Backups and Restore: What, Where, and How Often

There is only one real question about backups: if the server disappeared tonight, how much could you bring back tomorrow? If you do not know the answer, you do not have backups. This guide sets up the smallest arrangement that makes the answer knowable.

What panel backups cover#

A panel backup is a point-in-time copy of the service's filesystem: worlds, configuration files, plugins. Two important things are not included. First, a database running as its own service -- that needs its own dump. Second, backups live on the same infrastructure; the event that loses the server can affect them too. So at least one copy must live somewhere else.

Pulling an off-site copy over SFTP#

# Yalnizca degisen dosyalari ceker; ikinci calistirma cok daha hizlidir.
rsync -avz --progress \
  -e "ssh -p 2022" \
  [email protected]:/ \
  ./yedek/$(date +%F)/

Backing up the database separately#

If your app or plugins write to a separate MySQL/PostgreSQL service, a file backup alone is not enough. If you restore the files while the database stays at an older state, the two disagree -- often more confusing than having no backup at all. Take the file and database backups as close together in time as you can.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

TARIH=$(date +%F)
HEDEF="$HOME/yedek/$TARIH"
mkdir -p "$HEDEF"

# 1) Veritabani
mysqldump --single-transaction --quick \
  -h 192.0.2.10 -u yedek -p"$DB_PAROLA" uygulama_db \
  | gzip > "$HEDEF/uygulama_db.sql.gz"

# 2) Dosyalar
rsync -az -e "ssh -p 2022" \
  [email protected]:/ "$HEDEF/dosyalar/"

# 3) 14 gunden eski yedekleri sil
find "$HOME/yedek" -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +14 -exec rm -rf {} +

echo "Yedek tamam: $HEDEF"

Testing the restore#

• Once a month, restore the backup into an empty service; do not touch production.
• Watch the console on first boot after the restore: missing plugins or incompatible versions show up here.
• Note how long it takes. You can only say 'I can be back up within an hour' after measuring it once.
• Track the archive size: a backup that suddenly shrinks is usually a copy that was cut short.