Akeeba Backup for Joomla!

Monday, 12 September 2011 06:50 CDT

user46355

Mandatory information about my setup:

Have I read the related troubleshooter articles above before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Have I searched the forum before posting? Yes
Have I read the documentation before posting (which pages?)? Yes
Joomla! version: 1.5.22
PHP version: 5.2.14
MySQL version: 5.0.77
Host: UNLIMITED
Akeeba Backup version: 3.2.7

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT: Please attach your Akeeba Backup log file in order for us to help you with any backup or restoration issue.

Description of my issue:

Hi this is a great Joomla add-on, if I can just get it working again!

I am getting the Invalid Ajax data message. Akeeba backup has worked before for this site but is now not working.

I've tried all the suggested fixes in the documentation.

According to hosts:
max_execution_time = 600
memory_limit = 192M

At one point I did try changing hosting settings - from 'Run as Apache module' to 'FastCGI', at the same time I changed path to TMP folder in Joomla global configuration from datasan/www/...etc to data/www/... , I did this because it was suggested on host's FAQs in relation to a different but similar problem. At some point in all this backup started working again, but then it stopped and I don't know exactly what combination of factors might have been allowing it to work. I have changed hosting settings back to what they were...

I have attached log file. Thanks

Monday, 12 September 2011 07:01 CDT

user46355

Also sometimes when using Akeeba backup in back end, while navigating a big red and yellow warning flashes up but then disappears before I can see what it says - probably unrelated but wondered if this could be pointing to any problem

Monday, 12 September 2011 07:09 CDT

nicholas

The flashing of the warning is normal, as explained in the documentation. The text of the warning box is always present on the page. Once Javascript is loaded and executes properly, it is hidden. There might be 0.2-0.8 seconds between the initial page render and the Javascript execution, hence the flashing.

Regarding your issue, first please upgrade to Akeeba Backup 3.3.4 so that we have the same point of reference. Then, the issue seems to be something which is readily covered by the instructions in our troubleshooting wizard. I would especially check the free space on your host.

If this doesn't work, it is possible that you have a CPU usage issue. In this case, use the following settings in Akeeba Backup's Configuration:
- Minimium execution time: 5 seconds
- Maximum execution time: 3 seconds (yes, maximum is LOWER than minimum, it is not a typo)
- Runtime bias: 50%

This will throttle down the backup rate sufficiently to avoid CPU overusage triggering your server's protection which could be killing the backup process. On the downside, it makes the backup run twice as long.

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, 12 September 2011 17:23 CDT

user46355

Hi

I have tried all of the above and still no joy. Host informs me that there is ample free space. Have updated to latest version of Akeeba Backup.

Any other ideas?

I have noticed that when I try the URL in the troubleshooting - http://www.yoursite.com/administrator/index.php?option=com_akeeba&view=browser&format=raw&processfolder=1&folder=%5BSITEROOT%5D

then I do get a 500 error. I had tried this URL before when problem first arose and it worked fine, but I haven't installed any more plugins since then, only thing I have changed is updating Akeeba. I cannot see that there are any bad plugins and have tried disabling most of them but still get a 500 error.

I also get a 500 error on my localhost test site which is set up very similarly to live site with all the same modules etc, however backup works fine on that site even though above URL does not. So I'm thinking it must be a problem somewhere in my configuration or an as yet undefined problem with my hosting.

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 00:08 CDT

nicholas

Please send me Personal Message (I am user "nicholas") with the following information:
- URL to the site
- Super Administrator login
- FTP access information (hostname, username, password)
This will allow me to identify the cause of this issue and solve it

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!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 04:30 CDT

nicholas

Thank you for your PM.

Unfortunately, the problem is your host, not Akeeba Backup's code. Your host has CPU usage limits which kick in during the backup process and halt it. I tried several workarounds, but I can't get it to work. You can either switch hosts or backup your site manually.

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!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 06:13 CDT

user46355

Hi

Just checked with host, it is a cloud hosting package and according to them:

'We 100% do not limit CPU or Memory on the cloud, that's not something we would ever do.

Has there been a log file or something supplied which advised this?

Kind Regards

Unlimited Web Hosting Technical Support Team'

Thought I'd better pass that on. Do you have monitoring software or some such which shows the process halting at a certain CPU usage, or does the log tell you this?

Many thanks for your time

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 06:18 CDT

nicholas

The backup fails on random locations through the process using the same settings. It fails on a different directory, a different file, when there is a different amount of data written and a different log file size. No matter how many times you try it, the failure comes at completely different points in time. The non-repeatability of the issue indicates something on the server-side. On most servers I have seem, it's the CPU limits imposed by hosts.

If the issue was occurring when a request is made (and not in the middle of an ongoing request) I could suspect a web server level issue, e.g. mod_security2 kicking in because it's believing that the repeated accessed to the same URL is a DoS attack. This is not the case here.

Moreover, you have ample RAM and execution time, so it can't be an issue with memory exhaustion or a timeout. Finally, there is no PHP error, warning or notice generated, therefore the backup halt does not occur from the PHP code, but from something else.

Since your host claims that they don't limit CPU usage, I have no idea what that could be. It's certainly something running outside PHP, but I haven't built that server and I can't know what it is.

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!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011 06:21 CDT

user46355

OK thanks I will pass that on and if they come up with an answer I'll post it here for you info

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