Ever faced a hard disk crash in your server? Then you’d know very well the importance of doing regular backups. But what if you notice a backup failure when you need it the most?

That is why it is important to choose a server management service that ensures you have your backups up-to-date and available, when a server emergency arises.

In our server administration services, we help many customers whose server backup failed. Recently, we were contacted by a Plesk server owner whose scheduled backups stopped working a month ago.

Plesk backup failures could go unnoticed if server is not monitored by experts

The customer had daily backups configured for off-peak hours and it was running fine initially. Recently, there was a hack attempt on one of his sites and he tried to restore it from the backup.

That’s when he realized the server backups had stopped working a month ago. He got panicky and came to Bobcares for assistance in fixing the server backup issue.

Many often, server owners configure their server backups once and then go into a laid back mode. They may overlook the fact that backup processes need constant monitoring and validation.

It would be during a server crash that they realize the backup process had stopped working long back. In our experience resolving backup problems over years, we have noticed various scenarios that led to backup failures.

Some major causes are:

1. Lack of adequate disk space in backup drive
2. Connectivity issues with the remote backup server
3. Server software updates that tamper with the backup process
4. High server load that prevents the backup completion

Plesk backup failure can pop up any time due to unforeseen events

On examining the backup settings in the customer’s server, we could see that the backups were scheduled every night to a remote FTP server. From our expert debugging of the log files, we detected the following issues in the server.

1. A MySQL server upgrade caused backup manager process to stop working.
2. The dump rotation, the last step in backup process, failed with error ’121′.

We could see that these issues had caused the backup process to fail. Plesk is a control panel that is based on databases. So MySQL updates may tamper with Plesk functions at times.

With our experience handling Plesk server issues, we were able to quickly fix those database entries that caused Backup manager to malfunction.

When backups are copied over the remote FTP server, there are two channels established – data channel and control channel. When this control channel gets closed in between, error 121 occurs (‘remote I/O’ error).

To debug this error, we reviewed the server logs to detect any timeout or connectivity issues in the FTP connection. We resolved it by modifying the configuration of remote FTP server and adjusting the timeout settings.

Bobcares’ 24/7 server management prevents Plesk backup failure

It’s always good to be safe than sorry. Having an expert team keep an eye on your server 24/7 and resolving any issue that pops up, helps to avoid such backup failures or server catastrophes.

With a small monthly investment in an expert server management services, it is possible for server owners to prevent huge financial loss that may incur due to backup failures.

At Bobcares, backup management is one of the tasks we perform as a part of our server management services. What we do in backup tasks include:

1. Determining the type of backup, based on the server resources and business requirements.
2. Configuring backups in the best suited way, so as not to tamper with the server performance.
3. Monitoring the backup process and reviewing the files to verify that the backups are adequate.
4. Detecting, debugging and resolving any issues with the backup process immediately.
5. Performing website or server restores whenever a requirement arises.
6. Verifying that backup and related processes are not affected by software updates.

In every server administration task, speed and diligence is a must, to reduce the business impact. Today we’ve seen how we helped a Plesk server owner resolve his backup problem.

He later signed up for our server management services to prevent such server issues from happening again. From server hacks to backup failures, we protect the servers from every server-wide issue.

Each server problem may be unique and would require a solution customized for that server specifications. With our expertise handling various server issues, we are able to pinpoint and resolve issues in no time.

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