re: That last process of "copy" hits limitations in operating systems -
32bit vs 64bit and other limits to copy. (move command, however, works
with any size)
I didnt think it was a server limitation issue as the process stops on the automated course backups schedule. I'll retest this in our development environment by changing the minute of the hour this task runs. We are on 32bit php and will probably go to 64 bit in the near future though.
To further complicate things my development environment runs 2hr on, 2hr off, with the same automated course backup schedule. This dev machine is M2.8 while production is M2.7. I notice one difference between the two versions in Scheduled Task defaults for Legacy log table cleanup, its once an hour in M2.8 and every minute of the fourth hour in M2.7, the M2.7 doesn't like correct but also doesnt look like its influencing my auto course backups either.
Thanks for the details on your manual work around. I'll look into the admin cli side of things, its looking a little more complicated than I hoped, do you think it would be easier to upgrade to Moodle 3 in the hopes its refined auto course backup schedules?