We've received some reports of a problem with infinite running Backups for the JetBackup WordPress plugin. This is a known problem when your host is running the WordPress installation on an NFS/mounted storage, which is NOT officially supported by JetBackup WP.
Our plugin’s core relies on POSIX file locks and atomic renames to ensure data consistency. On some NFS configurations, those guarantees aren’t reliable and can affect the plugin’s stability, and therefore affect your backups. Although this is the case, we have made several reliability enhancements to combat this.
First, you'll need to identify whether you or your host is running WordPress on an NFS mount.
Identifying whether your WordPress is installed within NFS
- Look for any indicators that the path is NFS, such as
/mnt/web999/d3/13/51991012/htdocs/apps/wordpress_01/app/,/mnt/nfs/home/user1/public_html/,/mnt/web123/b3/09/9999999/htdocs/ - Check the JBWP Backup Log file - if it is continuously writing "
Archiving" for the same file path and showingTar appendFileChunked position: 0, this could be an indicator that the WordPress public html files are stored on an NFS mount and Symptom 1 - File Locking Issues is impacting the backup. - Reach out to your host if you're not sure.
Known Issues with NFS File Systems
- Symptom 1: File Locking Issues
NFS file locking behaves differently from local file systems, which can prevent JetBackup from properly coordinating concurrent operations. This may result in:
- Multiple backup jobs attempting to run simultaneously
- Incomplete or corrupted backups when/if processes overlap
- Unpredictable behavior during backup/restore operations
- Symptom 2: Queue Page Appearing "Frozen."
NFS has a behavior called "silly rename" where files being deleted while still in use are temporarily renamed to .nfs* files. Symptoms of this when JetBackup's queue system tries to access these files:
- The queue page may appear unresponsive or frozen
- File listings may show inconsistent states
- The UI may not accurately reflect the current job status
- Symptom 3: Misleading Job Failure Reports
When cleanup operations encounter NFS temporary files that cannot be immediately deleted:
- Backup jobs may be reported as "failed" even though the backup itself completed successfully
- The failure is often only in the cleanup phase (removing temporary files)
- The actual backup data has been properly created and transferred to the destinations
- NFS will automatically clean up these temporary files once file handles are released
If you have any questions or don't believe your infinitely running backup concern falls under the above case, please reach out to support@jetbackup.com and attach any relevant log files.
