In Progress CPANEL-35722 - Transferred accounts not backed-up by default

[kabatak]

After transferring some accounts using "Restore a Full Backup/cpmove File" I've found that they're not automatically included in the backup system by default. You have to manually enable it. Can you kindly take a look if this is indeed the current behavior and can it be fixed? Thanks.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello @kabatak,

Can you confirm if backups were enabled for the account in WHM >> Backup User Selection at the time the backup was generated? If not, then it's by design the backup setting was preserved when the account was restored per the implementation of the following case in cPanel & WHM version 74:

Fixed case CPANEL-20838: Preserve "backup disabled" setting when restoring an account.

You can vote for and add feedback to the following feature request if you'd like to see an option to enable backups at restore time (or see a warning to let you know backups were disabled for the account):

Warn if backups are disabled after an account transfer or restore

Thank you.

 

[kabatak]

@cPanelMichael
Unfortunately I couldn't confirm if the backups are enabled in the source server.

But the behavior I'm expecting is that all transferred accounts should be backed-up, if backups are enabled for all accounts on the destination server.

 

[sneader]

I know this is an older thread but I feel the need to chime in here. This is a TERRIBLE situation that we see far too often. If we do not remember to check "Backup User Selection" after we move a customer from another hosting provider, then the customer has no backups at all! How can cPanel allow this to happen? There should be, AT THE VERY LEAST, a WARNING during the restore process, that Backups are not enabled. This should not be a feature request -- this is a data security bug that needs to get corrected.

- Scott

 

[cPRex]

@sneader - I currently am not able to reproduce this issue on my end. I created a new test server, and made sure backups were enabled in WHM >> Backup Configuration. I then went to WHM >> Transfer Tool and moved an account over to the new machine. After the transfer completed, I checked WHM >> Backup Configuration under the "Select Users" option and found my newly-transferred account was there and enabled under backups.

Are you seeing different behavior on your end at this time?

 

[sneader]

@cPRex -- I just had this happen yesterday, so it absolutely is still a problem. The piece you are missing is that on the original server, the backups were DISABLED for that user. They will STAY DISABLED with NO WARNING when you do the transfer. Try it!

The issue is that when we pull an account from another server (Backup Wizard > tar.gz file), we have NO IDEA if their backups are turned on or off by the host. There needs to be a warning when restoring a full cpmove file, if backups are disabled. Or, even better, TURN THEM ON if the host server has backups enabled for all users!

Thanks for looking -- this has bothered me for a long time, but after seeing this happen yet again and almost forgetting to turn them on for this new customer, it bothered me enough to ask about it.

- Scott

 

[cPRex]

Let me try that - give me a few minutes.

 

[cPRex]

Alright - on the Source, created an account, excluded it from backups.
Created a Destination server, where backups are enabled for all accounts.
Transferred the account to the Destination.
Checked the Backup Configuration >> Select Users page on the Destination machine...and the backups were not enabled.

This value is inherited from the "BACKUP=" setting in the /var/cpanel/users/username file. Are you thinking the Transfer Tool should ignore that setting and force backups to be on for all transferred accounts?

 

[sneader]

Thanks @cPRex! At a minimum, there should be a warning like "Warning - Backups were not enabled on source server. This setting was preserved, so backups are disabled on this server for this user". The transfer tool already provides us with many warnings about other things, after a successful transfer. I can see that in some scenarios, a host might want to keep everything the same, server to server, so I can understand if some hosts would not want to override this setting.

Personally, I find backups to be extremely important for data security, and I would want it overridden, especially IF the destination server has backups enabled for all users.

But, beggars can't be choosers. If you can give me a Warning, I'd take it!

- Scott

 

[cPRex]

It would probably be best to get a warning added - I'm not sure we want to start overwriting user preferences.

I've filed CPANEL-35722 to stress the importance of that feature request that was already submitted earlier, so I'll update this thread if I hear back about this issue.

 

[sneader]

Thanks, @cPRex -- much appreciated! I think the feature request has not gained a lot of traction because most admins probably do not realize that this is even a problem. If they have been fortunate enough to gain new customers from another hosting provider, they might have many accounts on their server not being backed up. By the time they realize the problem, it may be too late (all data lost). Ouch.

 

[cPRex]

I agree - I'm hoping the improvement case may help move that along a bit :D