Backup / Restore Issues & Feedback

sde

Verified User
Joined
Sep 11, 2004
Messages
213
Location
Temecula, CA
I just got done with a server migration. I had a new install of DA put on the new server, and then used the Reseller Backup/Restore features as suggested by support.

For the most part the transfer went smooth, but there were a couple quirks and I thought I'd post them.

!! Most Critical
1. If mysqldump errors out, the backup silently fails and contains a partial database backup. I had 2 databases that restored incomplete. When I ran mysqldump on the old server, it got about half way through and generated an error. I had to repair the table, and then the dump ran fine.

If anyone is relying on the DA user backup feature, it is very possible that a database may not be backing up and they don't even know it.

When mysqldump errors out, it does use the word 'ERROR' in the output, so it shouldn't be that difficult to detect for.


2. apache ownership: Since PHP runs as the apache user, a web app that has php uploading/creating files, those files are owned by apache. For the web app to be able to keep manipulating those files, it needs to maintain the apache ownership.

After a restore, all files are owned by the user. I had to manually chown these files in my client's directories.


3. packages: This is pretty minor but it would be nice if there was an option to backup the reseller packages. Maybe there is another way to do this in the file system itself.


Overall, I'm pretty happy with DA and how easy it was to migrate to a new server, but I thought I'd share these issues while they were still in my head.
 
Hello,

Thanks for the info.

1) I looked over the code, DA does track the mysql error and readies DA to dump the error but a "return 1" is returned instead of "return ret" (where ret hold the 'ok' value). Thus it was being silent. The simple change will be available for the next release.

2) The apache ownership issue can be looked into for a future release. I'll likely just get the backup script to scan files for apache ownership, then reset those files in the list after they're restored.

3) Currently Reseller info, including packages are included in the backup, but not restored. (and other things like the users.list and ip.list). The plan is to add a restore method for them later, but having the data there for now is good for consistency. We'll also look into that in the future.

John
 
I just restored a backup to another server and apache ownership still doesn't get restored. How can I resolve this?
 
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