"500 Internal Server Error" while making forum backup

[Turrican3]

Don't know if this is the right subforum, but I'm going to ask anyway.

I'm basically getting this error whenever I try to make a backup via admin panel (forum manteinance).

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [I removed the email address] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Having a look at my host's errorlog revealed this error message "Premature end of script headers: index.php, referer: http://www.gamers4um.it/public/smf/index.php?action=maintain;sa=logs"

I immediately replaced the above index.php with a backup version, but I'm still getting the error. Everithing else seems to be working fine, anyway.

Any ideas?

[Turrican3]

I've just noticed it works again if I deselected the "compress with gzip" option. Maybe my webhosting provider messed up the server?! 

[Elmacik]

your server doesnt have zip, zlib modules and doesnt support compressed outputs.
there are many servers which doesnt support.
i dont really know why they do this. (my old host were the just same...)
makes no sense to me

[Turrican3]

Thanks for your answer! 

Problem is (and I apologize for not having specified it clearly before) that the gzip forum backup/manteinance worked perfectly last time I used it! That's why I thought my provider could have messed up the server.

Does anybody think this could be actually true, considering that, as I said before, I replaced the index.php (which I never modified) with a known working one -just to be on the safe side- ?

Thanks in advance.

[Oldiesmann]

It's probably timing out due to the large size of your database.

You  have a couple options here:

Option 1 - use phpMyAdmin, which handles backups better and also lets you choose how much to include in each database dump (ie which tables to backup).

Option 2 - add this code to the beginning of index.php (right after the opening <?php tag) to set the maximum execution time to 60 seconds:

Code Select Expand

ini_set('max_execution_time', '60');

[Turrican3]

Thanks again for your answer. I tried to change index.php with your suggested modification, unfortunately it didn't work (same error as stated on the first topic)

Sorry to ask twice, but do you think is possible they really messed up something? 

[Oldiesmann]

Most likely it's just due to the size of your database. Try doing a backup in phpMyAdmin (login, select the database and click on the "Export" tab).

[Turrican3]

Problem solved (well, sort of!)

My database just became too big (I honestly thought 5MB would cause no problem..., last time I did the backup it was "just" 2MB) and as reported on the error log of my server, when asking for a gzipped backup it runs out of memory -don't ask me why, but it seems I can't use more than 12MB for this operation to complete-.

So I guess I'll have to follow your advice, and either use phpMyAdmin or simply downloading non-compressed forum backups via the maintainance page...

Thanks for your support! 

[catharton1]

I've started having a similar problem making backups, and I'm pretty sure it's because the board has grown so large.

It seemed to work if I turned off compression, but when I looked at the backup file it produced, it didn't include backups of the actual posts on the boards.

Option 2 - add this code to the beginning of index.php (right after the opening <?php tag) to set the maximum execution time to 60 seconds:

Code Select Expand

ini_set('max_execution_time', '60');

When you say right after the opening tag, do you mean this:

Code Select Expand

<?php ini_set('max_execution_time', '60');

or this:

Code Select Expand

<?php
ini_set('max_execution_time', '60');

?

Sorry, I'm not too good at PHP scripting.

[Elmacik]

catharton1,
Those will affect the same

[catharton1]

catharton1,
Those will affect the same

Thanks

Well, I've altered it, and again, and again, even tried altering it to 500 seconds, but each time it still gives me the following error message, but with a longer gap between starting the download and getting the error message 

500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log

And I can't even back up using the non-GZIP option, because it gives me a file which doesn't contain any message data, just the member list and the contents of IM messages.

Someone please help, I haven't been able to create a backup since November! 

[haroldouyang]

Now, I am having the same problem.
can't backup the database and can't explore the site.

how this can happen. it's the matter of server of smf itself?

HTTP 500 - Internal server error

[Elmacik]

Server issues. CHMOD your root directory to 755
Its usually /public_html
If it doesnt work, chmod all forum files to 755

[haroldouyang]

if all files to 755. is it possible to uplaad any thing?

[Elmacik]

Yes.

[mark7144]

I have to come to the conclusion that this problem is SMF's fault because Direct Admin has absolutely no problem compressing my db to gzip and allowing me to download yet SMF in RC3 brings up an error page after hanging for a bit.

[青山 素子]

More than likely, that is either doing it a different way (doing the dump on disk and then zipping it before sending it) to bypass the problem, or is configured differently than your site (most control panel software has special setup required for it to operate).

[phishinfool]

I tried adding the suggested code in the index.php as directed above and it gave me a template parse error.

I am trying to repair my boards so i dont have to log into the Sql in my hosting to backup my forums.

I get a 500 error as well.
forum version is 1.1.7

[Rumbaar]

A lot has changed with templates and SMF since this thread was created.  But phpMyAdmin is the place I recommend exporting your db from, as if you ever have to import the db you'll have to use that area anyways.