Fruitless attempt to re-set-up Cron-scheduled backups

[Fuddyduddy]

Hello again

Having reactivated one of my existing Cron jobs and deleted then replaced from scratch the other, I hoped all would be plain-sailing from then on. I should have known better :sob

In the cronjobs folder four instances of Rsync_USB_backup from My_Movies and one instance from Recorded_TV are recorded as having taken place over the past two days. Despite that, when I go into the backup folders residing on the external USB drive neither of them bears more than a passing resemblance to the current status of their respective source folders; for instance, neither has a file of more recent date than 2015!

In other words, I've failed completely to achieve what I set out to do, yet (evidently) I succeeded two years ago. I've no idea where I've gone wrong this time and so don't know how to put it right.

Here are the two job lines

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* 16 */4 * * /usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.Recorded_TV_gWUIj6.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

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* 15 */3 * * /usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.My_Movies_e4Cyvb.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

Are you able, please, from these to deduce where I have erred and advise me accordingly? Or do you need further information (such as a copy of one or more .log or .php files and if so which one/s?)

[Jocko]

Hi Fuddyduddy,

You schedule too many backups ! :shocked

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* 16 */4 * *

means start the backup every 4 days (1,5,9,...) at 16 hours but also at each minute!
So should be

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0 16 */4 * *

for running at 16h00 the backup every 4 days

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi Jocko

Stupid me! I made that same mistake last time; I remember now (too late!).

Anyway I've now inserted the missing '0' in both job lines, and will observe results over the next few days.

Regards

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi again

(One small amendment:- for the time being I've deleted one of the two backups ('Recorded_TV') in order to concentrate without any distractions on only a single case ('My_Movies')).

So far I have made absolutely no progress towards achieving my aim, which is:- to set up a backup folder on the USB drive the files in which are synced at regular intervals with the current state of the source folder.

Totally standard stuff and ought to be child's-play to do, I imagine. But I can't manage to do it.

I've just run a simulated backup in main menu Fileshare 'Backup' page, with My_movies as Source Folder and /share/1000/NAS_backup_1/"Back-up My_movies" as Destination Folder; I tried first with 'Restore' selected and then 'Mirror'. The result was the same in both cases, namely that the list of files appearing in the 'Destination' pane is not synced IN ANY DEGREE with the current state of the Source Folder. Instead it continues to reproduce a state that the Source Folder last assumed roughly 18 months ago; although some of the sub-folders the directory contains haven't changed in the meantime a lot of others have, but none of the changes are reflected.

I'm totally baffled and very frustrated.

Can you suggest what I might try next please?

[Jocko]

Hi Fuddyduddy,

If you tried to simulate a backup then you should have a log file in fvdw share. Maybe some errors are reported here.

Note1: Restore or mirror do the same thing but with a restore action, you can use some additional options like not overwrite files with a more recent modified date time.
Note2: if you use a incremental backup, the backup folder name is stamped with a date time (it is why you had these folder names)

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi Jocko

Sorry, I was completely wrong in believing no changes were made. I've just run another simulation, then looked in the log and sure enough the existing state of the My_Movies share is faithfully replicated. It had been too when I did the previous simulation but that time I didn't check the log.

What confused me was that I expected the changes to be reflected in the "Selected Destination Folder" pane on the main web interface and when that didn't happen (it still looks as it did the last time I backed-up - for real not simulated) I assumed it hadn't worked.

I'm now going to try it out for real and assuming that works will move on to the other folder I want to back up.

Thanks again for your help.

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi Jocko
Here are the two job lines

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/usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.My_Movies_8KoJtn.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

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/usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.Recorded_TV_0Z2aP4.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

May I ask, do they look OK to you? (I simulated each of them and they seemed to me to produce the outcomes I was aiming-for).

Meanwhile though I've become aware that the USB drive I'm using for Backup is going to become too small once these Cron jobs start for real, so I'm now planning to swap it for a bigger one. But I think I need first of all to ask you one or two questions about that, so I don't screw it up.

Will start a new thread.

[Fuddyduddy]

@Jocko

I'm getting absolutely nowhere with trying to schedule my two Cron backups, and I cannot for the life of me see what it is I'm doing wrong or alternatively what I'm not doing that I should be doing.

Btw I've realised that in my previous post dated Apr 5 I sent the wrong job lines; here are the right ones

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0 19 */3 * * /usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.My_Movies_jr9VB9.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

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0 20 */2 * * /usr/bin/php '/share/1000/cronjobs/Rsync_USB-NAS_backup_1.from.Recorded_TV_YNTgFT.php' >>/share/1000/cronjobs/cron.log

Five days have since gone by, so two backups ought to have been made of the second of these jobs and one of the other. But when I look in the log in fvdw there is no activity recorded since Apr 4! And furthermore whilst the log records 39 files being transferred to the Recorded_TV destination folder on that date, when I look into the backup today I find only two!

Whereas the Recorded_TV source-folder only contains files the My_Movies source-folder consists of sub-folders in each of which is a single *.mpg file (plus other files the file-extensions of which I have excluded for backing-up). Despite my having ticked the box which is supposed to prevent an un-needed sub-folder level being created, that un-needed sub-folder is still being created. Moreover, although all the real sub-folders appear to have been faithfully duplicated in the backup ONLY THE FIRST 5 CONTAIN AN *.mpg FILE - THE OTHER 67 ARE EMPTY.

I can't begin to understand what on earth is happening, even less to see what I can do to correct these fatal errors.

[Fuddyduddy]

I can't begin to understand what on earth is happening, even less to see what I can do to correct these fatal errors.

An afterthought:- Am I beating-up myself unecessarily? Can it be that the problem is not caused by any error or omission on my part but by one or more bugs in the fvdw software's front-end to Cron...?

Unlikely perhaps, but surely not unthinkable?

[fvdw]

jocko is not available at this moment for family reasons, sorry to keep you waiting