Backup and Restore

Overview

Mender Server stores all data in a MongoDB database. This includes device authentication data, inventory data, users and organization settings. It is important to back up this data regularly to prevent data loss. Artifacts data are stored in an external storage, such as AWS S3 or Minio, and are not part of the Mender Server database. You should also back up this data separately.

Backup

The backup procedure for MongoDB is straightforward. You can use the mongodump tool to create a backup of the database. The following command creates a backup of the database to the backup directory:

mongodump --host <MONGODB_HOST> --port <MONGODB_PORT> --archive | xz > /backup/$(date -I)-mongodump.xz

You can also backup artifacts data stored in an external storage, such as AWS S3 or Minio, by copying the data to a backup location. For example:

aws s3 cp s3://<BUCKET_NAME> /backup/directory --recursive

Restore

To restore the MongoDB database from a backup, you can use the mongorestore tool. The following command restores the database from the backup directory:

mongorestore --host <MONGODB_HOST> --port <MONGODB_PORT> /backup/directory

You can also restore artifacts data stored in an external storage, such as AWS S3 or Minio, by copying the data from the backup location to the original storage location. For example:

aws s3 cp /backup/directory s3://<BUCKET_NAME> --recursive

Mender Server

At this point you can start the Mender Server services. If you have restored the database to a different server, you may need to update the global.mongodb.URL setting in the mender-server helm configuration to point to the new MongoDB server. The same applies for your external storage, if you have restored the artifacts data to a different location, by updating the global.s3.AWS_BUCKET setting in the mender-server helm configuration.