Create, download, and restore a backup of your Discourse database

[Discourse]

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for creating, downloading, and restoring a backup of your Discourse database.

Required user level: Administrator

Discourse allows site administrators to create and download a copy of the site’s database. The backup can then be uploaded and restored to any Discourse forum.

Discourse backups include the full site database, which contains everything on the site: topics, posts, users, groups, settings, themes, etc. Depending on how the backup file is created, it may or may not include uploads. See the next section for details.

Though the data created by plugins exist in the database, the plugins themselves are installed in your app.yml file. To restore your site to a new server you will need to make sure that your installation includes the plugins you require.

Read-only mode

You can enable read-only mode on the Backups page to prevent site changes for admin-related tasks. Learn more about read-only mode here.

Create a backup

To create a backup of your Discourse site, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Admin / Backups section of your site.
2. Click the Backup button.

3. A modal window will open asking you whether or not you would like to include the site’s uploads in the backup. Specify whether you want to include site uploads in your backup.

If your site is hosted by us and you would like to create a backup that includes uploads, contact the Discourse team before creating the backup.

4. Initiate the backup by selecting your preferred option.

Download a backup

When the backup is complete, Discourse will send you a notification.

• Click the link in the notification to return to your Backups page. Then click the Download button.

• An email with a link to download the backup will be sent to you. Click the link to save the backup to your computer.

Upload a backup

• To upload a backup, go to the Admin / Backups section of your site and click the Upload button.

• This will open your browser’s file manager. Select the backup from your file system and click the file manager’s Open button. The new backup file will be displayed in the file list.

Restore a backup

Before you are able to restore your backup file you need to enable the allow restore site setting. Then click the Restore button on the Backups page for the backup you want to restore.

Restoring a backup file will overwrite all data on the site. When the backup is restored, you will be logged out of the site and need to log back in with your credentials from the restored site.

Make sure the site you are restoring into is running the same version of Discourse as the old site. It is best to update both sites to the latest version before running the backup/restore process.

The restore process automatically sets the disable emails setting to “non-staff”, so emails aren’t sent to your site’s users until you’re ready.

If your site is hosted by Discourse, the Restore button in the screenshot below will be disabled. After uploading the backup file, contact the Discourse team and let us know the name of the backup file that you wish to restore. We will restore it for you.

Command line backup and restore

For administrators comfortable with the command line, you can create and manage backups programmatically:

• Backups are stored in /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups.
• Start a backup using:

./launcher run app discourse backup

or

docker exec app bash -c "discourse backup"

For more information about command line backups, see: Backup discourse from the command line.

Last edited by @hugh 2025-10-03T04:56:55Z

Last checked by @hugh 2025-10-03T04:57:04Z

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[lega4]

Existe uma maneira de criar e baixar este arquivo de backup programaticamente? Quero dizer, tenho alguns scripts cron no servidor que fazem backup de muitos outros serviços, posso emitir alguns comandos CLI diretamente no servidor para obter o backup lá? Talvez ./launcher app backup new-backup.backup ou algo assim?

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

Os backups estão em /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups

Você pode iniciar um backup com

./launcher run app discourse backup

Ou

docker exec app bash -c "discourse backup"

Eu acho.

[das-g (Raphael Das Gupta)]

Isso também é possível em um ambiente de desenvolvimento Docker, configurado conforme descrito em Install Discourse for development using Docker?

Quando tento fazer isso como descrito na seção Criar um backup acima, recebo o erro pg_dump: error: connection to database "discourse_development" failed: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "postgres".

Log completo do backup com falha

[2024-09-04 15:03:39] [STARTED]
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] 'raphael.dasgupta' iniciou o backup!
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] Marcando backup como em execução...
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] Garantindo que '/src/tmp/backups/default/2024-09-04-150339' exista...
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] Garantindo que '/src/public/backups/default' exista...
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] Atualizando metadados...
[2024-09-04 15:03:39] Despejando o esquema público do banco de dados...
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] pg_dump: error: connection to database "discourse_development" failed: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: FATAL: Peer authentication failed for user "postgres"
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] EXCEPTION: pg_dump failed
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] /src/lib/backup_restore/backuper.rb:173:in `dump_public_schema'
/src/lib/backup_restore/backuper.rb:36:in `run'
/src/script/spawn_backup_restore.rb:9:in `backup'
/src/script/spawn_backup_restore.rb:31:in `block in <main>'
/src/script/spawn_backup_restore.rb:4:in `fork'
/src/script/spawn_backup_restore.rb:4:in `<main>'
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] Limpando as coisas...
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] Removendo sobras de '.tar'...
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] Marcando backup como concluído...
[2024-09-04 15:03:40] Notificando 'raphael.dasgupta' sobre o fim do backup...

[Athenkosi]

Estou com dificuldades para baixar um backup. Quando cliquei no botão de download, recebi um aviso de que um link de download havia sido enviado para meu endereço de e-mail. No entanto, já se passaram mais de dois dias e ainda não recebi o e-mail.

Por favor, ajude-me.

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

Você já tentou ./discourse-doctor

[Athenkosi]

Obrigado pela sua resposta. O principal problema é que configurei outro e-mail do backend como administrador. A conexão com a porta 587 continua falhando e os e-mails não estão sendo enviados. Existe uma maneira de contornar isso ou há outra porta para usar?

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

este é o endereço de e-mail de resposta alternativo que você confirmou?

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

a porta 587 é o que eu uso para me conectar a smtp.eu.mailgun.org

[Athenkosi]

Estas são as minhas configurações de servidor.

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

Entendi, então você quer o Office 365 no seu domínio raiz e o Discourse para e-mail transacional / receptor de e-mail via MX em um subdomínio?

[Athenkosi]

Sim, porque meu e-mail está configurado no 365

[NateDhaliwal]

Acho que a causa do problema é que você está usando o Office 365 para e-mails transacionais. Você pode querer usar um serviço de e-mail transacional como Mailgun ou Brevo, ambos usados com o Discourse sem muitos problemas.

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

Posso ajudá-lo com as configurações descritas. Atualmente, você não poderá enviar ou receber e-mails do Discourse usando suas assinaturas do Office 365.

Qual a escala do fórum que estamos considerando? Um plano de e-mail gratuito pode ser suficiente.

[Athenkosi]

Configurei as configurações de SMTP usando Brevo e usei a porta 587, e ainda estou recebendo o mesmo erro. Por favor, ajude, não tenho certeza de onde estou errando.

[NateDhaliwal]

Hmm… que tal mudar a porta para 2525?

[Ethsim2 (Ethan)]

Você conseguiu fazer isso funcionar?