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Backup & Restore HumHub

Whether you are upgrading your installation of HumHub using the updater module or manually, you must make sure you have your own set of backup data, one you can rely on and get back to on your own terms.

A complete backup always consists of two parts:

  • the database
  • the file storage (uploads, configuration, custom modules and themes)
note

Store your backups outside of the data they contain: with Docker outside the data volume, on a server outside the web root and the uploads folder. Otherwise they are at risk of being publicly accessible or of getting backed up recursively by the next run. Ideally keep them on a separate partition or on remote storage. Rotating and cleaning up old backups is your responsibility.

Docker​

For a Docker installation, backup and restore are documented in the Docker Backup & Restore guide of the HumHub Docker repository. It also covers scheduled backups and all available options.

The Docker image includes a built-in backup functionality. It is recommended to add it as a separate service named backup in your compose.yml and run it on demand or via cron on the host, for example:

docker compose run --rm backup

A backup run produces a single humhub_backup_<TIMESTAMP>.tar archive in the backup volume, containing the database dump and the storage archive. Set HUMHUB_DOCKER__BACKUP_MERGE_ARCHIVES to false to keep both parts as separate files and reduce the temporary space needed on the backup volume.

Web Server​

Create a Backup of HumHub Data​

  • Create a full backup of the HumHub database
  • Backup instance files
    • /protected/config
    • /protected/modules
    • /uploads
    • /themes/yourtheme (if you're running an own theme)

The following examples show one possible way to create backups on a Linux server. Adjust database name, user and paths to your own environment.

Database Dump​

mariadb-dump -h <DB_HOST> -u <DB_USER> -p \
    --default-character-set=utf8mb4 \
    --single-transaction \
    --skip-extended-insert \
    <DB_NAME> \
    | gzip -9 > <BACKUP_DIR>/humhub_database_`date +'%Y%m%d%H%M%S'`.sql.gz

On MySQL servers the same command can be used with mysqldump instead of mariadb-dump. All options above are supported by both clients.

Instance Files​

cd <HUMHUB_ROOT>/..
sudo tar czf <BACKUP_DIR>/humhub_files_`date +'%Y%m%d%H%M%S'`.tar.gz \
    humhub/protected/config/ \
    humhub/protected/modules/ \
    humhub/uploads/ \
    humhub/themes/

Restore HumHub from Backup Data​

  • Restore and import backup database
  • Restore instance files
    • /protected/config
    • /protected/modules
    • /uploads
    • /themes/yourtheme (if you're running an own theme)
  • Rebuild the search index, see Search chapter
note

When uploading your files to /uploads by ftp make sure to use binary transfer mode.