4. Back it up, and prove the backup comes back

Goal: a backup of your application and its database every night, a copy of each one off the server, encrypted, and a rehearsal that shows it restores.

Time: five minutes.

You need: a deployed application, ideally with a database, and for the copy off the server, an account at an object store or an SSH server you can write to. The example uses Backblaze B2.

The examples use Kelmoor's application wrenfield.io on its server fra-1.

Steps

1. Take a backup now.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup create wrenfield.io -m "Before the launch" --include-databases

   A backup is one file under /var/backups/noust/wrenfield-io/, with its checksum. It holds the release that serves, the .env and a dump of each database the application uses, so it restores on a server that knows nothing about this one.

2. See it.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup list wrenfield.io

   Each line starts with the backup's id, such as wrenfield-io_20261029_181502, which every other backup command takes.

3. Back it up every night.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup schedule create wrenfield.io --schedule daily --retention-count 7

   A systemd timer runs it, dumps the databases with it, and keeps the seven newest scheduled backups. It never deletes a backup you took by hand.

4. Add a place off the server. A backup on the same disk is lost with the disk. Create a bucket at your provider first, then:

   ShellCopy

   noust backup destination add offsite --type b2 \
     --field account=0042a1b2c3d4e5f0000000001 \
     --field path=kelmoor-backups/fra-1 \
     --prompt

   --prompt asks for the application key twice, without showing it; it never goes on the command line. Noust tries the destination before saving it, and encrypts everything it sends there. Give each server a folder of its own (kelmoor-backups/fra-1).

5. Keep the encryption key somewhere else.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup destination show-key offsite

   Store what it prints in your password manager. Without it, nobody can read the backups on that destination, this server included.

6. Send every scheduled backup there.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup schedule update wrenfield.io --schedule daily --destination offsite

7. Rehearse a restore.

   ShellCopy

   noust backup drill wrenfield.io

   The drill verifies the newest backup, unpacks it the way a restore would, and loads each database dump into a temporary database that it then drops. Nothing of the application is touched. A schedule runs one on its own every 30 days.

In the console, the same is under Backups: the list, Schedules, Destinations and, on each backup, Restore.

What you should see

• noust backup list wrenfield.io shows your backup with its size and description.
• noust backup schedule list shows the schedule and when it last ran.
• noust backup drill wrenfield.io ends without an error and keeps its report: noust backup drills lists every drill.

Restoring for real

noust backup restore wrenfield-io_20261029_181502

It replaces the application's files with the ones in the backup, after asking. To restore from the copy off the server, on this server or a new one, add --from offsite. To bring back a whole server, see Bringing a whole server back.

A restore puts the application's files back, not its database: the dumps in the archive are loaded with their own command, noust db import (Databases), because putting an older database under newer code is a decision. (A Docker Compose stack is the exception: its databases come back with its files.) Ship a change, and roll it back says how Noust guards the code side.

If it fails

• The destination is not saved: Noust tried it and it did not answer, or the bucket does not exist (it never creates one). The error is rclone's own; fix the field it names and run the command again.
• A scheduled backup failed: noust backup failures prints each failure's whole output. Set up notifications so the next one reaches you.
• The drill failed: the report says which step: the checksum, unpacking, or loading a dump. The backup is not one to rely on; take another and drill it.

Backups and disaster recovery covers the database schedules, volumes, Noust's own state and every provider.

Next

Ship a change, and roll it back.