Backup produces error 500

[rjavery]

I am attempting to backup my server which I have done successfully many times in the past. I am now getting the following error:

Error 500 - Internal server error
An internal server error has occured!
Please try again later.


I have ignored it and tried again after a week or so and it persists so it does not seem to be a temporary issue.

I am on 1and1 hosting and have edited admin/includes/application_top.php to find zip/unzip in /usr/bin but even using zip compression the backup fails after only about 20 seconds.

I have deleted all server side backups so don't believe this is a space issue.

Any hints?

a phpMyAdmin backup has finished without error.

[michael_s]

If phpmyadmin works, don't worry about it. phpmyadmin backups are preferred to the admin panel backups in osC.

It is surely hosting related as 1&1 has a custom configuration that has given tons of other users headaches for years.

500 Internal Server Errors are a nightmare to track down, even with root access. You should contact your host for assistance.

[jpf]

Possibly external scripts (other than phpMyAdmin - which may be directed via cpanel to another url/server) might have a a hard coded time limit to execute.

Your database might be growing larger and just now getting to this limit (While MySQL is creating the backup file - PHP is timing out?). Try saving to server as PURE SQL (no compressing - as this takes longer) to see if it clears this problem.

If not phpMyAdmin backups is 110% OKAY to use! Just don't wait a week "to see if the problem goes away".