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How to prevent Plesk backups to consume all free disk space?

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Miguel Monteiro
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Plesk for Windows Plesk for Linux kb: how-to ABT: Group A

Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux
  • Plesk for Windows

Question

How to prevent Plesk backups to consume all free disk space or prevent backup start if there is not enough free space on the server?

Answer

  1. Login to Plesk.

  2. Open Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Settings.

  3. Enable option Start the backup only if your server has the sufficient amount of free disk space.

    OR

    If it is required to set a specific amount of free space on the server for backup to start, type the necessary amount in megabytes in option Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space.

Comments

10 comments

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  • Avatar
    Alex Rubio

    I dont think that reply is ok.
    Do not help.

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  • Avatar
    Ivan Postnikov

    Hello @Alex,

    Could you, please, describe your environment and give more details of the issue you have?

    Thanks in advance.

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    Gaston Gelhorn

    I want to make a backup in dropbox of a subscription with a samba volume with 50tb. But, Plesk use local space for this. I try without compress but it's the same. There is any way to perform this??

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    Maxim Krasikov

    Hi @Gaston Gelhorn,

    Let me clarify that Plesk creates archives locally by parts before uploading them to remote storage. 

    Parts of backup files are created and uploaded simultaneously, thus, it is recommended to have free space equal at least to half of the full backup size.

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  • Avatar
    JuJue Holistic Wellness

    @... sounds all good but HOW do I free space?

    I deleted backup files manually

    I even installed Diskspace Usage Viewer and did a cleanup and here comes the very shocking part of it, having had 37GB out of 43GB used before, After the cleanup the usage jumped up to 47GB.  

    What? Disk Cleanup ADDS to the disk instead of subtracting? What's the cleanup good for if it ADDs on?

    Sorry but this goes beyond my comprehension.

    Keep the question begging!  --- HOW can I cleanup my disk so I FREE space?  

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    Ivan Postnikov

    Hello JuJue Holistic Wellness

    Please try this instruction: https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003876473

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    Boss

    Hello

    How to set "Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space" via CLI ? 

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    Ivan Kamnev

    Hello @Boss,

    Currently, there is no CLI command for the "Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space" option.

    However, as a workaround it is possible to set the required value for the "Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space" using the steps below:

    1. Log into the server via SSH.

    2. Using the vi text editor open the /usr/local/psa/admin/share/pmmcli/pmmcli-rc file.
    Note: in case the /usr/local/psa/admin/share/pmmcli/pmmcli-rc file is missed, create it using the command below:
    # cp -pr /usr/local/psa/admin/share/pmmcli/pmmcli-rc.sample /usr/local/psa/admin/share/pmmcli/pmmcli-rc

    3. Uncomment the FREE_DISK_SPACE directive and set the required value.
    For example, if it is required to set value for the "Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space" option as 40, the result should be as below:
    FREE_DISK_SPACE 40

    4. Save the changes.

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  • Avatar
    Paraic OCeallaigh (Edited )

    Hi

    It seems the  "Start the backup only if your server has the specified amount of free disk space (in megabytes)"  is a Required option for server wide backups. Does this mean that it will fail to run if this setting is not set properly i.e. if the default is set to 20MB and your backups are greater it will fail to run?

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    Ju V. (Edited )

    Hello,

    @Paraic OCeallaigh: It seems like it will not fail to run if you've set the checkox beneath the megabyte specification. Might be a bug.

    Following up Paraic OCeallaigh's question I want to describe a potential consequential problem in more detail. Is it possible that the combination of specifying an "amount of free disk space (in megabytes)" and an activated checkbox on "Start the backup only if your server has the sufficient amount of free disk space" will cause Plesk to ignore both settings? This combination has crashed one of our servers twice because the disk was completely full after the backup process.

    Reading the docs very carefully it seems as you have to disable the checkbox if you define an "amount of free disk space (in megabytes)" at the same time.

    What is the purpose of this checkbox if the specification of an amount of free disk space in megabytes is required?

    Or do I completely misunderstand the system and the UI design of the settings?

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