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Snapshot Pro - Managed Backups - Hub

I am having serious problems with Snapshot Pro which is the primary reason for being a member of WPMUDEV.
I have a problem on all sites of one sort or another. All are supposed to be managed backups, but some also still back up locally - don't have adequate space on hosting account for all these backups.
Backups time out and create tmp files and or log files - numerous
Managed backups are only supposed to keep 2 backups and for many sites there are 5+
I depend on these snapshots to be able to restore, but a couple of times I've tried, the files were corrupt, unreadable, whatever.
I host with A2 - I have Cloudflare setup on most every website.
I need to get this fixed ASAP please.
Realize you will want admin privileges - please let me know what you need.
Thanks,

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Snapshot Pro
  • Jean McLain

    I noticed when I tried to run Snapshot locally that all goes well until it gets to "files (media)" which is where it hangs and cpanel shows i/o usage maxed out at 2.44 mb
    PHP 7.1
    allow_url_fopen On
    allow_url_include Off
    date.timezone America/New_York
    disable_functions no value
    display_errors Off
    error_log no value
    error_reporting E_ALL
    expose_php On
    file_uploads On
    include_path .:disappointed:opt/alt/php71/usr/share/pear
    log_errors On
    mail.force_extra_parameters no value
    max_execution_time 6000
    max_file_uploads 20
    max_input_time 6000
    max_input_vars 2000
    memory_limit 2G
    open_basedir no value
    output_buffering 4096
    post_max_size 512M
    session.gc_maxlifetime 1440
    session.save_path /tmp
    short_open_tag On
    upload_max_filesize 512M
    upload_tmp_dir no value
    zlib.output_compression On

  • Predrag Dubajic

    Hi Jean,

    Sorry to hear you keep having issues with Snapshot :slight_frown:

    When you do a Managed Backup the backup file is created on your server first and after that the zip file is sent to our servers.
    Do you have enough space on your server to create one full backup of your site?

    Could you provide us with WP admin and cPanel details to one of these sites so we can investigate this further?

    You can send us your details using our contact form https://premium.wpmudev.org/contact/#i-have-a-different-question and the template below:

    Subject: "Attn: Predrag Dubajic"
    - Site login url
    - WordPress admin username
    - WordPress admin password
    - cPanel credentials (host/username/password)
    - Link back to this thread for reference
    - Any other relevant urls/info

    Best regards,
    Predrag

  • Jean McLain

    I sent you the login info in a private email.
    I have disabled all scheduled snapshot backups on all of my websites as it would crash my website when they would run.
    Many of the sites show 3-5 backups (cloud) and there was supposed to be a limit of 2. I deleted the extras.
    I really would like to have Snapshot work the way it used to, but I can't count on the backups to be restorable.
    Hope you can fix this for me.

  • Lindeni Mahlalela

    Hello Jean McLain

    I hope you are doing great today. Thank you for contacting us regarding this issue and thank you for your patience so far.

    I have looked into your website and found a few issues that will most definitely stop Snapshot from finishing properly. Please see the screenshot taken from your cPanel account for the website in question:

    The screenshot shows that:

    1. "I/O Usage" is maxed out. I/O usage determines the rate at which any script or process can read or write files to the hard drive of the server. If the I/O Usage limit is reached the server will not respond or respond with an error like 500 Internal Server error or 404 Not Found on the requested file, some servers respond with a forbidden error message. Once this error is reached the script will stop working, so in the issue at hand, Snapshot stops working.

    2. The "Disk Usage" also is almost a 100% which means the cPanel account does not have enough storage space to save any new files. As it seems Snapshot will be able to start a Managed Backup but will not be able to finish because it will either reach the I/O limit or run out of space to save the backup.

    3. Physical Memory is also at 1GB and it goes beyond 70% quickly which means there is also a great chance for your website to run into memory issues depending on what other tasks are running at the same time.

    All these three factors can influence whether Snapshot finishes or not. For the storage, I have cleared the temp files and the old backups. Snapshot keeps a local copy of a Managed Backup until it is fully uploaded to our remote storage servers. If it creates them and fail to upload, then it will keep those Snapshots and will keep attempting to upload them. So if you see a list of old backups that are not supposed to be there (like 5 backups when you have chosen to keep 2) then it is likely because Snapshot is still scheduled to upload them.

    The good news is...

    I have changed the current Snapshot settings in wp-config.php file to use the latest Snapshot setting which uses system commands to do the Backups instead of using PHP functions. I think this setting is doing great as I was able to create a Managed Backup successfully.

    I hope this helps, but I suggest you try this again but making sure the server has enough resources to make sure it finishes successfully without running out of resources. Please let us know if you have any further issues or questions.

    Have a nice day.
    Mahlamusa

  • Jean McLain

    Thanks Mahlamusa,
    I understand that running Snapshot almost immediately maxes out i/o usage - is 2.44 mb an unrealistic amount? I have a reseller account on A2 - which is on a shared server. This seems to be what initially causes the timeout.
    All of my websites have at least 1 Gb extra space, as long as Snapshot hasn't created tmp files. Seems this should be enough as most of my website backups are under 300 mb.
    None of my websites have high traffic or resource intense.
    I do have to clean up all my website files and delete the tmp files.
    What I want to know is what can I do to alleviate this? Is there someway for Snapshot to run without such high i/o usage? What would be a realistic level - I will see if A2 can accommodate this.
    I love Snapshot when it works, and it has previously - what can I do to make it work now?
    Thanks,
    Jean

  • Lindeni Mahlalela

    Hello Jean McLain

    I hope you are doing great today. Thank you for your feedback.

