Plesk scheduled backups don't run: plesk-backup-manager-task cron is empty

Symptoms

• Scheduled backups are not created at the time configured in Tools & Settings > Backup Manager > Schedule

• Task backupmng hasn't run in a while

  # grep backupmng /var/log/cron ; grep backupmng /var/log/syslog

• The backup task's CRON file is empty or doesn't exist

  # cat /etc/cron.d/plesk-backup-manager-task
  # ls -la 
  -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 May 11 14:16 /etc/cron.d/plesk-backup-manager-task

• CRON process is running on the server

  # ps auxf | grep [c]ron
  root 653 0.0 0.0 29600 2576 ? Ss May06 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron -f

  # ps auxf | grep [c]ron
  root 696 0.0 0.0 32320 2580 ? Ss May11 0:18 /usr/sbin/crond -n

Cause

The backup task fails to launch because the file is empty or doesn't exist.

Resolution

1. Connect to the server via SSH

2. Edit the file /etc/cron.d/plesk-backup-manager-task

   # vi /etc/cron.d/plesk-backup-manager-task

3. Add the following content:

   • On CentOS/RedHat OS:

   CONFIG_TEXT: 5,20,35,50 * * * * root [ -x /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng ] && /usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1

   • On Debian/Ubuntu OS:

   CONFIG_TEXT: 5,20,35,50 * * * * root [ -x /opt/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng ] && /opt/psa/admin/sbin/backupmng >/dev/null 2>&1