disk space volume storage problems can crash PHP service

Hello UpdraftPlus and all,

just wanted to mention an issue which is not exactly documented. When the main backup storage volume is on a different logical volume (not the root volume) in a VPS, if that volume becomes full, the log will show that UpdraftPlus knows it is running out of space but still keeps trying its best.

Unfortunately as far as I can tell this means inadvertently the server keeps spawning PHP children processes to keep trying to make the backup (or move the files?) and these keep filling up the memory until the service is terminated by the OOM Killer (out of memory killer). This can knock the website offline if the php service is not set to restart. (and specifically that is not a clean shutdown so if you change the service configuration in systemd keep in mind it is not the ‘clean’ exit code). I’m not sure if it is possible to create flag files to prevent the children from spawning – the program is supposed to be single thread but also maybe flag files can’t work if the main backup volume is not at all writeable.

In my opinion the process should probably be paused in that condition. Also it seems like the plugin still runs when it is deactivated which I did not expect. (don’t think it was anywhere in the unix crontabs — however I have to assume somehow this is PHP CLI processes without timeouts because they keep piling up).

This kind of php file management leading to thread problems is of course always difficult — i just wanted to note a serious condition that can arise.

• This topic was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by hongpong.
• This topic was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by hongpong.