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Zipit Backup Utility

  • Article ID: 1390
  • Last updated on February 25, 2013
  • Authored by: Jereme Hancock
  • (52 Comments)

The Zipit Backup Utility is a tool that enables users to compress and back up data on Cloud Sites, including files and mysql databases. All backups are stored on your Rackspace Cloud Files account. The backups are done on a site-by-site basis and are initiated manually. There is also an option for setting up automated backups utilizing a Cloud Site's Scheduled Task (cronjob).

The Zipit Backup Utility is run from your account and does not externally store any of your personal information such as your database credentials or Cloud Files API key.

How it works:

  • Runs on a per-site basis. The Zipit Backup Utility must be installed for each site you want to back up.
  • The Zipit Backup Utility backs up all Cloud Sites files and databases to your Cloud Files account.
  • Lists all available backups. Available backups can be managed via the Cloud Control Panel.

Installation Instructions:

  • Download this file and save it to your local machine as "zipit-install.php" without the quotes.
  • Upload the zipit-install.php file to the content folder of the site you want to backup.
  • Open your web browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com/zipit-install.php to access the web interface.

 Note: Replace the highlighted text with your actual domain name.

  • Enter your preferred username/password for the Zipit Backup Utility.
  • Enter your Cloud Files username and API Key.

Click here for instructions on generating Cloud Files API Key.

  • Click 'Install' to begin.

*** Note Zipit will only run on a site that is configured as Linux/PHP

*** There is an IIS port of Zipit for sites that are configured for IIS/ASP. Instructions for using it can be found here.

 

By installing Zipit Backup Utility you agree that this feature is an Unsupported Service (as defined herein) and you also agree to the terms of the GPL License! See: GPL v3


If you use the tool described in this article, you agree that the tool is an “Unsupported Service”. Rackspace makes no representation or warranty whatsoever regarding any Unsupported Service, and you agree that Rackspace will not be liable to you for any loss or damage arising from the provision of the Unsupported Service.  The Service Level Guaranties will not apply to the Unsupported Service, or any other aspect of your services that are adversely affected by the Unsupported Service.  You acknowledge that Unsupported Services may not interoperate with Rackspace’s other services or other third party services you use. 



© 2011-2013 Rackspace US, Inc.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License


See license specifics and DISCLAIMER

52 Comments

I was redirected here from a support ticket, asking how I was able to do a remote site (cloud sites) backup. Normally, you could use Rsync, but not with Cloud Sites apparently.

I have had a look at the code on Github, and it all seems to be in PHP (the actual zipping etc. is done in a shell_exec) as I have thousands of files and folders that need to be backed up, would this approach exceed the PHP execution time and surely it would eat into my allowed compute cycles? Or is this not the case.

And, to download the files to my local computer, I would need to pay for the Cloud Files (bandwidth). I would also have to download each backup, completely, each time.

Surely there is a method to only backup files that have previously not been backed up or changed? Like Rsync can. Preferably, without using cloud files as the whole idea of doing an off-site backup is to backup the files-off your systems. i.e. not your cloud files but a local computer (my end).

Seems to be some very nice code but I think the approach may be a bit long winded.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on the queries I have.

Cheers.
By Anonymous on Jul. 30, 2012

Thank you, that does clear a few things up for myself and im sure will benefit others too.

It appears that this solutions is not for me at this time (due to the thousands of files etc.) Is there likely to be a solution for myself (and other alike) to backup to a local computer securely and efficiently with large sites? Wether that be with Rsync or not.

However regarding your script... Some very nice work and I think it will be perfect for many people.
By Ben Hoskins on Jul. 30, 2012

Can you use cron to run it unattended if you want to?
By Bruce Letterle on Jul. 30, 2012

I get this message when trying to run a file backup. Can you give an explanation?

Due to server constraints Zipit Backup cannot be run at this time.

Please try again later.
By Bruce Letterle on Jul. 30, 2012

Unfortunately, the Server Constraints issue has made this utility less-than-useful for me. I get this message more than I don't when I want to make an on-demand backup of a site's files and/or database.

