Does anyone know how to remedy this problem? Rackshacks support (or lack of it) would not help me fix it because they say it is a problem with PHP4. So I commented out all instances of PHP in the httpd.conf, and still nothing. This is driving me insane.

Also, is there a way to run the backup via the command line? I have no access to the web interface since apache died and I would like to create a backup of my machine.

Thanks,
Gabe

Originally posted by gabeosx
Does anyone know how to remedy this problem? Rackshacks support (or lack of it) would not help me fix it because they say it is a problem with PHP4. So I commented out all instances of PHP in the httpd.conf, and still nothing. This is driving me insane.

Also, is there a way to run the backup via the command line? I have no access to the web interface since apache died and I would like to create a backup of my machine.

Thanks,
Gabe

Try examining the /var/log/httpd/error log file for a more precise error description. The "httpd dead" error can be caused by a lot of different things.

The Cobalt .raq backups aren't worth their weight in bytes... they really aren't worth anything when you need to restore your server.

A somewhat easy way i developed to fix this problem for a client was to make a backup of all the site files (site1, site2 etc..) and then transfered them to a backup server of mine.. Then i took all the admin files that have my passwords and such in them... and moved them over aswell..


I then requested form the client's host a Restore, then moved the files back and untarred the files.


Was very easy, as long as the host gives the restore, but was not inexpensive as bandwith for the file transfers was used.

Originally posted by RaQServices
A somewhat easy way i developed to fix this problem for a client was to make a backup of all the site files (site1, site2 etc..) and then transfered them to a backup server of mine.. Then i took all the admin files that have my passwords and such in them... and moved them over aswell..


I then requested form the client's host a Restore, then moved the files back and untarred the files.


Was very easy, as long as the host gives the restore, but was not inexpensive as bandwith for the file transfers was used.

Well, that certainly does not sound like a smart way of doing it.

Reasons:

1. It's very costly (not only bandwidth charges, but most hosts charge a fee for doing OS-restores)

2. Any special configurations you may have could potentially be lost (PHP, MySQL, subdomains, etc., etc.)

3. You would need to re-apply all Cobalt updates.

4. Your server would be down for an extended period time.

5. You would never find out, that the real problem was - and thus, if it happens again, you would be left no better off than before.

I.e. it's a _much_ better and easier solution simply to find out what error messages are given by Apache, and correct those errors.

This was considered by cheaper and quicker, as there were only 3 sites on the server and they wanted to get the server up quickly and not having to pay a tech $75hr to determine the source of the problem and then fix the problem,, which at 2 hours is very costly.

Originally posted by RaQServices
This was considered by cheaper and quicker, as there were only 3 sites on the server and they wanted to get the server up quickly and not having to pay a tech $75hr to determine the source of the problem and then fix the problem,, which at 2 hours is very costly.

Well, okay - but most people have more than 3 static sites on their server :-)

Also, 2 hours at 75$ - that's 150$ USD.

Some (many?) hosts charges even more than that to do a full OS-Restore on a server -- especially if it's needed in a hurry.