    Thanks for the questions but I may not have direct answers because server configurations are different from host to host. From what I have seen, a 2.44Mb I/O Usage limit may be enough on some hosts but too little on others. This is also determined by the underlying hardware (Like HHD vs SSD) and the general configuration of the server. On shared hosting, I/O usage is the throughput of data from Hard Disk to Memory which means the RAM (Memory) is also a big Factor in the I/O Usage.

    What I want to know is what can I do to alleviate this? Is there someway for Snapshot to run without such high i/o usage? What would be a realistic level - I will see if A2 can accommodate this.

    There is nothing much we can do to manage this when running Managed Backups because PHP (the programming language used to create Snapshot) simply scans the files as fast as it can and add them to the archive. We cannot control the scanning and PHP does not have a way to limit itself while scanning. Also when writing, it is the server and PHP that control everything, Snapshot just only facilitate the process.

    You should ask your host if they can make Soft limits to the I/O Usage instead of hard limits to ensure that your website continues to work and PHP continues to process even if the limit is reached.

    I love Snapshot when it works, and it has previously - what can I do to make it work now?

    I'm glad you love Snapshot and hope you continue to love it. I am not pointing fingers but I suspect your host has made changes to their server configuration which resulted in the harsh limits, if this is not the case, maybe they have the limits set for your reseller account which then means the limit is a sum of all websites in the account, in which case it will work if you have a few sites but once you have more sites on the account then the limit becomes more of an issue.

    For now, I suggest you contact A2 and ask if they can increase the I/O Usage or whether you will have to upgrade your account to achieve this or not. Also ask if they can rather enable soft limits if they can't increase the hard limit.

    I hope this helps, please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns regarding this.

    Have a nice day.
    Mahlamusa

  • Jean McLain

    Mahlamusa,
    I am continuing to have problems with Snapshot Managed Backups. I changed the settings on ALL my websites so that scheduled backups are DISABLED. However, several of my sites have not been loading properly and I now see that the backups are once again ENABLED!
    Additionally, they are set to run weekly on several sites which had only been scheduled for monthly as the sites rarely have new content/editing.
    Also, in the Hub, there are multiple backups for some of these sites which were only scheduled to save 2 backups AND several sites show backups on consecutive days.
    How is this happening?
    This is driving me crazy - not to mention slowing down all my sites AND saving partial backup files when the i/o usage times out.
    I have not had time to deal with the i/o usage with A2, but these backups should not be running automatically!
    Also, the one time I needed the backup for one website, they (4) were all corrupt. Thankfully James Morris was able to manually restore the website, which I greatly appreciate, but this should not be necessary.

  • Lindeni Mahlalela

    Hello Jean McLain

    Thank you for your feedback and for your patience while we look into this issue, I hope we resolve it soon.

    However, several of my sites have not been loading properly and I now see that the backups are once again ENABLED!

    I am only working on the botanicals website and it seems to load fine, I am not sure what could be the issue on the other websites as I did not access them in any way. If the problem continues on those websites then please contact our live chat support team and they will assist you or open another ticket relating to that specific issue.

    With regards to the backups getting ENABLED, if you have enabled the Automate feature in the Hub for those websites, then it will enabled Managed backups on those websites, so please check if Automate is enabled for those websites and also check the backups for each website on the Hub to verify if they are enabled.

    Also, in the Hub, there are multiple backups for some of these sites which were only scheduled to save 2 backups...

    This could happen if Automate is enabled for those sites. Backups for Automate are counted separately and it should keep three backups. So if you have set Managed Backups on the website to keep two backups then you may end up seeing five backups because it will be the two you set on the website and the automated three from the Automate feature. This is how it works for now, the Automate feature is designed to keep three backups and count them separately from the Managed backups set on the website.

    AND several sites show backups on consecutive days. How is this happening?

    When we run a test for Managed Backups, sometimes we run the tests on several days manually. So we can do a test today and then do it again tomorrow. For example I have ran tests on 14 and 15 December and now the earlier backups were deleted but on those days I was seeing the backups listed for the consecutive days. I am not sure if that is the case for the other websites as well but it could be, if this is not the case then it warrants further investigation on those specific sites.

    On the one I was testing on (botanicalsweb), Managed Backups is active but the schedule is not active so they can only be run manually. I confirm that because I last ran a backup on December 15, 2017 @ 9:24 pm and that is was the last one until I ran another one today January 8, 2018 @ 4:35 pm

    I have not had time to deal with the i/o usage with A2, but these backups should not be running automatically!

    Again, the reason why it should run automatically is if you have the Automate feature enabled on the websites. If Automate is not enabled, then the please disable the schedule and see if it will be enabled again, if it does then we will continue investigating that specific issue.

    I hope this answers all your questions. Please let us know if there is anything else you need help with or if you have follow up questions, we will always be happy to assist in any way possible.

    Have a nice day.
    Mahlamusa

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