Hopefully RSC comes out with a built-in backup solution soon or this limitation of ZipIt can be lifted.
By Anonymous on Aug. 7, 2012

Hi Jereme,

I was wondering if you would be doing an updated for automated backups at all? Really like this system and is so much easier than creating cron jobs for each of my sites.

Thanks
Ollie
By Oliver Mckeown on Jul. 30, 2012

Hi Ollie,
Thank you for giving Zipit a try. I am glad to hear that it is proving to be useful.

Zipit by design will not work to create truly automated backups since that would require direct access to create cronjobs from the utility.

However, I am looking into some options to make the creation of the current cron option easier. I am still formulating a plan and will hopefully be able to implement something in a future release.

Thanks for being a Customer! Remember we are here for you 24x7x365! Have a great day!

Regards,

Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Linux System Admin I
By jereme hancock on Jul. 30, 2012

Is there anyway to determine if the zipit has stalled or is just taking a long time to complete? It has been running for 47 minutes and the progress bar is almost at the end with a message stating "Please Wait". There are no files yet on the cloud file page but I do see containers for them. My database is rather large.

Thank you
By Judah on Jul. 30, 2012

Unfortunately there isn't really a way to tell whether it's stalled or just slow. The progress bar keeps track of steps taken, but not really how long a step will take.

As there should be a pop-up window at the end, it's possible a pop-up blocker could prevent the program from displaying a completion window. Are you getting this stalled result consistently, or just the one time?
By jered.heeschen on Jul. 30, 2012

Hi - What is the top end of the site size (in GBs) that zipitbackup can reliably handle?
By Anonymous on Aug. 1, 2012

Currently the Zipit Backup Utility can handle a site that once zipped is no larger than 5GB.

Thanks for being a Customer! Remember we are here for you 24x7x365! Have a great day!

Regards,

Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Linux System Admin I
US: 1-877-934-0407
INTL +1.210.581.0407
By jereme hancock on Aug. 2, 2012

Ok.. this doesn't actually work does it? I've done the install and followed the limited directions to the letter. All I get is "Due to server constraints Zipit Backup cannot be run at this time.

Please try again later."

Anyone?
By John Lumpp on Aug. 31, 2012

There are limits imposed on our backend to prevent too much file activity from impacting overall Sites performance, as I understand it. Unfortunately the best I can offer is that you should try again after a couple minutes, when hopefully that activity will have been reduced below the threshold.
By jered.heeschen on Aug. 31, 2012

I'd like a way to automate this to upload to my own personal remote FTP server.... I manage over 100 sites, and need a REAL solution.
By Victor Orly on Oct. 9, 2012

I'd like to do the same i.e. upload to a remote FTP server. Anyone got a solution for this yet?
By cliff on Oct. 31, 2012

Hi Victor and Cliff,
Those are both great suggestions. The purpose of Zipit is very specific. It is designed to backup to Cloud Files and locally for an individual site.

However, since Zipit is 100% Open Source you can modify it to your needs to add support for backing up to a remote FTP server as well as possibly some automation. Keep in mind that whatever you modify Zipit to do will still need to comply with our AUP terms.

Thanks, Jereme
By jereme hancock on Nov. 1, 2012

I am very pleased to announce a few major updates to Zipit.

1. No more "Due to server constraints..." messages!
2. Automation option now available!

There were also a number of backend fixes and tweaks.

I have added a forum post to help with announcements and updates to Zipit as well.

https://community.rackspace.com/products/f/26/t/445.aspx

Thanks,
Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
By jereme hancock on Jan. 25, 2013

Very pleased to have found this! I'm wondering how long file backups can take. I started one about an hour ago for a site that's approx. 35 MB when zipped. I'm guessing it varies but do you have some loose guidelines on how long file backups can take? The DB backup of course worked like a charm. Thanks in advance!
By Brian Larson on Feb. 5, 2013

Hi Brian,
Thank you very much for giving Zipit a try. The backup times do vary, however for a site that small it should only take a few minutes at the most. It could be that Zipit has stalled and the backup has actually completed. I would be happy to troubleshoot it if you would like to give us a call.

