the files have been backed up. Repeating the backup process will yield another aborted backup - The interesting thing being no two backups are the same size - They all seem to abort at a different places.

I don't know if this is related, but I use WinSCP (http://winscp.net/eng/index.php) for SCP transfers and they stopped working on the same date as backups started aborting. SFTP still works, but SCP doesn't.

Finally, one last observation - If I have WinSCP open while backing up - At the same moment the backup aborts, my copy of WinSCP closes with the following error "Connection has been unexpectedly closed. Server sent command exit status 0."

I'm just wondering if my problems could be related to a cpanel configuration, and if so, if anyone else has experienced these problems. I'll try anything because being unable to make backups is making me very uncomfortable.

YoUr problem sounds very specific to the server hosting your site. The Home Directory backup (this is not the same as the Full Backup) essentially does this:

cd to /home/user
tar cz .

sending the output of tar directly to the browser rather than a file. It is also run with a very low priority, which means other processes on the system can cause the backup to be delayed, or have other problems.


You might try generating the Full Backup.

As for the SCP issue, I have no clue without examining the server.

[woodp5]

Your problem sounds very specific to the server hosting your site. The Home Directory backup (this is not the same as the Full Backup) essentially does this:

cd to /home/user
tar cz .

sending the output of tar directly to the browser rather than a file. It is also run with a very low priority, which means other processes on the system can cause the backup to be delayed, or have other problems.


You might try generating the Full Backup.

As for the SCP issue, I have no clue without examining the server.

You have no idea how helpful your comment is - The only reason I mentioned the SCP issue is because both the backup and SCP issues started at the same time. Any chance there was a patch or update pushed out around the same time? (Although I guess my host could have applied a patch/update any time he pleased. Right?)

And yes, a full backup does run ... and then I manually sftp (not scp) the tarball down to my local storage.

Thanks again! Big help!

[cpanelkenneth]

You have no idea how helpful your comment is - The only reason I mentioned the SCP issue is because both the backup and SCP issues started at the same time. Any chance there was a patch or update pushed out around the same time? (Although I guess my host could have applied a patch/update any time he pleased. Right?)

And yes, a full backup does run ... and then I manually sftp (not scp) the tarball down to my local storage.

Thanks again! Big help!

It's difficult to speculate what may be occurring on the server during your backup process.

The description given in your first post, suggests your host may have implemented some kind of process accounting that is biased against processes that may appear idle. That's just speculation however and there may be other reasons for the described behavior. It's something you will need to discuss with your host.

For such discussion, providing them (the host) with a step-by-step method of reproducing the error can be quite helpful. Also, if you can remove your computer and network connection from the equation, it will highlight that the problem is not due to something specific with your computer or connection. For example accessing the backup, using the outlined scenario, from a work computer (or from your home computer, if the problem originally appeared on your work computer), or other computer+connection that is separate from the one experiencing issues.