Backups and Recovery

This guide covers how to backup and restore your LeadCMS data using both local and remote backup strategies. We provide automated scripts to simplify the process and ensure data safety.

Understanding LeadCMS Backups

What to Backup

LeadCMS backups should include:

• PostgreSQL Database: All content, users, and configuration data
• Environment Configuration: .env file with all settings
• Docker Configuration: docker-compose.yml file
• Custom Plugins: Any custom plugins you've developed or modified

Backup Types

Full Backup: Complete database backup including all tables and data. Recommended for regular backups and before upgrades.

Selective Backup: Database backup excluding user-related tables (users, roles, permissions). Useful for development or when migrating content between environments.

Media-Only Backup: Backup only media files table. Useful for quickly restoring just uploaded assets.

Local Backup and Restore

Prerequisites

The backup scripts are included in the LeadCMS deploy repository. Ensure you have them available:

# If you haven't already cloned the deploy repository
git clone https://github.com/LeadCMS/leadcms.deploy.git
cd leadcms.deploy

# The repository includes these backup scripts:
# - pg-backup.sh
# - pg-restore.sh
# - pg-restore-media.sh

# Make scripts executable
chmod +x pg-backup.sh pg-restore.sh pg-restore-media.sh

# Ensure .env file exists with database credentials
ls -la .env

Environment Variables

Your .env file should contain the database connection details:

# Required for backup scripts
POSTGRES__USERNAME=leadcms_user
POSTGRES__PASSWORD=your_password
# Database host is assumed to be localhost:5432

Full Database Backup

Create a complete backup of your LeadCMS database:

# Create full backup with all tables
./pg-backup.sh leadcms

# This creates a file named: leadcms-backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM.sql

Verify the backup was created:

# Check backup file was created
ls -lh leadcms-backup-*.sql

# Verify backup contents (should show database structure)
file leadcms-backup-*.sql

Selective Backup (Excluding User Data)

For development or content migration, exclude user-related tables:

# Backup without user tables, roles, and settings
./pg-backup.sh leadcms --exclude-user-tables

# This excludes:
# - users
# - user_claims
# - user_logins
# - user_roles
# - user_tokens
# - setting
# - roles
# - role_claims

Restoring from Backup

Full Database Restore

# Stop only the LeadCMS application to avoid conflicts (keep PostgreSQL running)
docker compose stop leadcms

# Restore from backup file
./pg-restore.sh leadcms leadcms-backup-2024-09-08-14-30.sql

# The script will:
# - Create database if it doesn't exist
# - Drop existing tables and data
# - Restore all data from backup

# Start the LeadCMS service
docker compose start leadcms

# Verify restoration
docker compose logs leadcms | grep -i "started successfully"

Media-Only Restore

To restore just media files (uploaded assets):

# Restore only media table from backup
./pg-restore-media.sh leadcms leadcms-backup-2024-09-08-14-30.sql

# This restores only the media table, preserving other data

Next Steps

After setting up your backup strategy: