I've searched for a while, and not found any information about where I can find the actual files in the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea" on my disk, so that I can make sure they are properly backed up and/or use them in the event of a database problem that makes Moodle unable to find them. I also haven't been able to locate them myself on disk.
This is especially important in light of the fact that, currently, storing backup files in a directory other than the "Course Backup Filearea" does not work correctly with respect to deleting old backups (MDL-25863), making it completely impossible to use that feature without eventually running out of disk space...
In reply to Daniel Zimmerman
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Stuart Mealor -
Good question Daniel - I don't think this is clearly documented?
I'm not able to try this here, but can you search your file system for the new backup format - it's *.mbz I think? That should show you where they are
Stu
In reply to Daniel Zimmerman
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
Hi Daniel,
"file areas" under Moodle 2.0 are only accessible from Moodle 2.0. That means that you won't find them in your disk at all (if looking from the OS). And this applies for all the "file areas", including the "Course Backup" one.
So only Moodle scripts can access to those files and perform operations to them (restore, move, download, copy to a real OS-path...!). Those scripts aren't really difficult to be created, it just a matter of using a bunch of functions available in the corresponding (Moodle 2) APIs.
Anyway, I think that the correct way to provide "wide" access to the new files structure of Moodle 2 is about to create some interfaces (php scripts) to access them, over webdav/ftp/whatever, able to "bridge" the internal Moodle 2 files and expose them. I hope that interfaces of that type will arrive... sooner than later. Until then, I think we should be offering some basic (but secure) way to extract files from Moodle 2 easily. Surely it is "only" a matter of knowing which uses need to be covered and implement it as one external tool or whatever.
About MDL-25863, yes, it needs fixing and the option in automated backups to store backups in OS directories, preserving XX backups, needs to work ASAP. I hope to be working in backup & restore open issues along the next weeks... so a bit of patience is needed in that area.
Ciao
In reply to Eloy Lafuente (stronk7)
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Daniel Zimmerman -
"file areas" under Moodle 2.0 are only accessible from Moodle 2.0. That means that you won't find them in your disk at all (if looking from the OS). And this applies for all the "file areas", including the "Course Backup" one
I understand why the new file structure for Moodle 2.0 was done... but this particular detail is not, in any way, an improvement over the old way of doing things. How are system administrators supposed to ensure that backups of Moodle systems (to backup servers, backup disks, tape drives, etc.) are complete and functional if they have no way to be sure that they are actually backing up everything? Is there a set of guidelines somewhere for "what has to be backed up in order to be able to recover a Moodle 2.0 server in case of disaster"?
For disaster recovery, individual course backups are not very helpful. You want a complete backup of everything. See Site_backup.
True enough... and of course we are already backing up the Moodle data area and the database, though now that the database and the Moodle data area are so closely linked, it's unclear how to get consistent backups. Course backups, on the other hand, are always consistent - and if they contain account information, etc. (which mine do) they seem fine for short term disaster recovery.
If something went horribly wrong with my server, rather than taking the amount of time it would take to recover the whole server with its large set of courses from previous quarters, it seems like it would be much faster to just put up a new one, slurp the backups of the courses from this quarter into it, and run until the end of the quarter when we could integrate them back into a full recovered server. Or, borrow some space on some other Moodle on campus, load the courses into it temporarily, and give the students the new URL. Or any number of other recovery scenarios that would be faster than a full recovery and allow students to keep working.
All I'm saying, really, is that administrators should have these sorts of options. And now we don't. If backing up to an external directory actually worked correctly, that would restore such options, and I hope that happens soon.
If something went horribly wrong with my server, rather than taking the amount of time it would take to recover the whole server with its large set of courses from previous quarters, it seems like it would be much faster to just put up a new one, slurp the backups of the courses from this quarter into it, and run until the end of the quarter when we could integrate them back into a full recovered server. Or, borrow some space on some other Moodle on campus, load the courses into it temporarily, and give the students the new URL. Or any number of other recovery scenarios that would be faster than a full recovery and allow students to keep working.
All I'm saying, really, is that administrators should have these sorts of options. And now we don't. If backing up to an external directory actually worked correctly, that would restore such options, and I hope that happens soon.
In reply to Daniel Zimmerman
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Trevor Johnson -
Hi Daniel
On the Automated backup setup page, I set the Save to path to "C:\DailyBackup", and then set automated backup storage to "Specified directory for automated backups".
Then backup up "C:\DailyBackup" to tape...
Cheers
TJ
I fear you did not get the point Daniel is explaining: in the old 1.9 file system there was a clear Backup-Strategy:
- make automated course backups
- make a database dump
- make a whole system backup to tapes
In case of minor damage, your users could tell you the name of the course and the name of the files they miss and you could easily retrieve them from tape and restore them in the correct OS file-system directory. On tapes you had also every course backup zip file. And you know exactly where every file (uploaded or backup-zip) belongs to on the file system.
Now everything is managed at a higher level and you do have to consult the mdl_files table to figure out which file belongs to which course/resource/activity, a real mess from a simple administrator's point of view.
As I migrated the whole Moodle server across several Hardware, I was even able to scp (copy) everything in the moodleRoot and moodleData Directories to the new server, import the database dump and Moodle was ready to run. I do not know any system so admin-friendly and easy to migrate and manage including backup & recovery.
