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 How to remove Plesk backup files and their logs

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Kuzma Ivanov
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Applicable to:

  • Plesk for Linux
  • Plesk for Windows

Question

  • How to remove Plesk backups?

  • How to remove old Plesk backup logfiles?

  • Backups have been removed from Plesk, but their files and logs exist on the file system. How to remove these backup files and logs?

Answer

Note: It is possible to set a period of time after which backups will be removed automatically. In addition, it is possible to limit the number of backups to store.

When a scheduled backup task is completed successfully, the corresponding log files are deleted automatically.

 

Removing backups existing in Plesk

 

Via Plesk

 

  1. In Plesk, go to Tools & Settings > Backup manager (server-wide backups) or Websites & Domains > Backup Manager (domain backups).

  2. Choose a backup that should be deleted and click Remove. Backup files will be also removed from the system.


    Screenshot_2019-10-02_Backup_Manager_-_Plesk_Onyx_17_8_11_1_.png

   

Via a command-line interface

 

  • For Plesk on Linux

    1. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.

    2. Find the backup_infoXXXX.xml file using a backup creation date:

      # /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/pmm-ras --get-dump-list | grep .xml:

      In this example, the domain level backup was created on 10.08.2019 (19.08.10):

      # /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/pmm-ras --get-dump-list | grep .xml:
      <message>domains/example.com/backup_info_1908101555.xml: </message>

    3. Delete the backup by specifying the corresponding *.xml file. For example:

      # /usr/local/psa/admin/bin/pmm-ras --verbose --debug --delete-dump --dump-specification=backup_info_1908101555.xml --session-path=/var/log/plesk/PMM

 

  • For Plesk on Windows Server

    1. Connect to a Plesk server via RDP.

    2. Start a command prompt as an Administrator.

    3. Find the backup_infoXXXX.xml file using a backup creation date:

      C:\>"%plesk_bin%/pmm-ras" --get-dump-list | findstr .xml:

      In this example, the domain level backup was created on 10.08.2019 (19.08.10):

      C:\>"%plesk_bin%/pmm-ras" --get-dump-list | findstr .xml:
      <message>domains/example.com/backup_info_1908101555.xml: </message>

    4. Remove the backup by specifying the corresponding *.xml file. For example:

      C:\> "%plesk_bin%\pmm-ras.exe" --verbose --debug --delete-dump --dump-specification=backup_info_1908101555.xml --session-path="%plesk_dir%PMM"

 

Removing old backup logfiles (Linux)

 

  1. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.

  2. Delete directories with old backup files created before a desired date from /var/log/plesk/PMM/:

    # find /var/log/plesk/PMM/ -name 'backup*' -type d -ctime +XX -exec rm -rf {} +;

    where XX is a number of days before the current date.

 

Removing backups that are not shown in Plesk, but exist physically on a server (Linux)

 

  1. Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.

  2. Delete backup directories and files created before a desired date from /var/log/plesk/PMM/ and /var/lib/dumps:

    • Remove backup logfiles:

      # find /var/log/plesk/PMM/ -name 'backup*' -type d -ctime +XX -exec rm -rf {} +;

    • Remove backup files:

      # find /var/lib/psa/dumps -name 'backup*' -type f -ctime +XX -exec rm -rf {} +;

      where XX is a number of days before the current date.

 

Comments

2 comments

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  • Avatar
    Steven Procopio

    I'm not sure if there is an equivalent for Windows, but if there isn't it would be nice to see one as I have several clients that have been converted from reseller to customers in Plesk on Windows

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  • Avatar
    Ivan Postnikov

    Hello @Steven, 

    The GUI steps from this article are identical for Linux and Windows.

    Command-line solution for removing backups is also in place.

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