Can I just tar the whole /var/discourse and run it on a new server?

[Canapin (Coin-coin le Canapin)]

Hey,

@Monikas

Can I simply tar/pack the entire /var/discourse folder, move it to a new server, extract it, and then run Discourse?

•	Or do I have to follow the recommended way (database backup + copy uploads separately)?

Have a look at this:

Move a Discourse site to another VPS with rsync

This method is different than restoring file in UI. Maybe there is a more downtime but it’s simpler for linux folks without Discourse knowledge and it’s easy to automate. Prepare new VPS First, prepare our new Current Ubuntu LTS VPS with empty Discourse dir, OS upgrade and Docker install sudo mkdir -p /var/discourse sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get dist-upgrade wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh Then, make sure that we are on latest installed kernel and other libraries by just restarting …

@Monikas

•	Is there any method to avoid the disk filling up during the backup compression process?

Yes, having more free space

That obvious answer aside, there are feature requests to prevent backups from taking more space on creation, but they have not been fulfilled yet: Reduce local disk space needs by not (redundantly) gzipping backups & Add option to disable backup compression