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@Meldiron
Last active May 30, 2025 14:05
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Backup and Restore Appwrite, the lazy way 🐌
# Make sure to stop Appwrite before this backup,
# and make sure you have enough space on the machine.
# After backing up, make sure there is a file in 'backups/backup-___.tar.gz'.
# Also please check size of this file, it should be at least 5kb, even for small instances.
docker run --rm \
-v appwrite_appwrite-mariadb:/backup/appwrite-mariadb \
-v appwrite_appwrite-redis:/backup/appwrite-redis \
-v appwrite_appwrite-cache:/backup/appwrite-cache \
-v appwrite_appwrite-uploads:/backup/appwrite-uploads \
-v appwrite_appwrite-certificates:/backup/appwrite-certificates \
-v appwrite_appwrite-functions:/backup/appwrite-functions \
-v appwrite_appwrite-influxdb:/backup/appwrite-influxdb \
-v appwrite_appwrite-config:/backup/appwrite-config \
-v appwrite_appwrite-builds:/backup/appwrite-builds \
-v appwrite_appwrite-executor:/backup/appwrite-executor \
-v $(pwd)/.env:/backup/appwrite/.env \
-v $(pwd)/docker-compose.yml:/backup/appwrite/docker-compose.yml \
-v $(pwd)/backups:/archive \
--env BACKUP_FILENAME="backup-%Y-%m-%dT%H-%M-%S.tar.gz" \
--entrypoint backup \
offen/docker-volume-backup:latest
# Contributors:
# - Matej Bačo (Meldiron): https://github.com/meldiron
# - AidsMcGhee: https://github.com/JakeAi
# Make sure the Appwrite did NOT run on this server previously,
# and make sure to stop it before this restore.
# If appwrite ran here already, make sure to
# stop Appwrite with 'docker-compose down -v', and ideally
# also remove appwrite folder.
# Before running, be in any directory,
# but make sure 'backup.tar.gz' file with your backup is in there.
# Whichever directory you are in, this script will create 'appwrite'
# folder in here, with a configuration from backup.
# Backup script puts date in the file name, make sure to
# rename file to exactly 'backup.tar.gz'.
# After restore, you can enter appwite folder 'cd appwrite'
# and start Appwrite with 'docker-compose up -d'.
# Untar backup
tar -C /tmp -xvf backup.tar.gz
# Restore volumes and configuration
docker run -d --name temp_restore_container \
-v appwrite_appwrite-mariadb:/backup_restore/appwrite-mariadb \
-v appwrite_appwrite-redis:/backup_restore/appwrite-redis \
-v appwrite_appwrite-cache:/backup_restore/appwrite-cache \
-v appwrite_appwrite-uploads:/backup_restore/appwrite-uploads \
-v appwrite_appwrite-certificates:/backup_restore/appwrite-certificates \
-v appwrite_appwrite-functions:/backup_restore/appwrite-functions \
-v appwrite_appwrite-influxdb:/backup_restore/appwrite-influxdb \
-v appwrite_appwrite-config:/backup_restore/appwrite-config \
-v appwrite_appwrite-builds:/backup_restore/appwrite-builds \
-v appwrite_appwrite-executor:/backup_restore/appwrite-executor \
-v $(pwd)/appwrite:/backup_restore/appwrite \
alpine tail -f /dev/null
docker cp /tmp/backup/. temp_restore_container:/backup_restore
docker stop temp_restore_container
docker rm temp_restore_container
# Remove temporary files
rm -rf /tmp/backup
@lucasctd
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Hello Buddy, hope you are doing well.

I tried to run your script but the docker-compose.yml and .env files are being created as folders XD

drwxr-xr-x 2 lucas lucas 4096 mai 21 23:23 docker-compose.yml/
drwxr-xr-x 2 lucas lucas 4096 mai 21 23:23 .env/

any idea of what could be wrong?
I am running docker on Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS

@lucasctd
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I've used the docker-compose.yaml and .env I have in my server and just needed to add external: true to each volume in order to be able to attach them to my containers:

volumes:
  appwrite-mariadb:
    external: true
  appwrite-redis:
    external: true
  appwrite-cache:
    external: true
  appwrite-uploads:
    external: true
  appwrite-certificates:
    external: true
  appwrite-functions:
    external: true
  appwrite-builds:
    external: true
  appwrite-influxdb:
    external: true
  appwrite-config:
    external: true
  appwrite-executor:
    external: true

otherwise I would get the warning below:

Warning: "volume [volume name] already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use external: true to use an existing volume"

I also had to remove the appwrite_ prefix from your scripts since the containers are not expecting the volumes to have that prefix :D

Thanks for you hard work anyway.

@luokelong
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After restore and run "docker-compose up -d" command I got the errors:

WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-uploads" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-redis" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-functions" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-builds" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-cache" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-certificates" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-mariadb" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-influxdb" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume
WARN[0000] volume "appwrite_appwrite-config" already exists but was not created by Docker Compose. Use `external: true` to use an existing volume

Then, I added "external: true" under each volume.
Got error:

external volume "[volume name]" not found

What is wrong?

@joeyouss
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Hi there πŸ‘‹πŸ»
Please make sure that Appwrite did NOT run on this server previously. The error says it was found which implies Appwrite did run there.

@lucasctd
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lucasctd commented May 30, 2023

@joeyouss hey, it's not the case. The script will restore the volumes that's why we see that message.

@luokelong so, the service is looking for a volume named as appwrite-builds but the script creates it as appwrite_appwrite-builds that's why it fails.

I had to remove the appwrite_ prefix from the script to make it work.

In fact, if you look at your current server, you'll see the volumes were created there with that prefix so I have no idea why it works in my old server, even though it has a prefix there, but does not work after the restoration (I am using the same docker-compose.yml from the production server)

@aallnneess
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Hey,
I just wanted to give you quick feedback that it worked 100% perfectly for me.
thanks great!

@barart
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barart commented Mar 14, 2024

Make sure to stop Appwrite before this backup

^^ by this you mean stop all containers? or just appwrite container?

@lucasctd
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@barart I think it's only the appwrite containers

@liudonghua123
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Does it work for https://appwrite.io/docs/advanced/self-hosting#manual, I use docker-compose.yml and .env. And I also have updated some configurations on .env file.

@larmaysee
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larmaysee commented May 30, 2025

i'm not sure that even i restore success, there is no my data anymore in the database as well as console users. Any thought? backup sql dump as well?

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