This topic complements using Digital Ocean Block Storage for image uploads. Hope the team will provide us with official ( recommended ) way of setting this up and move to the #howto category. So, I simply would like to let Discourse make all backups in a block storage unit. Any nuances or little tricks to pay account to, or just mount the block and configure its path? Will it affect the speed of making backup? Will it easily “restore” from such a backup? Any other things to consider? Many thanks!

We now have a howto for using DigitalOcean Block Storage: [image] Move Uploads and Backups to DigitalOcean Block Storage Self-Hosting So you want to move all uploads and backups to DigitalOcean Block Storage? Before you do this, though, you might instead consider Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads. It is no more complicated to set up and provides some other advantages. Setup a Discourse instance on DigitalOcean Setup a Discourse instance on DigitalOcean using our official guide. Add a Volume to your droplet Add a block storage volume to your droplet. Note down the name of the volume. In my case…

[image] meglio: I simply would like to let Discourse make all backups in a block storage unit. This should do it: cd /var/discourse ./launcher stop app cd /var/discourse/shared/standalone mv uploads /mnt/volume-sfo2-01/backups # script'd need to find this ln -s /mnt/volume-sfo2-01/backups . cd - ./launcher start app Given that I didn’t miss a typo in the above, it should work fine. I tested having symlinks on my development machine and did a backup and restore with no problems. The slower speed of the block storage shouldn’t matter for backups. I’d like to integrate this into discourse-setup, but it hasn’t happened yet.

[image] pfaffman: This should do it: I’d like for the team to confirm the commands above, at least by liking the message, please :hamburger:

We don’t have any magic, secret knowledge about how Digital Ocean block storage works, and we don’t use it at all for our own infrastructure. You’d be better off trying it out yourself, determining if it meets your needs, and then reporting back for others in a similar position.

[image] mpalmer: You’d be better off trying it out yourself I’d gladly do, but I’m afraid to break something as I’m not knowledgeable enough in *nix to play with stuff like this and, more importantly, measure the outcomes.

Having backups on DO block storage is much less risky than having your images there. Has that been working for you? If so, it’d be helpful to know, as you may be the person with the most experience. But wait! Now it looks like there’s a better solution for backups developed and tested by a Discourse @team member: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-backups-to-dropbox/51176?u=pfaffman

Dropbox is a more expensive alternative, no? What’s more, it says it syncs, NOT moves, backups to Dropbox, which does not solve the problem of space shortage.

It depends. What I had in mind is a specific use case where the problem was: I have a dirty cheap vps provider, and I’m afraid of losing all my data. If things go south, I need a fresh backup to start over elsewhere.

[image] meglio: Dropbox is a more expensive alternative, no? Oh. I totally overlooked that. I’m already paying for dropbox, so for me it’s “free,” but $100/year is < than the $10/month for the DO space. I haven’t looked at the plugin, but I imagine that there’s a way to contrive having dropbox keep old copies (e.g., it keeps deleted files for a month or something like that). But my instructions for moving backups to DO’s Block storage should work just fine, and since it’s backups (which you can, for example, store a couple offsite while you do the initial move), it’s pretty low-risk.

[image] pfaffman: Oh. I totally overlooked that. I’m already paying for dropbox, so for me it’s “free,” but $100/year is < than the $10/month for the DO space. With DO Block Storage, one can buy 20GB / $2 / mo for backups, which is more than enough and much cheaper than Dropbox. The question though is not about how to SYNC, but rather about how to MOVE backups to another location to free up space on the main VPS.

[image] pfaffman: This should do it: cd /var/discourse ./launcher stop app cd /var/discourse/shared/standalone mv uploads /mnt/volume-sfo2-01/backups # script’d need to find this ln -s /mnt/volume-sfo2-01/backups . cd - ./launcher start app Given that I didn’t miss a typo in the above, it should work fine. I tested having symlinks on my development machine and did a backup and restore with no problems. The slower speed of the block storage shouldn’t matter for backups. I’d like to integrate this into discourse-setup, but it hasn’t happened yet. Hi, what is the logic behind moving the uploads? I’m just looking for a way to keep backups on a different place and your method seems perfect except I don’t understand the need to move uploads and turning it into backup destination… Maybe I’m just going crazy :stuck_out_tongue: Doing it your way results in: ln: failed to create symbolic link ‘./backups’: File exists Best regards, Neso

How-to guide on DigitalOcean Block Storage for backups?

Product Support

techAPJ (Arpit Jalan) June 7, 2018, 4:31am 16

We now have a howto for using DigitalOcean Block Storage:

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How-to guide on DigitalOcean Block Storage for backups?

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