Failed to backup [Linodes Backups]

Probably a good idea to open a ticket, if it doesn't fix itself.

Hmmm. I've just had two fail as well:

snapshot     2012-03-12 07:47:13     2012-03-12 07:47:44     31 seconds              failed  Unable to get backup lock.
auto         2012-03-12 03:24:11     2012-03-12 03:28:19     4 minutes, 8 seconds    failed   

The problem with the backup is still there.

I created a ticket. Waiting for an answer.

I haven't had this problem before but over the weekend it failed twice.

(In my case I got a support ticket opened automatically notifying me of the issue and saying that Linode had been notified and would look into it.)

Last 3 days backups have failed as well. Support automatically opened a ticket and I am waiting for a solution.

We're experiencing the same problem..

Now the backup works well. :)

And again the same problem. :evil:

It would be nice if Linode could be a little more 'transparent' about these backup failures. We are paying for them, but they do not seem very reliable.

Any news on what is being done, and is going to be done, about this on-going issue?

graq, I agree with you.

At the moment I see a warning on the page "Backups":
> Backups for this Linode are currently undergoing maintenance until April 4th. Backup and restore operations may be affected.

And it is very disturbing.

We had paid backups on some of our VPSs up until last week when we cancelled all backup subscriptions. We have now have two remote backups pulling our VPSses, however some local backup for fast recovery would of been nice.

One may question my expectations but below is a quote directly from Linode backup page, which still hasnt been labelled with beta, alpha or just broken.

Given how critical backups are, our goal for the Linode Backup Service was ambitious: to create a completely managed, reliable and highly available system, that's easy to use (set-it-and-forget-it), affordable, and "just works".

My frustrations

1) Mid March the backups went offline for ~1 days, during this time we need to recover a backup, no ETA was offered, no manual assist, we continued to ask for updates but only near the very end they say about 4hrs more, explanation - zero, no follow up, asked but told top secret.

2) Backups go offline for nearly a week (the maint you refer to), no early warning, no email notification, one would only notice after logging into control panel or apparently after two failed attempts. If we use this as our first line of backup we need to make plans to replace that so we always maintain at least 2 backups sets (at least one remote), this requires notifications before the event.

3) Secrecy regarding prolonged outages, for some reason you cant say too much incase someone figures out how to do lvm snapshots, or use r1softs hcp, but in its current state your backup service is not worth protecting, transparency with your customers would go much further.

4) Status page does not update when these failures/maint periods happen

(several edits to make more constructive ;) )

@Pavel:

graq, I agree with you.

At the moment I see a warning on the page "Backups":
> Backups for this Linode are currently undergoing maintenance until April 4th. Backup and restore operations may be affected.

And it is very disturbing.
auto 2012-04-08 14:18:55 2012-04-08 14:18:56 1 second failed Unable to get backup lock.

auto 2012-04-07 14:18:55 2012-04-07 14:18:57 2 seconds failed Unable to get backup lock

:( :?: :(

I just asked Linode the following

> Quoting your website:

Given how critical backups are, our goal for the Linode Backup Service was ambitious: to create a completely managed, reliable and highly available system, that's easy to use (set-it-and-forget-it), affordable, and "just works".

Is this now the case? Was the 29th-4th april maint a band-air repair or a complete solution? Or can we again expect week long outages with no prior notification?

Please forward to backups team if not in a position to answer.

To which the reply came (not sure I believe it)

> Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. We continually work hard to ensure the stability of the Linode Backup Service. We do not anticipate any further issues with the backup service at this time. Please let us know if you need anything else.

Regards,

Doug

Interesting to see problems as late as the 7th and 8th. I guess it is untrustable.