Backup discourse from the command line

Documentation Self-Hosting
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:bookmark: This guide covers how to back up and restore your Discourse site using command line tools, specifically designed for self-hosted environments.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: Administrator

:information_source: You can use the below placeholders to automatically fill out the command line prompts in this guide:

Backing up

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

  1. Enter the container:
./launcher enter app
  1. Run the backup:
discourse backup
exit

This will print out the final filename of your backup. Download the backup and container configuration (if needed) to your local machine:

scp =USER=@=HOST=:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default/=FILENAME= .
scp =USER=@=HOST=:/var/discourse/containers/app.yml .

Restoring

To restore a Discourse backup, follow these steps:

  1. Install a Discourse site on the server you are restoring to.

If you’re testing this procedure multiple times, you can wipe the data on your test server.

Wipe Discourse data (optional) 
./launcher stop app
./launcher destroy app
rm -r /var/discourse/shared/standalone/
mkdir -p /var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default/
  1. Upload the backup file:
scp =FILENAME= =USER=@=HOST=:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default/
  1. Enter the container and start the restore:
./launcher enter app
discourse enable_restore
discourse restore =FILENAME=

If you happen to forget what the filename was, run the “discourse restore” command by itself to get a list of available backup files.

:information_source: For a two-container setup, use ./launcher enter web_only and replace standalone with web-only in the path to backups.

For additional information about restoring Discourse backups, see Restore a backup from the command line.

Last edited by @SaraDev 2024-08-23T20:50:17Z

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36 Likes
31

where should I run this command? on my cloud server terminal or my local machine?
although either give me permission denied error

A screenshot of a terminal window showing an unsuccessful ssh login attempt with the message "Permission denied (publickey)." (Captioned by AI)
A screenshot of a terminal window showing an unsuccessful ssh login attempt with the message "Permission denied (publickey)." (Captioned by AI)1032Ă—196 29 KB

32

On your local machine.

Are you using an SSH key to connect? The error is related.

The command should then be:

scp -i /path_to_your_key/your_key.pem root@147.43.15.199:/var/discourse/shared/standalone/backups/default/discourse-2024-12-25-033740-v20241211222608.tar.gz .
33

I have a scenario where I want to migrate the Discourse installation to a whole new server.
My plan was:

  1. create a new blank Discourse installation
  2. backup the old Discourse, scp the backup to the new server and restore
  3. Copy over all the S3 (images, etc.) to the new S3 on a different account

The restore process goes well until it starts looking for S3 and then fail for no access. I think it is trying to access the same S3 bucket name on the old Discourse, but that one doesn’t exist on the new one and I can’t create it.

Is there a recommended solution?

I thought I could try to change the S3 bucket name on the old Discourse (before performing backup) and then when I restore, it would expect to have the new S3 bucket. But I’m afraid of what will happen to the old Discourse if I just switch it to a non-exisiting bucket.

34

There’s a hidden setting that will download the s3 files and our them in the backup.

You need to configure s3 in the yml file as in Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads

Then when you restore the backup it’ll push the uploads to the new bucket.