Killing cPanel Backups via Command Line / Shell

When a cPanel backup process hangs or runs too long, it can consume significant disk I/O and CPU, impacting server performance. This guide shows how to identify and kill stuck backup processes from the command line.

# Find backup PIDs
ps aux | grep -E '(cpbackup|backup|pkgacct)' | grep -v grep

# Kill all backup processes
killall cpbackup 2>/dev/null
kill $(pgrep -f pkgacct) 2>/dev/null

01. Identify Running Backup Processes

cPanel backups involve several processes. Check for all of them:

# cPanel backup daemon
ps aux | grep cpbackup | grep -v grep

# Individual account packaging
ps aux | grep pkgacct | grep -v grep

# Compression processes (often the bottleneck)
ps aux | grep -E '(gzip|pigz|bzip2)' | grep -v grep

# MySQL dumps
ps aux | grep mysqldump | grep -v grep

Check how long the backup has been running:

ps -eo pid,etime,cmd | grep -E '(cpbackup|pkgacct)' | grep -v grep

tail -20 /usr/local/cpanel/logs/cpbackup/*

02. Kill the Backup Process

Kill in this order to clean up properly:

1. Kill child processes first (mysqldump, gzip, tar):

   kill $(pgrep -f pkgacct)
   kill $(pgrep -f "mysqldump.*--routines")

2. Kill the parent backup process:

   killall cpbackup

3. If processes refuse to die, use SIGKILL:

   kill -9 $(pgrep -f cpbackup)
   kill -9 $(pgrep -f pkgacct)

4. Verify everything is stopped:

   ps aux | grep -E '(cpbackup|pkgacct|mysqldump)' | grep -v grep

03. Clean Up Partial Backups

# Remove partial backup files (check the backup destination first)
ls -lh /backup/*/accounts/
# Delete any .tar.gz files with today's date that are incomplete

# Remove lock files
rm -f /var/cpanel/backups/*.lock

# Check disk space recovered
df -h /backup

04. Preventing Stuck Backups

• Exclude large accounts - in WHM > Backup Configuration, exclude accounts with large mailboxes or file stores that regularly time out
• Stagger backup times - do not run all backups at once. Use incremental backups where possible
• Check disk space before backup runs. A full backup partition causes hangs:

  df -h /backup

• Set backup timeout - configure maximum backup time in WHM to auto-kill hung processes
• Monitor backup completion - check /usr/local/cpanel/logs/cpbackup/ for failures

Quick Recap

1. Find processes: ps aux | grep cpbackup
2. Kill children first: pkgacct, mysqldump, gzip
3. Kill parent: killall cpbackup
4. Clean up: remove partial archives and lock files
5. Prevent: exclude large accounts, check disk space, stagger schedules

19,065 users found this article useful · Last updated March 2026 · Browse all Server Maintenance articles