How to remove Plesk backup files and their logs

Julian Bonpland Mignaquy

Updated February 27, 2025 11:42

Plesk for Windows kb: how-to Plesk for Linux ABT: Group A FR:PPM-2889

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

In Plesk, go to Tools & Settings > Backup manager (server-wide backups) or Websites & Domains > Backup Manager (domain backups).
Choose a backup that should be deleted and click Remove. Backup files will be also removed from the system.

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 Obsidian 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_bin64%"\pmm-ras.exe --get-dump-list | findstr .xml:
  
  In this example, the domain level backup was created on 22 July 2020:
  
  C:\> "%plesk_bin64%"\pmm-ras.exe --get-dump-list | findstr .xml:
  <message>backup_info_2007220826.xml: </message>
  
  If Plesk was installed into a custom location, replace C:\Program Files (x86) in the command above with the custom location
4. Remove the backup by specifying the corresponding *.xml file. For example:
  
  C:\> "%plesk_bin64%"\pmm-ras.exe --verbose --debug --delete-dump --dump-specification=backup_info_2007220826.xml

For Plesk Onyx or earlier 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)

Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.
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)

Connect to a Plesk server via SSH.
Delete backup directories and files created before a desired date from /var/log/plesk/PMM/ and /var/lib/psa/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*' -ctime +XX -exec rm -rf {} +;
  
  where XX is a number of days before the current date.

Screenshot_2019-10-02_Backup_Manager_-_Plesk_Onyx_17_8_11_1_.png
30 KB Download

Comments

6 comments

turgut kalfaoglu May 26, 2023 19:31 (Edited May 26, 2023 19:33)

I have lots of other files in the /var/lib/psa -- some seems to be left over from migration days..

Can't we delete them? The above commands did nothing

# du -sh dumps/
199G    dumps/

drwxr-x---.   7 psaadm psaadm 208K May 26 09:41 .
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 26 09:41 mysql.preresolve.20230526-094109.dump.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   5.7K May 26 08:39 mysql.preupgrade.apsc.18.0.52-18.0.52.2023
0526-083923.dump.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.4M May 26 08:39 mysql.preupgrade.18.0.52-18.0.52.20230526-
083920.dump.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 26 05:44 mysql.daily.dump.0.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 25 06:00 mysql.daily.dump.1.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 24 05:58 mysql.daily.dump.2.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 23 05:39 mysql.daily.dump.3.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 22 05:47 mysql.daily.dump.4.gz
-rw-------    1 root   root   3.5M May 21 06:23 mysql.daily.dump.5.gz
drwxr-x---    2 root   root   4.0K May 21 03:59 .run
-rw-------    1 root   root   502K May 21 03:57 backup_info_2305070213_2305210212.xml
-rw-r-----    1 root   root    781 May 21 03:57 backup_ext_performance-booster_2305070213_
2305210212.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root   1.1M May 21 03:57 backup_ext_dist_performance-booster_230507
0213_2305210212.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root   2.2M May 21 03:57 backup_ext_dist_docker_2305070213_23052102
12.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root    214 May 21 03:57 backup_ext_traffic-monitor_2305070213_2305
210212.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root   6.4M May 21 03:57 backup_ext_dist_traffic-monitor_2305070213
_2305210212.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root     34 May 21 03:57 backup_ext_statistics-usage-manager_230507
0213_2305210212.tzst
-rw-r-----    1 root   root   491K May 21 03:57 backup_ext_dist_statistics-usage-manager_2
305070213_2305210212.tzst

0
Julian Bonpland Mignaquy May 29, 2023 08:03

turgut kalfaoglu could you please the exact command you applied here?

0
Adel Csakvary September 05, 2024 00:20

Cannot delete anything at /var/lib/psa/dumps :(
This guide did not work...

0
Julian Bonpland Mignaquy September 05, 2024 08:05

hi Adel Csakvary

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.

Most likely you did not change the XX.

Or are you receiving an error?

0

Hostmaster Scibile Network SA February 26, 2025 13:56

I wonder if the best practice is still the usual home-brewed Bash script or a more structured and consistent approach. Every Linux-based distribution includes the systemd-tmpfiles-clean service.

❯ systemctl status systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
● systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer - Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer; static; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (waiting) since Tue 2025-02-25 12:50:09 CET; 1 day 2h ago
  Trigger: Thu 2025-02-27 13:05:08 CET; 22h left
     Docs: man:tmpfiles.d(5)
           man:systemd-tmpfiles(8)

feb 25 12:50:09 myplesk.mydomain systemd[1]: Started Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories.

Wouldn't it be more advisable to use a configuration file like this:

❯ cat /etc/tmpfiles.d/plesk-dumps.conf
# Clean /var/lib/psa/dumps/domain and /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients after 15 days
D /var/lib/psa/dumps/domain  15d
D /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients 15d

# Clean /var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered after 15 days
D /var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered 15d

which leverages existing system services instead of relying on custom scripts?

Julian Bonpland Mignaquy February 27, 2025 11:42

Hostmaster Scibile Network SA thank you for the recommendation. IF that solution works for you please use it.

0

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Answer

Via Plesk

Via a command-line interface

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