new option in backup

[wgalafassijr]

Hello,

The option in backup: "Enable use of optimized account backup tool" is safe? What is the difference?

[cPanelTristan]

Hello,

You can see the documentation on this feature at the following location:

Configure Backup

EXPERIMENTAL: Enable use of optimized account backup tool. ==> Enabling this setting instructs the backup utility to use /usr/local/cpanel/bin/pkgacct if it exists and is executable.

This option will use /usr/local/cpanel/bin/pkgacct which is a binary pkgacct rather than /scripts/pkgacct

There are improvements that had been made to the binary copy of pkgacct such as a reduction on forking processes, not modifying certain files if they haven't changed, and to skip backing up cache/temp/discardable data. I'm basing this information on a few internal cases I reviewed (#40202 and #40256) for the optimizations to the binary.

Since it is marked as experimental, I cannot recommend to use it or not to use it. Experimental features can have side effects, so it may cause issues in your environment. You are certainly welcome to try using it to see if the feature improves the backups for you, but you may end up with errors resulting from using it.

Thanks!

[optize]

Since this feature still is in BETA, has there been any good/bad feedback on it? Any eta when it will get to production?

[cPanelTristan]

It's already on all machine tiers, so it is technically in production but marked as experimental on all builds. There's no set ETA on when it will not be considered experimental.

[DjiXas]

It's already on all machine tiers, so it is technically in production but marked as experimental on all builds. There's no set ETA on when it will not be considered experimental.

I know you said no ETA, but maybe there is one now? As it's been over 3 months, which could provided you with some of the feedback/issues.

[cPanelTristan]

There's still no set ETA for this one. If it is still marked experimental when EDGE goes to 11.31/11.32, then it would probably be 11.34 or later when it won't be marked experimental.

[DjiXas]

There's still no set ETA for this one. If it is still marked experimental when EDGE goes to 11.31/11.32, then it would probably be 11.34 or later when it won't be marked experimental.

Are you aware of any reported issues with this option on?

[cPanelTristan]

Yes, I am aware of case 51714 concerning "EXPERIMENTAL: Enable use of optimized account backup tool" being enabled with incremental backups. When both are enabled, only the directory structure of accounts is backed up without the contents, leaving an impartial backup available. This has not yet been resolved. This is also why the feature is marked as experimental so we know about any possible issues caused by using it.

There is no ETA on when that specific case will be resolved nor when the feature will no longer be considered experimental.

[sneader]

It appears that this problem started to occur after we upgraded from 11.28 to 11.30 Stable. We'd been happy with the Optimized Backup Tool for quite a while (under 11.28) and our testing showed it was working just fine... so we did not realize that something broke after the 11.30 upgrade.

I wish there was a way to contact cPanel customers to let them know that their backups are likely garbage (if they are using this feature). We got lucky -- noticing this problem before we had to restore anything from backups. I bet there are going to be some cPanel customers that aren't so lucky.

- Scott

[cPanelTristan]

The option works if you do not have incremental backups selected. The case in question only occurs when incremental backups and the optimized backup tool are both checked.

[sneader]

The option works if you do not have incremental backups selected. The case in question only occurs when incremental backups and the optimized backup tool are both checked.

Yep, I understand. Your explanation is clear, but thanks for confirming. FYI, we always had both of these checked and working.... The bad backups only started to occur after the 11.28 to 11.30 upgrade. No changes to our backup configuration were made after the upgrade.

I would think most folks are using incremental backups, thus impacted by this problem. Again, I understand it's marked Experimental. I'm OK. I'm only expressing concern for fellow cPanel customers that don't realize their backups are hosed. A simple server crash could have devastating effects on their hosting service. I am still hopeful cPanel will do some type of notification to customers.

- Scott

[SoftDux]

The EXPERIMENTAL backup feature spiked load on our server with at least +5 load every single day so we had to disable it to get the servers load down to an ave. of 2 while doing backups. So IMO it's still BETA

[DjiXas]

Are there any plans to make this non experimental in 11.32?

[cPanelTristan]

Right now, it is marked experimental in 11.31.33 EDGE tier. 11.31 will become 11.32 when that version is released to CURRENT tier.