incorrect backup size reported

Submitted by lvsys on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 10:22

Hello,

Of the three virtualmin PRO servers we're running, one is reporting an unusual backup size of 21 GB in the notification email (once the backup is done) and reports it took 4 hours or so to execute the backup transfer.

But, the backup size should be 3.2 GB and on disk, it is 3.2 GB. We send the backup to two locations:

  • a locally mounted nfs drive

  • a remote ftp server

Both destination report a total backup file size of 3.2 GB (which is correct)

What could cause this discrepancy? And what about the time it reportedly took to transfer the entire backup? I don't understand why it goes from 3.2 GB to 20 GB ..

Thank you for any pointer, it's being going on for two days.

PS: here are the two email headers we have: the top one is incorrect, the bottom one is the normal daily backup.

Abnormal backup:

Backup is complete. Final size was 21.71 GB. Total backup time was 3 hours, 39:35 minutes.

Sent by Virtualmin at: https://******.com:10000

============================= NORMAL email header:

Backup is complete. Final size was 3.22 GB. Total backup time was 1 hours, 11:22 minutes.

Sent by Virtualmin at: https://******.com:10000

Status: 
Closed (duplicate)

Comments

Submitted by lvsys on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 10:42

Thank you! I've been searching everywhere for that extra 17 GB and started seriously questioning my own engineering skills....

How about the time? Is the 4 hours correct?

Submitted by andreychek on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 10:54

Are you able to review the time stamps on the backup files?

You could use the time stamps to determine how long the backup really ran.

I don't believe the bug Jamie fixed involved incorrect times, so we aren't aware of an issue there.

However, if the time stamps on your backups show that it didn't take anything near 4 hours, we can certainly review what's going on there.

Submitted by lvsys on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 11:10

Good call. It took 2h40 mn to execute. One backup in the middle is of 1 GB and takes 49 mn to transfer over (FTP)

I am wondering if we should retire our FTP server and use Amazon S3, would we see performance improvement?

Submitted by JamieCameron on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 11:50

As far as we know, the backup time is correct. Are you seeing Virtualmin report 4 hours when it only really took 2 hours and 4 mins?

Submitted by lvsys on Sat, 05/12/2012 - 12:10

Sorry, i misread the backup time:

"Backup is complete. Final size was 21.71 GB. Total backup time was 3 hours, 39:35 minutes."

I suspect it took 1 hour to zip the 50 websites (we noticed degrading drive performance in the past 6 months - time to switch servers I guess)

and then 2 hours and 40 mn to do the file transfer

MD