Xcloner Error saving Schedule
-
Xcloner has been working fine, but existing scheduled backups have stopped running.
I created a new backup, and that ran fine, saving a copy of backup out to the same sftp location no problem.
However none of the existing backup in the schedule are running, and whenever I attempt to edit a backup in the schedule window, (including the new one I just added) clicking ‘save’ now generates ‘Error saving schedule!’ There is also no way to exit the edit schedule dialog.
How do I overcome these issues?
The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]
-
Apologies, rather than hanging around to troubleshoot, I just recreated all the schedule items. One thing I found the original schedule items had in common was outdated database references (WordPress installations were shifted to another account/server with the hosting company).
What also seemed to help was disabling Modsecurity (I had been getting frequent error 406 when trying to undertake Xcloner admin tasks too soon after a backup was done, or too often in succession, and sftp file transfers had been failing randomly – all seemed to go away with mod security turned off).
How important is having Mod_security enabled for Xcloner?
Perhaps this belongs in a separate post, but a few other things related to scheduling were noted:
Although a first backup has been completed for every WordPress installation in the schedule, the schedule does not reflect this, with all ‘last backup’ entries remaining blank, despite having ‘executed’ status.
Each ‘executed’ status notification is a hyperlink, but it links to nothing
There is also no obvious or simple way to manually initiate a one off backup from a schedule item as you would intuitively expect, at least not without changing the schedule start time to the current date, which then offsets the scheduled recurrences in ways that may not be intended.
This forces a user to otherwise define a new backup – with all the risks involved in that (wrong database selection, wrong file exclusions etc). This seems crazy when a perfectly good backup definition already exists.
Further follow up on schedules. Even though the new schedule object instances I created can now be edited, they still appear not to work, or at least not as edited.
I edited a schedule to change the start time to execute in a few minutes and saved. Accordingly the schedule object in the list view reported that its backup would be commencing in a few minutes – however nothing happened – no backup file was generated.
I tried this a few times, with no result (no tar file found on local server or remote storage location). The Xcloner log nevertheless generated an entry like this each time.
[2025-04-24 04:25:07] xcloner_file_system.INFO: Cleaning the backup storage LOCAL on matching rules [] []each timeChecking my web host, the error log there has no recent entries (most recent was yesterday)
Yesterday’s error logs however had many entries that look like like this, that I assume relate to Xcloner backup or schedule item editing attempts? :
[Wed Apr 23 20:15:01.081816 2025] [authz_core:error] [pid 1090988:tid 1091077] [client 47.128.35.238:0] AH01630: client denied by server configuration: /home/primen10/public_html/kingfamily/treeCould this relate to some sort of incompatibility with mod_security?
I am seeing this when I try to create a new backup
'{"readyState":4,"responseText":"Error 406 - Not Acceptable
Error 406 - Not Acceptable
Generally a 406 error is caused because a request has been blocked by Mod Security. If you believe that your request has been blocked by mistake please contact the web site owner.
","status":406,"statusText":"error"}'Does Xcloner require that sites it backs up are not protected by Mod Security? Otherwise how do I safely avoid getting this error?
I contacted my webhost, who advises the Mod Security rules are the same for most shared hosts, and get regularly updated. They suggested it would be a bad idea to disable mod security, and that I need to contact you to request the plugin be updated for better compliance with latest standards.
OK, more poking around revealed that the wp.config file had been set to disable wp_cron (possibly by the hosting company?). I tried reenabling it (per below), and this time was able to get a scheduled backup to actually occur – though I was logged in to Xcloner website at the time, so presumably the presence of human activity was triggering wp_cron to work?
/** Disable the WP_CRON processes*/
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', false);How should scheduled backups be initiated – via the wp_cron setting within the Xcloner wordpress installation (which would normally never be visited by a user), or via an external recurring cron task set up with the host?
The topic ‘Xcloner Error saving Schedule’ is closed to new replies.
