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Bug #2104

closed

WordPress Database Backup Plugin Error

Added by Matt Gold over 11 years ago. Updated over 11 years ago.

Status:
Resolved
Priority name:
Low
Assignee:
Dominic Giglio
Category name:
WordPress (misc)
Target version:
Start date:
2012-09-06
Due date:
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
Deployment actions:

Description

A member reports the following error upon trying to use the WP DB backup plugin:

WARNING: Your backup directory does NOT exist, and we cannot create it.

Using your FTP client, try to create the backup directory yourself: /var/www/html/wp-content/backup-3be67/


Related issues

Related to CUNY Academic Commons - Feature #2125: Create a plugin stats generatorResolvedDominic Giglio2012-09-13

Actions
Actions #1

Updated by Boone Gorges over 11 years ago

  • Status changed from Assigned to Reporter Feedback

We shouldn't have this plugin installed. We do our own database backups on behalf of our users. Do you have an objection to removing it?

Actions #2

Updated by Matt Gold over 11 years ago

Do you have an objection to removing it?

Can you explain the backup process so that I can pass it on to the user? Many thanks.

Actions #3

Updated by Boone Gorges over 11 years ago

André, can you say a few words about our backup process?

Actions #4

Updated by local admin over 11 years ago

André, can you say a few words about our backup process?

We do nightly backups to an external disk array including both the filesystem and database exports, keeping 28 days back. Also we do weekly backups to tape media, which are sent to a secure facility in upstate new york, keeping the tapes for 12 weeks.

Actions #5

Updated by Matt Gold over 11 years ago

Okay -- thanks. Let me pass this info on to the user.

Actions #6

Updated by Dominic Giglio over 11 years ago

Matt,

I'm trying to clean up some of the simpler 1.4.4 release issues, can we mark this resolved/rejected?

Was the above answer satisfactory to the original reporter?

Actions #7

Updated by Boone Gorges over 11 years ago

  • Target version changed from 1.4.4 to 1.4.6

Dom, I left the ticket open so we'd remember to remove the plugin. But before doing so outright, I would like to take a look through to see who's using it (even though it's impossible for anyone to be using it successfully). I'm going to move it out of this milestone, as it's not at all urgent.

Actions #8

Updated by Dominic Giglio over 11 years ago

I wanted to jump on this and get it closed out so I started looking in my local dev's network admin page for a way to find out who is and is not using this plugin. It appears that this feature is not part of multisite, at least not as far as I could tell. I understand that looking for active vs unused plugins in my local env is not the same as on the live site, since my DB is different than the one on the live site, but I just wanted to see if I could do it.

Once I realized that this was not an easy task (unless I'm missing something) I started searching for ways to see more advanced plugin statistics on a multisite install. I found two plugins that I'd like to suggest we look into and install.

1.) Network Plugin Auditor
This plugin is interesting in that it will not only show active plugins on a specific site, it will also show the theme being used. I don't think this one is ideal in this specific situation because it doesn't organize the plugins into an easy to view list of active versus inactive plugins. But it could be very useful in helping to address issue #1399.

2.) Multisite Plugin Stats
I think this one is cool in that it is so simple. It just generates a single admin page organizing you multisite's plugin usage into the categories: Network Activated, Active and Inactive. So you can see in one simple glance what can and cannot be removed.

Boone, let me know what you think about these plugins. We may be able to extend this ticket and really clean out a bunch of old plugins in addition to the backup plugin that we already know is unnecessary.

Actions #9

Updated by Boone Gorges over 11 years ago

Thanks for getting started here, Dom.

Once I realized that this was not an easy task (unless I'm missing something)

We have a plugin called cets_plugin_stats that does something similar to Multisite Plugin Stats. But the plugin is old, doesn't work great on newer versions of WP. Also, because we have a large number of blogs - and this plugin works by using switch_to_blog() with every site on the network - it craps out after a few hundred blogs, which means I have to manually change the foreach loop and do it in stages. In any case, I've just done this, and I found that the plugin is activated on only 6 blogs, at least one of which is just a test blog. So I think we're fine to go ahead and delete it.

As for the more general question. I don't think that Network Plugin Auditor is a great idea to install, as I assume that it works by loading every single blog (in order to check its plugins) on the plugins.php screen. Even if that works (which I doubt - I bet it'll time out), it'll mean that plugins.php is so slow as to be unusable.

Multisite Plugin Stats would be totally fine to install, if it worked well. Why don't you download it, and have a look at how it works. In particular, see if it uses switch_to_blog(). If it looks OK to you, I'm happy to put it in the next release, so it can be tested on the production site (worst thing that'll happen is that the page won't load because it'll run out of memory).

Actions #10

Updated by Dominic Giglio over 11 years ago

I'm on it, will update when I have an answer.

I'm writing the release post for CAC Featured Content now.

Actions #11

Updated by Matt Gold over 11 years ago

Thanks, guys. Exciting to see this new direction.

Actions #12

Updated by Dominic Giglio over 11 years ago

  • Assignee changed from Boone Gorges to Dominic Giglio

Multisite Plugin Stats also uses switch_to_blog().

I'm gonna look into writing a small utility plugin that will gather this info with a crafty DB query.

But not right now, I was only working on it now cause I thought I could close it quickly.

I will delete the WP DB backup plugin, which this issue is ultimately about, and push those changes to 1.4.x, but I am leaving this issue open and assigning to myself so I remember to come back to it after more pressing issues.

Actions #13

Updated by Matt Gold over 11 years ago

Thanks, Dom. I'd suggest closing this issue out and opening a new ticket for related matters . . . .

Actions #14

Updated by Dominic Giglio over 11 years ago

  • Status changed from Reporter Feedback to Resolved
  • % Done changed from 0 to 100

Closing in favor of opening #2125

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