Tray icon and automatic backups not happening after restart

Installation
1

I seek help for:

Though the duplicati server is starts up automatically after restarts, the tray icon doesn’t show after restarts, and the automated backup does not happen. I am also confused about a port 8200 vs 8300 issue.

I’m running Duplicati - 2.0.6.3_beta_2021-06-17 on linux mint 20.2 Uma, under MATE 1.24.0

The Duplicati server runs:

sudo systemctl status duplicati
returns:

● duplicati.service - Duplicati web-server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/duplicati.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2021-10-04 10:08:26 CDT; 4min 44s ago
Main PID: 1138 (mono)
Tasks: 15 (limit: 18995)
Memory: 60.7M
CGroup: /system.slice/duplicati.service
├─1138 DuplicatiServer /usr/lib/duplicati/Duplicati.Server.exe --webservice-interface=any --webservice-port=8200 --portable-mode
└─1212 /usr/bin/mono-sgen /usr/lib/duplicati/Duplicati.Server.exe --webservice-interface=any --webservice-port=8200 --portable-mode

Oct 04 10:08:26 cool-desktop systemd[1]: Started Duplicati web-server.

So the server is running [See "Port 8200 or 8300 or what?" below].

I do not have any webserver passwords set up (per 8083)

For the user @walrusbarretterura, (after a heroic support thread with help from @ts678 and @drwtsn32) installing libappindicator3-1 seemed to have cured the identical problem. I however do have that installed per dpkg, but still no tray icon and no automatic backups :slightly_frowning_face:

Port 8200 or 8300 or what?
Notice the --webservice-port=8200 in the output at label [A] (this comes from following the installation instructions at Installation - Duplicati 2 User's Manual and setting DAEMON_OPTS per that page) When I start duplicati from the desktop start menu ->System Tools → Duplicati, the tray icon that I see opens to http://localhost:8300/ngax/index.html#/ (so port 8300 and not 8200). When the try icon does open, I do see the scheduled jobs. When I change the URL of the tray icon to point to port 8200, the scheduled jobs I have don’t show up.

However in Using the Graphical User Interface - Duplicati 2 User's Manual, the docs for duplicati v2 says:

This web interface is available when Duplicati.Server.exe and/or Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe is/are running. The first instance of the web server is listening on TCP port 8200. Additional instances listen on port 8300 and higher.

After a standard installation, the web interface can be started by a click on the tray icon …

So this is confusing: why does starting the tray icon manually take me to 8300 if the server is already running at 8200? When I first installed duplicati, I started the tray icon manually and created the backup scripts – so is there an 8300 instance that does the remote backups, but it doesn’t get started as, for some other reason, the tray icon doesn’t get started. And the 8200 instance doesn’t have any backup instructions so even though it gets started it does no backups? I am not trying the experiments that would be suggested as I already have a few hundred gigs being backed up via duplicati before I discovered the restart related problems, so looking to get some advice if possible before screw things up for myself even more!

Thanks.

2

Because networking doesn’t like two servers at one port, so TrayIcon’s server finds an unused port.

The two servers are distinct. TrayIcon knows how to talk to its own, but needs a hint for some other.
Typically the start-at-boot server gets port 8200, and that’s where TrayIcon goes if not using its own.

Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe

This utility starts the Duplicati tray icon. Without additional parameters specified, the included webserver is activated. The webserver listens on TCP port 8200 by default. If port 8200 is unavailable, port 8300 is tried, increasing until a free port is found. You can disable the internal webserver if you are using a separate instance of the Duplicati Server component.

–no-hosted-server`
Set this option to not spawn a local service, use if the TrayIcon should connect to a running service.

Duplicati.Server.exe

The server component is completely included in Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe, so launching this utility will result in starting the Duplicati Server component also, unless disabled with the --no-hosted-server command line option.

It sounds like your jobs are in your manually started Duplicati at port 8300, probably because the desktop start menu isn’t configured to give --no-hosted-server option. Maybe you can find out how to modify it, assuming the goal is to have the TrayIcon just be a control for the server starting at boot, running as root.

Having multiple Duplicati servers is confusing and I suggest avoiding it, e.g. using --no-hosted-server. While sorting things out, you can look at About → System info at UserName to find out which you’re using.

You can also look at the Database screen for a backup to find out where its database is. It should be in a ~user/.config/Duplicati where user might be root instead of you. Job databases can just be moved. although copying is probably a bit safer. If somehow one is lost, it can be recreated from destination files.

Duplicati-server.sqlite is the server database, and points to the job databases using paths, so just moving that to root without moving the job database would be one odd option because the job DBs are elsewhere.
You could try it as a warm-up though, after you confirm your start-at-boot-as-root server has no jobs now.

The Database screen can move job databases (assuming OS permissions work). So you can go to root server, notice job database is not in ~root home directory, edit path, and click Move existing database.

3

That was a very detailed and informative response – thank you!

I just disabled the systemctl service (as only single user use case), added the tray-icon binary to the list of programs that are run at startup and everything is working fine, so please mark as resolved.

In the course of understanding how duplicati works so that I could implement this solution I see that the this business of the tray icon starting another duplicati instance seems to have happened at least twice before, with first-time users. I only later discovered the conversations on similar but subtly different issues that all seem to start from having a service + user space program be simultaneously present. This presents the beginning user with the possibility of putting the backup instructions in the wrong instance.

This aside the support level is outstanding – thank you again. I have made a modest donation, and let me close with Long Live Duplicati! (and our duplicati encrypted backups as well :wink:)

1 Like
4

Update Windows installer to offer the choice of installing the Windows service #1738 is one of the open issues on this. I’m moderately sure it’s possible to do this in Windows, but needs a volunteer for design and code. No such volunteer exists, as far as I know. Volunteers in all areas are very much encouraged.

I’m not sure how a non-Windows installer would do this. The ones I see tend not to interact with the user. Alternatively, I wonder how else one can reduce such user accidents? Better documentation, then what?

Thanks for the kind words and deeds. I hope Duplicati thrives, but volunteers are in hugely short supply…