Thanks for being a Customer! Remember we are here for you 24x7x365! Have a great day!

Regards,

Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Linux System Admin I
US: 1-877-934-0407
INTL +1.210.581.0407
By jereme hancock on Feb. 5, 2013

Thanks Jereme! So dang fast. Jumping on live chat now.
By Brian Larson on Feb. 7, 2013

Hi Brian,
You are very welcome! Very glad to help.

Thanks for being a Customer! Remember we are here for you 24x7x365! Have a great day!

Regards,

Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Linux System Admin I
By jereme hancock on Feb. 7, 2013

Hi Jereme. Recently I worked with someone on live chat support (Jason was it?) and I think he was working with you on resolving the issues I was having trying to do file backups. A node issue? Just wanted to check-in and see if y'all have had any luck. Thanks again in advance.
By Brian Larson on Feb. 15, 2013

Hi Brian,
So sorry for the delay in responding. I have been working on Zipit and testing the issues that you have been having. I believe I have isolated it to an issue with the current Cloud Files PHP bindings. I have just updated Zipit to use the new php-opencloud bindings and this has fixed a number of issues and I believe will help with the issues that you were having. Basically now Zipit will keep the backups in the same datacenter as your Cloud Site which reduces latency and bandwidth.

You will need to install the newest version to test the updates.

Let me know if you are still having issues.

Thanks, Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Feb. 25, 2013

Hi Jereme

Is there a way to get the backup files to auto delete/ get replaced after x amount of days?

Also does the zip file created also get backed up when the backup runs again

If so this would quickly use a lot of space as effectively you are backing up the site + a backup (and any older backups) each time


Thanks and hope to find out

James
By James on Feb. 13, 2013

Hi James,
Currently the Zipit Backup Utility does not have any "auto delete" functionality. It simply creates the backups. I may consider including some kind of logic for what you have mentioned which is a great idea.

Zipit does not backup the backups. After Zipit completes and the backups are available in Cloud Files and have passed an md5 checksum test they are removed from the Cloud Sites side. This way the next time the backup is run it is not backing up backups.

Thanks, Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Feb. 25, 2013

Dear Sir

I am using ZIPIT utility for my cloud sites and it is working fine for small size sites.
But for bulky sites , it is throwing a timed out error like
PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'InvalidResponseException' with message 'Invalid response (408): Unexpected HTTP return code: 408' in php_errors.log file . Please help me to resolve this . How could I increase the time out value ? I am a big fan of Rackspace. I am moving all my sites to Rackspace. Please provide a solution so that I can sleep peacefully and also how to create container for each ZIPIT.
By Debojit Debnath on Feb. 15, 2013

Hi Debojit,
Thank you for letting me know about the issue. I have been working on a new version of Zipit which should fix this issue. You will need to reinstall Zipit to test the latest version. The new version uses the new php-opencloud API bindings and reduces latency and bandwidth usage by keeping the backups in the same datacenter as the Cloud Site that is being backed up.

Just let me know if you have any questions or further issues.

Thanks, Jereme
Rackspace Cloud Sites Support
Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Feb. 25, 2013

How big is too big for file backup do you think? It's still stalling for me and not backing up any files. Database backups work peachy still though.
By Brian on Feb. 28, 2013

I now see that the files are in the zipit folder in the live web root. Looks like zipit backs itself up too though which is making for gigantic ZIPs. Or maybe something needs to be configured differently that I'm missing?
By Brian on Feb. 28, 2013

Hi Brian,
Thank you for the follow-up. I just tried to give you a call so we could discuss the issues and maybe do some testing.

