Steps to Troubleshoot an Rsync Transport Pruning Failure

Posted by Allura on 22 11 2019.

Introduction

Users who take remote backups often encounter a problem where the deletion or the remote pruning process does not complete within the maximum time limit of 300 seconds per transport process. The system fixes this time limit. This article aims to help users troubleshoot this problem.

Transport Error

In case of a transport error, the system sends a notification via email showing the preview and an attachment copy of the transport error log. However, this depends on your iNotify settings.

Troubleshooting

Correct diagnosis for your configuration gives users the right solution.

1. Large Directory Size: While pruning a large directory, the time out for the remote transport process may occur.

The following methods are used for troubleshooting:

• Manual deletion of a directory from remote backup location:

The rm command can be used in this case. If you intend to delete the directory named home/username/backups/2018-05-24, then use the command:

rm -rf home/username/backups/2018-05-24

• Disabling the account backup:

When accounts are too large for a backup, the user can disable the backup in WHM’s Backup User Selection interface while can be found at (WHM >> Home >> Backup >> Backup User Selection). The toggle_user_backup_state function of WHM API 1 can also be used.

• Change in type of backup:

The backup type can be changed to compressed from incremental. This uses less disk space as the data is compressed to smaller file size. The destination type should accept compressed files considering the rsync backup transport does not do so.

At WHM’s Backup User Selection interface, the backup and destination type can be set. The following functions help too.

• backup_config_set to update backup type
• backup_destination_add to add a destination location
• backup_destination_delete to delete backup destination

2. Slow Backup Drive: If the location for remote backup is too laggy, the existent remote backup destination can be replaced by a backup location that processes faster.
3. Network Error: Network issues cause errors in transport. In this case, the backup transport can be performed manually when the network is functional. As the root user, run the command usr/local/cpanel/bin/backup for manual backup.
4. Permission denied error: In case of the following existent conditions on the server, a transport error may take place. They are:

• Authentication is done by a non-root user to a Rsync backup location.
• If files to which the user does not have the write privileges to is stored in a directory of a cPanel user.

If the system fails to delete files from the remote file backup location, the user can manually remove them. This may require to write privileges to the file which can be done using the chmod+w file command. Here ‘file’ represents the file that needs permissions.

Conclusion

This document mentions ways in which users can troubleshoot a transport pruning or deletion failure successfully.