The topic of “backup” and “migration” is a little underrepresented in the Nextcloud strategy
- The nextcloud-backup app works poorly or not at all.
- the app “User Migration” is not practical for many scenarios
I would like to move my self-hosted instances to one of the numerous managed instance offerings that are springing up.
I noticed that there is no really functioning backup solution for nextcloud.
the app is not really well maintained and simply does not work reliably. Even a reference to occ commands is not helpful.
(For the Gold , Silver, Bronce aso, Partners: snapshots aren’t Backups)
also “User Migration”; is not a workaround.
Is there a GUI that allows me to easily back up and restore databases?
What or where are the problems ?
Best regards,
Klemens
PS. I startet My “one man Show” Buissenes with owncloud 10 y ago and never had any doubt that Nextcloud was the right way!
@klemensW I tend to agree with you. However, as someone who was around backup/restore/disaster recover in the first 10 years of my career some 30 years ago … there is no one size fits all backup solution. Ever.
Here’s what we do (and I cannot imagine a simple app could do something like this):
- mariadb database backups (nightly), on top of gallera cluster (clustering is HA, not backup)
- user directories backups where possible (either file-based or block based, depending on situation). Everything sits on RAID5s, but that’s again HA, not backup
- any custom configs backups (nginx, apache, php.ini files, cusom mariadb/mysql optimizations)
This way it allows us to have a plan to move/migrate/restore a specific instance anywhere we need.
One point you touch about gui for backing up databases. Any managed operator should be able to offer you access to any database they run (mariadb/mysql/postgres) to daily database backups; or offer access to a web gui for you to take backups yourself.
Other topic: a proper DR at least in an active-passive fashion is never discussed with Nextcloud: how you should split all the components and make it possible. Whilst probably not important for a home user, definitely a must-have for any business user.
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Well, a Backup and Restore Admittedly, using a backup and restore solution for migration requires a little more administration effort. Of course.
What remains, however, is a nextcloud backup app in the store that simply doesn’t work. In my case, the app writes empty directories to an external storage device.
The documentation for this app is patchy. But Nevertheless, the app is available in the store without any warnings.
Backing up an instance, e.g. monthly, is in my opinion, an ansential function.
Backup the Users Data is a different Thing.
I think there ist also a bit of confusion between “User” and “Admin” between selfhostet and managed Nextcloud.
I am also dissatisfied with the offerings in the Nextcloud App Store. I think the approach for backup/restore via apps is a nice wish. But it’s not really good.
Regardless of a restore to a new instance, you need a backup. What do you do if your current Nextcloud breaks down? Are you even using the latest version? Are you using occ commands? What kind of Nextcloud do you have? Which new Nextcloud hoster do you want to use? Is it able to use the database and data? Can you use your Nextcloud name there? If you invest a little more money in the new hoster, he will be happy to carry out the migration for you.
Read this. However, it may be that the new hoster uses other databases, so that the migration is time-consuming.