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Backup & Restore

Regular backups are essential to avoid data loss. Here you'll learn how to back up your data and restore it in an emergency.

YT

Automatic Backup with the ei23 Script

The ei23 script provides a backup function:

ei23 backup

This creates a backup under /home/[user]/Backup/.

Check Backup

The script backup covers most programs, but not all. Check the backup folder and supplement if needed.

What Gets Backed Up?

Program Folder Backup included?
Home Assistant volumes/homeassistant/config ✅
NodeRED ~/.node-red/ ✅
Grafana volumes/grafana ✅
InfluxDB volumes/influxdb ✅
Nextcloud volumes/nextcloud ⚠️ Manual
Vaultwarden volumes/vaultwarden ✅
Docker Compose docker-compose.yml ✅

Manual Backup

Full Backup

cd ~/ei23-docker/

# Create backup folder
BACKUP_DIR=~/Backup/manual_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)
mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR

# Back up Docker Compose
cp docker-compose.yml $BACKUP_DIR/

# Back up important volumes
sudo tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/homeassistant.tar.gz volumes/homeassistant/config/
sudo tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/grafana.tar.gz volumes/grafana/
sudo tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/vaultwarden.tar.gz volumes/vaultwarden/

# Back up NodeRED
sudo tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/nodered.tar.gz ~/.node-red/

echo "Backup created: $BACKUP_DIR"

Home Assistant Only

cd ~/ei23-docker/
docker compose exec -u www-data homeassistant tar -czf /config/backup.tar.gz /config
cp volumes/homeassistant/config/backup.tar.gz ~/Backup/

InfluxDB

cd ~/ei23-docker/
docker compose exec influxdb influxd backup /tmp/influx-backup
docker cp influxdb:/tmp/influx-backup ~/Backup/influxdb_$(date +%Y%m%d)

Nextcloud

cd ~/ei23-docker/

# Enable maintenance mode
docker compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ maintenance:mode --on

# Back up database
docker compose exec nextcloud_db mysqldump -u nextcloud -p nextcloud > ~/Backup/nextcloud_db.sql

# Back up files
sudo tar -czf ~/Backup/nextcloud_files.tar.gz volumes/nextcloud/html/

# Disable maintenance mode
docker compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ maintenance:mode --off

Automation with Cron

Daily Backup at 3 AM

sudo crontab -e

Add:

0 3 * * * bash /home/[user]/ei23-docker/backup.sh >> /home/[user]/backup.log 2>&1

Create Backup Script

Create ~/ei23-docker/backup.sh:

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR=~/Backup/$(date +%Y%m%d)
mkdir -p $BACKUP_DIR

cd ~/ei23-docker/

# Home Assistant
docker compose exec -u www-data homeassistant tar -czf /config/backup.tar.gz /config
cp volumes/homeassistant/config/backup.tar.gz $BACKUP_DIR/homeassistant.tar.gz

# Vaultwarden
sudo tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/vaultwarden.tar.gz volumes/vaultwarden/

# Docker Compose
cp docker-compose.yml $BACKUP_DIR/

# Delete old backups (older than 30 days)
find ~/Backup -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} +

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR"

chmod +x ~/ei23-docker/backup.sh

External Backup

Offsite Backup

A backup on the same server doesn't help with hard drive failure or hardware defects. Store backups externally!

Options for External Storage

Target Tool Cost
USB hard drive rsync, SCP One-time ~50€
NAS (Synology/QNAP) rsync Already available
Cloud (encrypted) rclone + Crypt ~5-10€/month
2nd Server rsync over VPN Variable

Auto-mount USB Hard Drive

# Backup to USB
rsync -av ~/Backup/ /media/usb-backup/

# Automate in Cron
0 4 * * * rsync -av ~/Backup/ /media/usb-backup/

Cloud Backup with rclone

# Install rclone
sudo apt install rclone

# Configure (one-time)
rclone config

# Upload encrypted backup
rclone sync ~/Backup encrypted-gdrive:ei23-backup

Restore

Home Assistant

cd ~/ei23-docker/

# Stop container
docker compose stop homeassistant

# Back up and clear old directory
sudo mv volumes/homeassistant/config volumes/homeassistant/config_old
sudo mkdir -p volumes/homeassistant/config

# Extract backup
sudo tar -xzf ~/Backup/homeassistant.tar.gz -C volumes/homeassistant/config/

# Start container
docker compose start homeassistant

Vaultwarden

cd ~/ei23-docker/
docker compose stop vaultwarden

sudo rm -rf volumes/vaultwarden/
sudo tar -xzf ~/Backup/vaultwarden.tar.gz

docker compose start vaultwarden

InfluxDB

cd ~/ei23-docker/
docker compose stop influxdb

# Restore backup
docker cp ~/Backup/influxdb influxdb:/tmp/restore
docker compose start influxdb
docker compose exec influxdb influxd restore /tmp/restore

Nextcloud

cd ~/ei23-docker/
docker compose stop nextcloud

# Restore files
sudo rm -rf volumes/nextcloud/
sudo tar -xzf ~/Backup/nextcloud_files.tar.gz

# Restore database
docker compose start nextcloud_db
docker compose exec -T nextcloud_db mysql -u nextcloud -p nextcloud < ~/Backup/nextcloud_db.sql

docker compose start nextcloud
docker compose exec -u www-data nextcloud php occ maintenance:mode --off

Backup Checklist

  • [ ] Backup script created
  • [ ] Cron job for automatic backups set up
  • [ ] External backup configured
  • [ ] Restore procedure tested
  • [ ] Backup size monitored
  • [ ] Regular backup integrity checks

More Information