When teachers missed a course or a single file, I could even retrieve it from the old hardware.
See also my post here: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=174702#p788253
Rosario
In reply to Eloy Lafuente (stronk7)
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Richard Jones -
Hi Eloy
Sounds interesting. Where are those Moodle 2 API's located (documented maybe)?
Thanks
Richard
In reply to Richard Jones
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Karishma Tiwari -
This is weird. I am using moodle 2.8, and took me ages to setup the cron to run without error.
Now i have setup the automated backup setup. I set the time and day, set 'specified directory for automated backups', and specified the directory as well. I keep running the backup, manually thru the command line, everything is fine except, I dont see any backup in the folder i specified.
Where is the backup going? I earlier set 30days for backup age, now i changed it to never to ensure it is running the backup there and then.
_______________________________________________
/opt/bitnami/php/bin/php /opt/bitnami/apps/moodle/htdocs/admin/cli/automated_backups.php
Server Time: Tue, 08 Dec 2015 22:09:33 -0800
Checking automated backup status...OK
Getting admin info
Checking courses
Skipping deleted courses...0 courses
Running required automated backups...
... started 22:09:34. Current memory use 24.4MB.
Skipping System Management Services (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'System Management Services' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping An Overview Of Microsoft Azure (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'An Overview Of Microsoft Azure' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Microsoft Azure Cloud Administration (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Microsoft Azure Cloud Administration' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Employee Handbook (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Employee Handbook' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Moodle Basic Admin Training (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Moodle Basic Admin Training' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Introduction To SMS Suite (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Introduction To SMS Suite' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Service Preparation (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Service Preparation' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Understanding Current Environment & Requirement (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Understanding Current Environment & Requirement' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Implementation (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Implementation' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Testing & Verification (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Testing & Verification' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Education & Cutover (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Education & Cutover' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Other Documentation (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Other Documentation' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Sentinel3G User Manual (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Sentinel3G User Manual' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Task3G User Manual (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Task3G User Manual' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Overview of Commvault (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Overview of Commvault' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Commcell Management (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Commcell Management' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Storage Management (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Storage Management' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Backup & Recovery (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Backup & Recovery' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping An Overview of CloudBackup4G (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'An Overview of CloudBackup4G' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping EMP Installation on Ubuntu (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'EMP Installation on Ubuntu' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping EMP Installation on CentOS (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'EMP Installation on CentOS' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping EMP Version upgrade (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'EMP Version upgrade' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping EMP Migration to new VM (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'EMP Migration to new VM' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Adrianna Test Course (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Adrianna Test Course' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Installation of Eclipse BIRT (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Installation of Eclipse BIRT' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Designing SMS AWS usage report for internal reference (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Designing SMS AWS usage report for internal reference' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Designing SMS Azure usage report for internal reference (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Designing SMS Azure usage report for internal reference' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Designing MyCNX Cloud Services report for customer (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Designing MyCNX Cloud Services report for customer' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping Designing Cubinet Cloud Services report for customer (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'Designing Cubinet Cloud Services report for customer' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Skipping EBRMS Training (Not modified since previous backup)
Backup of 'EBRMS Training' is scheduled on Wed, 09 Dec 2015 14:00:00 -0800
Automated backups complete.
Automated cron backups completed correctly
Execution took 1.197077 seconds
In reply to Karishma Tiwari
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Hi
> This is weird. I am using moodle 2.8, and took me ages to setup the cron to run without error.
We know of your cron problem: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=324344&parent=1303549.
;-(
> Now i have setup the automated backup setup.
You have the tendency to jump in to other people's discussions. This one https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=167471 happen to be long dead!
> This is weird. I am using moodle 2.8, and took me ages to setup the cron to run without error.
We know of your cron problem: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=324344&parent=1303549.
;-(
> Now i have setup the automated backup setup.
You have the tendency to jump in to other people's discussions. This one https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=167471 happen to be long dead!
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Karishma Tiwari -
I solved it now...
yes my bad.. i jumped to and fro trying to get a fix.. gosh moodle is not that easy after all.. my pulling my hair out daily!
In reply to Karishma Tiwari
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
> I solved it now...
What? How?
> i jumped to and fro trying to get a fix.. gosh moodle is not that easy after all.. my pulling my hair out daily!
You have company: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=324669#p1304240.
What? How?
> i jumped to and fro trying to get a fix.. gosh moodle is not that easy after all.. my pulling my hair out daily!
You have company: https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=324669#p1304240.
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Karishma Tiwari -
I solved the cron problem,and so i could find my backup files.
I so identify with the user in the link, becos daily i am trying to figure this out. Of course Moodle is pretty straight forward but the customizations are not!
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Vicke Denniston -
the thread you linked to has nothing to do with the question
Looking for what? The "course Backup filearea"? Or randomizing thread links? What link, to what, related to what? So many links, to barely related or unrelated questions is what Visvanath was pointing out, I thought. Doing random on discussions that are long dead, then revived and recently deceased again is not really helpful, Vicke. Coming into a conversation late is not easy, but this late makes it very difficult to make connections, I find. My email subscription digest was just meaningless. You think you may want to start a new thread asking questions that clearly outline what it is you are looking for, perhaps?
In reply to Karishma Tiwari
Re: Where is the Moodle 2.0 "Course Backup Filearea"?
by Vicke Denniston -
thank you, I was looking for this