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UNiTE, Remote CLI, eXtract Wizard

#3458 FTP transport error

Posted in ‘UNiTE and Remote CLI’
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Environment Information

PHP version
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Tool
UNiTE
Tool version
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Latest post by luciano991 on Friday, 07 May 2010 01:19 CDT

user1917
Hello,
thanks for this great tools first of all!

I can make backup directly from my Windows on the server, but I can't download them through JoomlaPack Remote on my hardisk, I have just this red line error:

"FTP transport error:"


Anyone can help me?

Thanks,
m.

dlb
I have five sites set up in JRemote, but my host only allows two ftp connections. So the first two sites download, the remaining three get ftp errors. This is a known issue and a fix is on the drawing board, but it isn't here yet. Could that be what is happening for you?

Dale


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

barredespace
I've got the same problem than the first poster.
I checked web services : OK
FTP test : OK
FTP backup directory : OK
Number of concurrent ftp connections allowed: OK
...
Any other idea ?

user1917
I've got the same problem than the first poster.

I checked web services : OK

FTP test : OK

FTP backup directory : OK

Number of concurrent ftp connections allowed: OK

...

Any other idea ?


In my opinion it depends by the hosting service. I've seen however that I can see the files in real time if I use the File Manager included in the CPanel, but I can't see the files in real time when I log into the FTP using Filezilla.

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
This is one possibility. The other is that your FTP server doesn't support the passive transfer mode, but requires active transfers instead. This is a feature to be added in the next release of JoomlaPack Remote.

Another possibility is that your server requires an encrypted connection, i.e. SFTP or FTPS. Right now, Remote doesn't support these connection options. I am working towards that, but other features have higher priority.

The best test is to use an FTP client application, e.g. FileZilla, connect to your site's FTP server immediately after the backup is over and try to download the file manually. If the file isn't there, but appears in a few minutes, it's the lag problem NeroInferno described. This will also be addressed in the next Remote release, by adding a "lead time to download" option. If the file is there, but you had to use the Active mode to download it, it's the problem I described above. So far I have witnessed this problem on a very limited number of hosts.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

user1917
An idea could be to create a little file that checks the existence of the just created file on the FTP and sends you the notification on email of the file that's ready to download (and also a direct link)

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Since we advise people against using a publicly accessible directory as the backup output folder, the direct link wouldn't work. It would also beat the purpose of Remote, which is to automatically download the file.

Another idea would be to have Remote check if the file exists. If it doesn't, wait 30 seconds. Then retry and keep doing that for a maximum of X minutes, where X is a user-configurable value.

Does this sound like a better idea? I basically need your help here, because I have no idea if the amount of time between the backup and the file appearing on FTP is constant or variable.

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

user1917
Does this sound like a better idea? I basically need your help here, because I have no idea if the amount of time between the backup and the file appearing on FTP is constant or variable.


Hello nicholas!
yes it sounds good.

On Bluehost the time change every time. Could be possible to count the time from the creation to the real existence of the file on the FTP?

Thanks :)

barredespace
Thanks for your help Nicholas.
I followed your advice and checked with filezilla for the presence of the created archive immediately after the Error message .
Actually it appeared right after the end of the backup in Remote... I could start a download immediately with filezilla.
My FTP supports both passive mode and unencrypted transmission. Moreover my hosting service is OVH, one of the biggest in France (and supposedly competent...).
I will continue to test different things and report my findings here.
--
Pascal

barredespace
Problem solved !
The FTP problem is caused by too long file names.
I used to use the following name template for my backups : CdJ-[HOST]-[DATE]-[TIME]--[RANDOM] which typically results in 70 or 80 letters long names.
I removed the [RANDOM] part and no more FTP errors !

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
That's an interesting finding! I was unaware that there is a file name length limit in FTP. I used to bump on this at archive creation time when I had a long path perpended to the file name, e.g. /var/www/vhosts/mylongdomainname.com/administrator/components/com_joomlapack/backup, that's why the [RANDOM] tag wasn't included in the default backup name string.

I guess there must be something similar with FTP. I think I'll have to read the RFC...

Nicholas K. Dionysopoulos

Lead Developer and Director

πŸ‡¬πŸ‡·Greek: native πŸ‡¬πŸ‡§English: excellent πŸ‡«πŸ‡·French: basic β€’ πŸ• My time zone is Europe / Athens
Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!

luciano991
Hi,

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents and probably add even more confusion to the troubleshooting. But I am backing up 4 sites. All 4 are hosted on the same host (hostgator). All work except one which gives me the FTP transport error we are discussing. I should also add that I have read all the posts and tried all the solutions. I have also been able to download the backup using Filezilla. What's interesting is that when the download starts the progress message says "downloading 0 of 0 KB" . Sure enough a file with the right name is downloaded but 0KB is its size. Does this help? Ring any bells?

Oh yes, one more thing. The troublesome site is different from the other 3 in this respect. It's a site under development in a staging area using my hosting url with a directory like: www.myhost.com/~mysite. The other three sites are pegged to their respective domains.

All the best,
Luciano

dlb
Luciano,

Have you tried a delay between the backup and the download? My first two sites on Hostgator always gave me trouble before I put a delay in. I'm using 30 seconds.


Dale L. Brackin
Support Specialist


us.gifEnglish: native


Please keep in mind my timezone and cultural differences when reading my replies. Thank you!


????
My time zone is EST (UTC -5) (click here to see my current time in Philadelphia, PA)

luciano991
Thanks. I tried 30 seconds but no dice. It still says it's downloading 0 of 0 KB.

All the best,

Mark

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