The backups are first created locally and then moved to Cloud Files. I see that your site is around 1.4 GB so I bet you are running into the browser timeouts that I am still seeing. The process should still complete however it can take quite some time. I am going to run some tests to see what I can find and will be in touch.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Feb. 28, 2013

Dear Jereme

I can see that it is backed up by using the new scripit . But it is not showing in CLoud Files as well not in zipit backups. Where it is getting stored. Please help.

Regards
Debojit
By Debojit Debnath on Feb. 28, 2013

Hi Debojit,
Thank you for the follow-up. The backups are first created locally on the Cloud Site and then sent to Cloud Files. There are still some issues with sites around a gig in size with browser timeouts. However, the backups should complete.

I would love to help with this. If you can give us a call and ask for Jereme Hancock, I would be happy to dig in deeper.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Feb. 28, 2013

Hi i have configured the utility for cloud site code and database backup. This is working fine for database , it shows all backups on server's control panel. it is also configured for code, but it does not working same process for site. It makes backup in \zipit\zipit-backups\files ftp location but does not showing at control panel section. or account of rackspace cloud sites.
Can some body knows how it works and where it actually creates backup files?

thanks
Brijmohan
By Brijmohan karadia on Mar. 13, 2013

Hi Brijmohan,
Thank you for letting me know about your issues. This sounds like it may be related to a known issue with sites that are around a gig or larger. There are some known issues with the current version of Zipit that causes the browser to time out and the backups do not complete and push to Cloud Files.

I am working on a new version of Zipit that should fix this issue.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 18, 2013

Lately when I install zipit it seems to install fine. Then, when I log in I only see part of the page with the tabs and "Zipit Backup Utility" and "Available File Backups" showing, but nothing else. No list of past backups and no button to start a new backup. My error logs show this (edited for security):

[13-Mar-2013 09:03:03 America/Chicago] PHP Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'OpenCloud\ServiceValueError' with message 'No value for ObjectStore region' in /mnt/..XX..XX../web/content/zipit/api/lib/openstack.php:723
Stack trace:
#0 /mnt/..XX..XX../web/content/zipit/api/lib/openstack.php(662): OpenCloud\OpenStack->Service('ObjectStore', 'cloudFiles', '', NULL)
#1 /mnt/..XX..XX../web/content/zipit/zipit-files.php(94): OpenCloud\OpenStack->ObjectStore('cloudFiles', '')
#2 {main}
thrown in /mnt/..XX..XX../web/content/zipit/api/lib/openstack.php on line 723
By Douglas on Mar. 13, 2013

Hi Douglas,
Thank you for letting me know about your issue and I apologize for them.

The issue is that the the script doesn't know what datacenter to place the backups in. The zipit-config.php file has a section that determines the datacenter that your Cloud Sites is located. It would be helpful if I could take a look at your site and see why it is failing. If you can provide me with your URL I can take a look and see what is going on.

To fix this now you can simply add the following to the bottom of the zipit-config.php just above the closing ?>.

$datacenter = "DFW";

Just change the DFW to ORD if your sites are located in the ORD datacenter.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Support Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 18, 2013

Here is a URL to one of the sites: http://www.extremegeo.com/zipit/
By Douglas on Mar. 20, 2013

Hi Douglas,
Thank you for getting back to me. I have taken a look and found that it appears that the zipit-config.php file was missing a portion that is created during the installation.

The only reason that I can think of that would cause this is if you installed Zipit with an older version of the Zipit Installer.

I went ahead and added in the section that was missing to your zipit-config.php file. I have tested it out and it ran successfully for both files and databases.

Just let me know if you have any further issues or questions.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 20, 2013

Please, let me know If this tool can make a backup to cloudfiles of a site using more than 20 GB of storage.
Thanks
By Argos on Mar. 21, 2013

Hi Argos,
Thank you for your interest in the Zipit Backup Utility. It will not work for sites over 5gb. This is due to the 5bg file size limitation of Cloud Files.

