Support

Site Restoration

#30833 Restore from component backend

Posted in ‘Site restoration’
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Environment Information

PHP version
n/a
CMS Type
Other
CMS Version
n/a
Backup Tool Version
n/a
Kickstart version
n/a

Latest post by on Sunday, 24 February 2019 17:17 CST

myhpl501
Developing a new website for a client and tried a restore from within the backend to familiar myself with a live restore process Iand to test the backup) while i am in the early development stages. The extraction went well, but the installer script failed. I am sure this is an .htaccess or other permissions issue, but could use your guidance on how to quickly recover from this. I do use admintools and the .htaccess file was modified by same

Site URL with error is: http://myhamptonlibrary.org/installation/index.php

Thanks,

John

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Unfortunately you haven't given me any usable information so I will have to guess and ask a lot of questions :)

Is your backup set up as a "Full site backup" type? If not, stop here. Go to Configuration, change the type to "Full site backup" and take a new backup. Most other backup types do not come with a restoration script and are meant for specialized backups. After taking a new backup try to restore it.

After the extraction step is complete do you have an installation directory on your site? If you do, accessing any page on your site will redirect you to the /installation/index.php URL. Right now this does not happen so I know that you have NOT extracted a full site backup on your site. If after extracting the backup there's no installation folder go back to the previous step, you missed something (probably you changed the backup type on the wrong backup profile?).

Once you have the installation folder on your site, does the installer load? If it throws a 404 or 403 check whether you have a .htaccess file.Do note that dot files (files whose name begins with a dot) are hidden by default. This file should have been automatically renamed to htaccess.bak during the extraction process. However, if the file ownership and permissions didn't allow that it will still be there. Rename it to htaccess.bak (no dot in front!) and reload the installer page.

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!

myhpl501
OK, so my apologies. I was stuck in a 403 error while trying to access http://myhamptonlibrary.org/installation/index.php , but after I posted my support inquiry, I played around and swapped out the more secure, admintools generated .htaccess file with the generic .htaccess file provided with a fresh vanilla joomla install. This allowed me to run the installer script and after i deleted the installation folder, I was back in business. For some reason I thought that performing a restore from within the backend of akeebabackup within a live joomla site would not make me go through a full re-install script - I was just trying to back out of an error generated from another component. Anyways - how do I avoid this in the future? What changes do I need to make to my .htaccess file, or, is their a way to make a less intrusive, incremental backup?

Best,

John

nicholas
Akeeba Staff
Manager
Your case is what I described at the very end of my previous reply:

This file should have been automatically renamed to htaccess.bak during the extraction process. However, if the file ownership and permissions didn't allow that it will still be there.


I suspect that you are using Joomla's FTP layer, set up in your site's Global Configuration. In this case the .htaccess file generated by Admin Tools is owned by the FTP user, not the user under which your site is running. For this reason the extraction script –which runs outside of Joomla! since it's replacing the site you're currently using– cannot rename the .htaccess file.

One solution is to add an exception in .htaccess Maker. Find the "Allow direct access, including .php files, to these directories" and add
installation

on a blank line. This will allow your restoration to go through.

Another solution would probably be using the Hybrid file writing method in the integrated restoration, making sure the FTP connection information to your site is filled in. In this case the extraction can use FTP when direct file writes are not allowed, circumventing the problem.

Finally, please note that there is no difference between using Kickstart and the integration restoration. In both cases you are using the same extraction engine to extract the same backup archive. The restoration script is included in the backup archive and extracted in the installation folder. You have to go through it; this is the only restoration script we provide. It would not make sense to use a different restoration script for integrated restoration: when you are restoring a backup you are overwriting the site with the backup. Therefore you cannot use Joomla! until you have finished the restoration process, including running the restoration script. As a result, having a restoration script in the component, which by definition runs through Joomla, could not possibly work because it'd find itself in a chicken and egg situation: it'd need to go through Joomla! to run, but you couldn't go through Joomla! until it runs :)

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!

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