Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Sunday, 28 October 2012 10:23 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi
I am a new user to "akeeba back up" but much impressed by it functionality and available options.

I am using the pro version with offsite backups triggered by WebCron sent to Amazon s3.

Some of the time this works well but occasionally (1 in 3 or 4) I get timeout failures (Error 500) depsite typical backups on the sites concerned taking s confusing - am I missing something?

Sunday, 28 October 2012 14:53 CDT

nicholas

Hello Nick,

I suspect that the root cause is either reaching the PHP timeout limit when the upload is slow or you're hitting a hard timeout limit in your server's CRON daemon. I wouldn't like to base my recommendation on a guess, even though it's an educated guess. The best way for me to help you is you sending me two logs: one from a successful backup and one from a failed backup. This would allow me to see what makes all the difference and produce a recommendation which would solve your problem – or at the very least least shed some light into the mystery.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 28 October 2012 14:58 CDT

Nick_Q

there seems to be some text missing in the above ticket...

final paragraph sould read:

...despite typical backups on the sites concerned taking less than 100 Seconds and the duration set to 180 seconds. There are three sites involved on a test and if I check on Webcron's dashboard the "failures" are recorded there even though the duration is listed at something less than 80 seconds.

furthermore if I TEST the back up via the webcron dashbouard it invariably works! this is confusing me - am I missing something?

Sunday, 28 October 2012 15:00 CDT

nicholas

I will definitely need the log file to help you. I have a very strong suspicion that the time to transfer the file to Amazon S3 varies wildly. Without two log files –from a successful and a failed backup– I can't be sure if my guess is correct :(

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Sunday, 28 October 2012 15:01 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas - sorry my latest post crossed with yours!

I will do as you say and send the logs of the two backups as requested...

Sunday, 28 October 2012 16:25 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas,

suggest we change the name for this thread as its not obvious - I have another question that I will post separately later w.r.t. allocating the new database for a site transfer which was in my mind to include origianally - but I realise that is not helpful... suggest a new title for this one of "webcron timeouts" or something similar and I will post the database question separately....

Sunday, 28 October 2012 16:26 CDT

Nick_Q

Did you get the reply with the log.zip attachment?

Monday, 29 October 2012 05:41 CDT

nicholas

I didn't get the .zip attachment. If it's not possible to attach it (e.g. it's over 2Mb) try uploading it to your site or to a public download location (Dropbox or Windows Live SkyDrive work best) and paste the link to it here.

I will change the thread's title when I receive the log file. I want to make sure what the problem is so that the thread title reflects the real issue :)

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Monday, 29 October 2012 08:27 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas - OK I have just sent again the zip file (121Kb) of the log as a reply and, unlike other posts it does not immediately register here on the thread?

Monday, 29 October 2012 08:30 CDT

nicholas

I am not sure what's going on. The log file is still not showing up. This only happens when the file is not a ZIP archive (e.g. you accidentally used RAR, 7-Zip, TAR or another archive format), it contains raw PHP files or exceeds the permitted size. I'd recommend uploading it somewhere public and paste the URL here.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Monday, 29 October 2012 08:34 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas - OK renamed the file (didn't see the error message right at the top of the page!)

please see attached.

I belive that the backup is happening on the local server and the webcron job is timing out before it can complete the upload to S3.

I get an option on the AB control panel to "Transfer to S3" in each case that Webcron tells me the backup has "failed"

Also, last night I changed the duration on this job to 600 seconds and it completed correctly.

Monday, 29 October 2012 08:44 CDT

nicholas

The log file tells me that this backup did work and the archive did get transferred – pretty fast, actually. However you are using the multi-part upload feature of Akeeba Backup. I know that sometimes Amazon S3 freaks out with it and stops responding while we're still uploading the backup archive. No problem, we can work around it! I've already documented how. Please follow the last three paragraphs of that page.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

Monday, 29 October 2012 09:27 CDT

Nick_Q

Hi Nicholas - Many thanks for the support.

I shall do as you say and let you know how I get on....

Monday, 29 October 2012 09:29 CDT

nicholas

You're welcome! Let me know how it goes.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

🇬🇷Greek: native 🇬🇧English: excellent 🇫🇷French: basic • 🕐 My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

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