Local backup structure in Plesk for Linux

Daniel Yordanov

Updated November 22, 2024 20:02

kb: how-to Plesk for Linux kb: auxiliary

Applicable to:

Plesk for Linux

Question

What is the structure of the local backups in Plesk for Linux?

Answer

The Plesk backup storage is specified by the DUMP_D variable defined in the /etc/psa/psa.conf configuration file. The default location is /var/lib/psa/dumps.

Each backup consists of:
1. <info>.xml - file which contains settings of the server/reseller/customer/subscription, etc.
2. <backup>.<tar|tgz|tzst> - archived backup files which include website content, databases, etc.
3. The directory .discovered, which contains the technical information of the backup.
The backup objects hierarchy is as follows:

Warning: Modifying Plesk backup structure is not recommended.
1. Root backup directory where server backups, daily dumps, subdirectories with backups of resellers, clients, and domains, etc. are stored:
  
  CONFIG_TEXT: /var/lib/psa/dumps/
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/.discovered
2. Subdirectory domains/ where backups of domains owned by the Plesk admin and objects owned by the domains are stored:
  
  CONFIG_TEXT: /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/databases/
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/domains/<domain.name>/sites/<domain.name>
3. Subdirectory clients/ where Customer objects owned by admin and objects owned by the Customer accounts are stored:
  
  CONFIG_TEXT: /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/sites/<domain.name>
  
  Directories are identified by the Customer's login and the domain name.
4. Subdirectory resellers/ where backups of resellers, their clients, domains and other objects owned by Resellers and Resellers' clients are stored:
  
  CONFIG_TEXT: /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/domains/<reseller.domain>
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/domains/<reseller.domain>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/domains/<reseller.domain>/databases
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/.discovered
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/databases
  /var/lib/psa/dumps/resellers/<reseller.login>/clients/<client.login>/domains/<client.domain>/.discovered
5. The repositories are identified by reseller login, reseller's domain name, customer login and customer's domain name.
To distinguish files belonging to different backups of the same object, a specific prefix and suffix are added to the file names:
- The backup is added by default.
- A suffix designating the backup creation date is always added to each backup file, and the date format is <yymmddhhmm>.
  
  Note: For example, the files of a backup created on 29 May 2021, 03:08 PM will have the suffix name: 2105291508, for example: backup_info_2105291508.

The list of all files included in the backup can be found via the command find:

For example, to find all the files for backup created on 29 May 2021, 03:08 PM:

# find $(awk '$1=="DUMP_D"{print$2}' /etc/psa/psa.conf) -name '2105291508'
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_logs_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_info_2105291508.xml
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_conf_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/sites/sub.example.com/backup_logs_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/sites/sub.example.com/backup_conf_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/sites/sub.example.com/backup_pd_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/sites/sub.example.com/backup_statistics_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_pd_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/.discovered/backup_info_2105291508
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_apache-files_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_statistics_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_domainmail_2105291508.tgz
/var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/backup_user-data_2105291508.tgz

From the output above it is seen that this is a backup of a subscription example.com which includes the domain example.com and the subdomain sub.example.com. This subscription belongs to the customer with the login jdoe. The client belongs to Plesk administrator.

Technical details of a Plesk backup stored in the .discovered directory are:

# ls -la /var/lib/psa/dumps/clients/jdoe/domains/example.com/.discovered/backup_info_2105291508/
total 56
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 29:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 May 29 15:08 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20 May 29 15:08 cid_apache-files
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 562 May 29 15:08 cid_domainmail_25
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 408 May 29 15:08 cid_user-data
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 113 May 29 15:08 dumpresult_SUCCESS
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 86 May 29 15:08 object_index
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17204 May 29 15:08 profile.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 139 May 29 15:08 props
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 29 15:08 status_OK
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5 May 29 15:08 storages

Where:

cid_apache-files - index of webspace files which are accessed explicitly for users apache or www-data.
cid_domainmail_25 - index of files with mail messages.
cid_user-data - index of webspace files.
object_index - index of objects included in the backup (resellers, customers, subscriptions, domains, mailboxes, etc.).

Note: The index of webspaces/files is used to determine which files should be included in the next incremental backup and from which archive the files should be extracted during restoration.
dumpresult_SUCCESS:
- dumpresult_SUCCESS. Indicates that the backup was created without issues.
- dumpresult_WARNINGS. Provides the list of warnings that appeared during the backup creation.
- dumpresult_ERROR. Provides the list of errors that appeared during the backup creation.
profile.log - telemetry data.
props - contains backup properties.
storages - contains the list of repositories where the backup was created. For example, local/ftp, etc.
status_OK - indicates the backup status:
- status_OK. Indicates a valid backup.
- status_WRONG-FORMAT. Indicates that the *.xml backup file is invalid.
- status_CONTENT-ERROR. Indicates that the part of tar archives is missing.
- status_SIGN-ERROR. For a modified backup in which the backup signature does not match the backup content.
  The following notification is shown in Plesk when clicking on the backup: Warning: This backup was created on another server or modified after creation.
Note: The backup status file is kind of like a cache. You need to remove it to allow Plesk Backup Manager to generate a new status file.

In the Plesk GUI, backups can be checked in:

Tools & Settings > Backup Manager:
Domains > example.com > Backup & Restore:
For Reseller/Customer in their panel in Tools & Utilities > Backup Manager or in Domains > example.com > Backup & Restore.

The content of the auxiliary subdirectory .discovered is not visible in Plesk. Foreign files located in the backup directories are also not visible in Plesk UI.

https://webpros.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PPP/pages/3653704240/Backup+Manager#BackupManager-Structure

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