Best Server Backup Utility?

[xjjon88]

Post what you think is the best utility for backups. I have been using Backup (the plugin) but the plugin causes my server to freeze after backup (when there is 30~ people online).

So I am trying to look for a better alternative.

[prenetic]

I personally don't leave it up to a mod or plugin to handle backing up critical world data (or any, for that matter).

When I was running my server on Solaris I took advantage of the Time-Slider service to make frequent backups to any modified world files. I've since then migrated to a Windows Server 2008 R2 host I built which has both VSS (Volume Shadow Copies) and daily scheduled backups through wbadmin (to another array for full metal restores) configured. I'll never lose more than a day's worth of work and that is enough for me, however the configurations are pretty flexible if you need something more granular than that.

The performance hit of either of these is negligible. VSS is faster since it invokes a snapshot in-place on the volume where wbadmin will perform a full or incremental backup to another volume.

[xjjon88]

I've been using fwbackups on my debian system. It works great but I run into a problem while using scheduled backups. Sometimes it will run into a file that is being edited, and will skip over it.

Any work around to that?

[xjjon88]

okay I am not sure why but I just ran a backup again and it crashed my minecraft server (disconnected clients).

I am using fwbackups, on a xeon quad core 3440 | 8mb ram w/ 6gb allocated to minecraft.

[prenetic]

Without logs I'm afraid I won't be of much help. My guess is if you were running into file locking issues in the first place this is just a symptom of the reciprocal.

[xjjon88]

The logs showed errors because of files conflicting because they were being edited by MC. Located inside the /world/ folders or /world_nether/

[darzavor]

If you are already using Essentials plugin, you can use the backup function in it. It can launch a backupscript and you can set the interval for the backup.

I don't know what is best, I just try to limit the amount of plugins we run.

[darzavor]

I've been using fwbackups on my debian system. It works great but I run into a problem while using scheduled backups. Sometimes it will run into a file that is being edited, and will skip over it.

Any work around to that?

You need to disable world saving before the backup starts so the script can backup those files. Then turn it on again after the backup is done. This can be done automatically through screen commands (if you use screen anyway).

[xjjon88]

If you are already using Essentials plugin, you can use the backup function in it. It can launch a backupscript and you can set the interval for the backup.

I don't know what is best, I just try to limit the amount of plugins we run.

Ah okay, I will check out essentials backup.

Do you know what the problem with this is?

declare -a worlds=(world world_nether)

It tells me there is an unexpected "("

[darzavor]

Ah okay, I will check out essentials backup.

Do you know what the problem with this is?

declare -a worlds=(world world_nether)

It tells me there is an unexpected "("

I don't see anything wrong with that, assuming that your world has that name. Is that used in a backup script? Also, are you looking at the right line for the error?

Btw, Essentials backup just lets you launch a backup script that you need to provide yourself. So you don't have to make a cron job or something. It also disables world saving until the script is finished so the script can backup files that otherwise would be in use.

Installing Essentials just for its backup functionality would be quite overkill.

[Expozay]

SpaceBukkit or McMyAdmin, both server administration software with one of the best graphical interface have their own backup utility from what I can recall.. I'd say give that run for your back up. If you server only freezes for a few seconds, there isn't much you can do besides update your hardware. Perhaps you can be a little more descriptive?

[xjjon88]

I don't see anything wrong with that, assuming that your world has that name. Is that used in a backup script? Also, are you looking at the right line for the error?

Btw, Essentials backup just lets you launch a backup script that you need to provide yourself. So you don't have to make a cron job or something. It also disables world saving until the script is finished so the script can backup files that otherwise would be in use.

Installing Essentials just for its backup functionality would be quite overkill.

Yeah that is the line for the error, it's the backupscript that essentials recommends in their wiki.

@Expozay, it's not just freezing, it kicks everyone off and I have to restart the server most of the time to bring it back up. I don't think it could be the hardware because I watch the memory / cpu usage and it never goes really high at all.

[Expozay]

I don't find that normal.. Have you checked your logs for anything not where it should be displayed during the process of the backup?

[darzavor]

I think you need to provide more information and post an error log for this.

Also to state the obvious, if you copied a script and it required you to edit it for own use, then check what changes you made. Maybe copy your script to pastebin and a provide a link to the original , so we can see what you changed.

[xjjon88]

It says that it can't keep up, did system time change. Then it crashes a little bit after.

