Error during the restoration of backup: Repository error: File has wrong format

Symptoms

• The restoration of backup fails with following error:

  PLESK_ERROR: WARNING: Restore domain "example.com"
  Repository error: File has wrong format

• The following error message appears in the deployer.log file (e.g. /var/log/plesk/PMM/restore-2018-05-15-21-20-17-106/deployer.log):

  CONFIG_TEXT: INFO: RepositoryError[9ab88a1f-13dd-4859-87f9-3f765d79df8b]: Repository error: File has wrong format [common/plesk-utils/PMM/repository-transport/repository_utils.cpp:310]

Cause

This is Plesk bug PPPM-6351 which will be fixed in one of the future updates.

Resolution

Until the bug is fixed, apply the workaround (for Plesk 17.5 and CentOS 7 only):

Note: The patched files can be overwritten by Plesk updates.

1. Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.

2. Create a backup of the files /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/deployer and /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/pmm-ras:

   # cp /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/deployer{,.orig}
   # cp /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/pmm-ras{,.orig}

3. Download the patched files and unpack them:

   • for Plesk Onyx 17.5

     # wget https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/115000490773/deployer.tar.gz
     # wget https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/115000490793/pmm-ras.tar.gz
     # tar -xzf deployer.tar.gz
     # tar -xzf pmm-ras.tar.gz

   • for Plesk Onyx 17.8

     # wget https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/article_attachments/360006175553/customfix_plesk178_PPPM-6351.zip
     # unzip customfix_plesk178_PPPM-6351.zip
     # cd ./customfix

4. Set the necessary permissions on these files:

   # chmod 750 deployer
   # chmod 750 pmm-ras

5. Place patched files instead of original ones:

   # mv deployer /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/deployer
   # mv pmm-ras /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/pmm-ras

6. Check that no errors are reported by newly copied utilities:

   # /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/deployer --help
   # /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/pmm-ras --help