Thanks, Jereme
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 22, 2013

i set this up and it worked. I am wondering how the code can be altered so that it does 30 day backups and then on day 1 of each month it will overwrite the previous months' day 1. and so forth, overwriting each day from the previous month as it goes. So i only store 30/31 files. That would be cool!

but even better if every month for a year it left a unique day 1 and overwrote the rest of the days. that way after a year i would be left with 1 backup per month and 30/31 backups for December. Then i start all over again in January. that is just bonus but i would take the first scenario.
By hyemark on Mar. 22, 2013

Hi Hyemark,
Thank you for using Zipit and for your feedback.

Your ideas are great. You would have to add in quite a bit of code to deal with the "backup rotation". The Zipit code is on github and is Open Source so you can definitely tweak it, rewrite it, or modify it to your needs.

Thanks again,
Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 25, 2013

CakePHP maintains iron-fisted control over the .htaccess rules, and Zipit will only work in the main directory that content is supposed to be in (/domain/web/content). You can work around this by modifying your CakePHP .htaccess as such:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>

turns into:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^(zipit|zipit-install.php) - [L]
RewriteRule ^$ app/webroot/ [L]
RewriteRule (.*) app/webroot/$1 [L]
</IfModule>
By Nick on Mar. 26, 2013

Hi Nick,
I am very happy to see that you were able to get a fix for this. It was a pleasure to speak with you yesterday. I am going to add this code to the information that I can distribute with Zipit for our CakePHP users.

If you have any issues with Zipit please let me know.

Thanks for being a great customer!

Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Mar. 27, 2013

I previously had a problem with the Datacenter not being correctly set on install. Now that is fine but the URL is not being set. Is there a new install file I should be using? Is there a good way to find out when new install files are released?

Let me know if I can supply any info to help troubleshoot.
By Douglas on Apr. 15, 2013

Hi Douglas,
Thank you for letting me know that you are having issues. The latest version of Zipit does require the use of the latest installer. You can get the latest installer from the link on this article. I also try to keep the following updated whenever there is a new release.

Forum: https://community.rackspace.com/products/f/26/t/445
Article: http://zipitbackup.com
Personal Blog: http://www.cloudsitesrock.com/

The latest release of Zipit has a Settings tab so that you can modify the Zipit config settings from the GUI. If you have any trouble you can always modify the zipit-config.php file directly. For the URL variable just be sure to not include the "http://".

Let me know if you have any further issues.

Thanks again,
Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on Apr. 16, 2013

Hey guys,

Zipit is great! i'd like to restrict access to the zipit folder though, is there a way to use .htaccess to allow only the rackspace cron agents?

Also having it auto delete would be awesome!!

automysqlbackup allows you to have a specified number of daily, weekly and monthly backups - this methodology would be ideal! :)
By Adam Purdie on May. 6, 2013

Hi Adam,
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad that Zipit has been useful.

You could setup .htaccess rules to only allow from certain IP addresses. However, the IP address of our cron servers can and do change. We also do not publish those IPs for security reasons.

Auto-delete or backup rotation is something that has been requested before. I definitely think that it would be a great addition. However, it gets a bit more complicated when dealing with setting things up that essentially delete customer data. At this time I don't have plans to add that feature. However, since Zipit is Open-Source it can definitely be adapted to such things.

Thanks again,
Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on May. 6, 2013

I recently installed Zip It and I am receiving this error when trying to back up my files. The log does not have much detail on the error and I am wondering if anyone has received this error?
By Sean on May. 8, 2013

Hi Sean,
Thank you for letting me know about your issues. I am sorry to hear that you are having them. The error that you are seeing indicates that the zip file that was uploaded to Cloud Files didn't pass an md5 checksum comparison with the original zip file.

I have not seen or even been able to recreate this issue directly. Are you getting this error for File backups and Database backups? Also is this happening on manual or automated backups?

I would be happy to look into it if you would like. I would just need to know what domain you have it setup on. You can also give us a call and ask for me. I don't work on the Support floor any longer, however, I would be more than happy to talk with you and see if we can get to the bottom of the issue.

Thanks again,
Jereme Hancock
Cloud Sites Support
Automation Admin
By jereme hancock on May. 8, 2013

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