I am going to try to use this: http://ess.khhq.net/wiki/Backup

The first line declare -a worlds, it says that there is an unexpected "(" which I am not sure why it says that..

declare -a worlds=(my_server_world my_server_world_nether)

backupdir=backups/

ext=.zip

 

hdateformat=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M-%S')H$ext

ddateformat=$(date '+%Y-%m-%d')D$ext

numworlds=${#worlds[@]}

 

    echo "Starting multiworld backup..."

 

    if [ -d $backupdir ] ; then

        sleep 0

    else

        mkdir -p $backupdir

    fi

    zip $backupdir$hdateformat -r plugins

    for ((i=0;i<$numworlds;i++)); do

        zip -q $backupdir$hdateformat -r ${worlds[$i]}

        echo "Saving '${worlds[$i]}' to '$backupdir$hdateformat'."

    done

    cp $backupdir$hdateformat $backupdir$ddateformat

    echo "Updated daily backup."

    find $backupdir/ -name *H$ext -mmin +1440 -exec rm {} \;

    find $backupdir/ -name *D$ext -mtime +14 -exec rm {} \;

    echo "Removed old backups."

 

    echo "Backup complete."

[darzavor]

Where is the exit command? Could be that Essentials needs the return value to turn on world saving again. If world saving isn't turned back on, it could explain why your server can't keep up and crash.

To be sure you need to provide a server log.

I don't think I can help you with the script error. The array looks to be ok.

[xjjon88]

Here is the log of when the backup starts, and when the server had to be restarted. Two backup plugins tried to run here but only the Backup plugin ran, essentials did not, because the backup.sh file was disabled.

2012-08-11 22:09:12 [iNFO] [backup] Started Backup...[m

2012-08-11 22:09:12 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Forcing save..[m

2012-08-11 22:09:12 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Save complete.[m

2012-08-11 22:09:12 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Disabling level saving..[m

2012-08-11 22:09:15 [WARNING] Can't keep up! Did the system time change, or is the server overloaded?

2012-08-11 22:09:15 [iNFO] [MineConomy] [iNFO] Auto-Saving files...

2012-08-11 22:09:16 [iNFO] [MineConomy] [iNFO] Finished auto-save.

2012-08-11 22:09:29 [WARNING] Can't keep up! Did the system time change, or is the server overloaded?

2012-08-11 22:09:31 [iNFO] /50.23.30.168:39222 lost connection

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] Backup started

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Forcing save..[m

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Save complete.[m

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Disabling level saving..[m

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [sEVERE] null

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "backup.sh": error=2, No such file or directory

    at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1029)

    at com.earth2me.essentials.Backup$1.run(Backup.java:86)

    at org.bukkit.craftbukkit.scheduler.CraftWorker.run(CraftWorker.java:34)

    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:722)

Caused by: java.io.IOException: error=2, No such file or directory

    at java.lang.UNIXProcess.forkAndExec(Native Method)

    at java.lang.UNIXProcess.<init>(UNIXProcess.java:135)

    at java.lang.ProcessImpl.start(ProcessImpl.java:130)

    at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(ProcessBuilder.java:1021)

    ... 3 more

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] CONSOLE: Enabling level saving..[m

2012-08-11 22:09:32 [iNFO] Backup finished

2012-08-11 22:11:33 [iNFO] Starting minecraft server version 1.2.5

2012-08-11 22:11:33 [iNFO] Attempting early MinecraftForge initialization

2012-08-11 22:11:33 [iNFO] Completed early MinecraftForge initialization

[darzavor]

It looks as if Essentials can't find your backup script. It should be in your main server directory. You might want to give Essentials config the complete path to your script and make sure you provide the exact filename.

Also, are you running two plugins that start world backups atm? The following line is not from Essentials I think. It also disabled level saving.

2012-08-11 22:09:12 [iNFO] [backup] Started Backup...[m

EDIT: I suggest you find some time to put your server unavailable to the players so you can get this to work first. Your level saving was disabled quite long according to the console.

[darzavor]

Oops I misread. You disabled the backup script? I'm not sure what you mean with that because Essentials was still trying to run it. And if it tries that, it also disables level saving. It is better to turn the backup option into a comment (using # in front of the line) in Essentials config file if you want to temporarily disable it.

[Expozay]

Cannot run program "backup.sh": error=2, [b]No such file or directory[/b]

Perhaps you should actually look at your log files.