Problem withg backup/restore

Problem withg backup/restore

by Rob Butner -
Number of replies: 3

We are running 6 MOODLEs (version 1.1.1) on 6 Windows 2000 Advanced Server running Easy PHP 1.6 & 1.7, some with single procs, some with dual XEONS----

The backup/restore function will not work unless the following are strictly followed.

1. From the admin / configure variable page, the path to the ZIP/UNZIP MUST be deleted, even though MOODLE states that this path only refers to UNIX!!!!!!! We can recreate the backup problem by renetering a path in this feild a viola---the backup process fails---!!!

2. We can backup, but can not restore large courses (especially ones with alot of quiz questions) using any version of Internet Explorer (Vers. 5-6). As soon as we switch to a MOZILLA based browser, we can complete the restore functions!!!. In some cases, the restore function can take as long as 30 minutes!

Just my 2 cents-----Rob

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In reply to Rob Butner

Re: Problem withg backup/restore

by Bob Calder -
No surprise. IE has hundreds of exceptions. Mozilla is standards based and has lots fewer exceptions coded in. Hopefully Martin et al are smart enough to use W3 standards when given a choice. They are smart enough to have created whe world's best technology mediated learning tool. smile
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In reply to Rob Butner

Here's something useful

by Bob Calder -
Since you are using advanced server, you could put on a fibrechannel raid with several load balanced blade servers running moodle. I worked at a transaction processing business that used a setup like this and it could handle a lot of damage without going down. We processed cellphone and gift card stuff for three very large retail chains. It was very hard to kill.

If you could use SQL Server, you could automate "publish" type backups and not fool around with the php. If you have a contract with MySql folks, maybe they have this implemented somewhere.

I'm just using an Apple fibrechannel raid (1.5 tb) that is split for backup serviced by a single server. Kind of silly, I know but safe for anything short of a fire.
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In reply to Rob Butner

Re: Problem withg backup/restore

by Eloy Lafuente (stronk7) -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Moodle HQ Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers
Hi Rob, some "technical" comments about your post:

1.-About the ZIP/UNZIP issue,
in previous versions of Moodle (some time ago) ZIP support was only allowed for *X machines and this worked invoking an external (shell) zip program. Currently zip support in built in Moodle for ALL platforms and leaving that fields empty you'll use it.
And after tons of tests it's really the more reliable method to run backup/restore because it handles complex structures (and backups can become to complex!! smile).

2.-About the BROWSERS issue,
there are some internal timeouts in some of them affecting long tasks. The first timeout is the "inactivity" one. Some browsers, after some "idle" period (without receiving data from the server) close the connection. This timeout has been solved inside the backup/restore utility forcing it to send data to the browser (blank lines and spaces) continuously.
The second "timeout" is the "maxtime" one. Some browsers close the connection after some (fixed) time. This avoid some long restores to be completed. And we cannot do anything here !! It's a browser limitation.
After testing a lot of browsers in some platforms, we have concluded that Konkeror based browsers and IExplorer are more "sensible" to this timeouts, while Mozilla based browsers seem to work fine.

Hope this helps to clarify possible problems in the backup/restore utility.

Ciao, Eloy smile
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