When using the automated backup feature on a VPS that is running cPanel, you may experience cases when your VPS is stuck in backup status for a long time and may not be accessible. The root cause of this issue is when cPanel users use Jailed Shell access which creates a virtfs on your filesystem.
When we create backups of your VPS (when you are subscribed to automated backups or snapshots), the hypervisor communicates to your VPS through the QEMU Guest Agent to freeze the filesystem on the VPS before we take the backup. This mechanism is there to ensure no writes happen to your disk while the backup is running and therefore ensures the consistency of the backup.
However, if Jailed Shell access is enabled, cPanel creates a virtfs that cannot be frozen in this way. It will therefore lock up and cause a kernel panic as soon as the hypervisor initiates a freeze on the VPS. There are three ways to avoid this from happening and we explore them below.
- Disable QEMU Guest Agent
- Do not allow Jailed Shell
- Disable /tmp partition security (not recommended by cPanel, but it is an option available)
Requirements
- a current VPS solution (VPS ranges Value, Essential, Comfort, or Elite) in your OVHcloud account
- cPanel installed on your server
Instructions
Decide on which of the three options above you would wish to proceed with and follow the section of the guide that corresponds to your choice. You only have to do one of the three options.
Please choose carefully as they each have their pros and cons.
Disable QEMU Guest Agent
Firstly, you need to check if QEMU Guest Agent is running on your server. You can check this with the following command:
# systemctl status qemu-guest-agent
The status of the service is indicated next to “Active:”. If it is active/running then we need to stop the service and disable it from starting again in the future. You can do this with the following commands:
# systemctl stop qemu-guest-agent
# systemctl disable qemu-guest-agent
Switch from Jailed Shell to Normal Shell
You can read about what Jailed and Normal Shell is here.
To disable a jailed shell environment for all new and modified users, you will need to disable the jailshell by default option in WHM’s Tweak Settings interface (WHM >> Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings).
This option allows you to enable/disable the use of a jailed shell for new accounts and accounts that you subsequently edit in the following interfaces:
- WHM’s Modify an Account interface (WHM >> Home >> Account Functions >> Modify An Account).
- WHM’s Upgrade/Downgrade an Account interface (WHM >> Home >> Account Functions >> Upgrade/Downgrade An Account).
This option does not affect accounts that already exist on the server but that you have not edited in these interfaces.
To disable a jailed shell environment for a specific user, use WHM’s Manage Shell Access interface (WHM >> Home >> Account Functions >> Manage Shell Access).
You can find all this information in the cPanel official documentation.
If you still want to disable the Jailed Shell feature and delete the virtfs folders created, be careful as deleting the virtfs directory may result in loss of user data.
Make sure that you have made all the necessary backups in advance.
Disable cPanel /tmp partition security
Please note this is not recommended by cPanel and it is at your own risk. Should you wish to continue with this option, you can read the exact steps from the following cPanel page.
Go further
For more information and tutorials, please see our other Virtual Private Servers support guides or explore the guides for other OVHcloud products and services.