8.3. Backups
NextGIS Web On-Premise has two options for creating backup:
Offline - requires shutting down all services and is performed outside the application container. It is recommended for creating full backups to be transferred to a different server.
Online - does not require shutting down the services and is performed within the app container. Recommended for regular backups.
Important
All steps in this section must be performed by the root user. If you use sudo to avoid mixing up the commands, we recommend first running sudo -i to get a fully functional root user session.
8.3.1. Backups location
Both methods create backups in the backup volume mounted in the /opt/ngw/backup directory inside the containers. Depending on the configuration, physically the backup files may be stored either in /var/lib/docker/volumes/ngwdocker_backup/_data, or in /srv/ngwdocker/backup, if the file docker-compose.yaml has a mounted path for backup.
8.3.2. Offline backup
This method uses an additional service archivist included in the Docker NextGIS Web On-Premise stack. The essence of its work is quite simple: using GNU Tar, it creates an archive with data from all Docker volumes used in the stack.
Backups created using this method are meant to be restored to the same version of NextGIS Web On-Premise where the backup was created.
8.3.2.1. Create backup
To create a consistent backup it is essential that no services modify data while the backup copy is being created. So before starting the process, shut down all the services of the stack:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose down
After shutting down the stack run the following command to create backup:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose run --rm archivist backup
Container ngwdocker-archivist-run-ff7e60e7c67f Creating
Container ngwdocker-archivist-run-ff7e60e7c67f Created
backup/archivist-20260117-002345.tar.zst
File archivist-20260117-002345.tar.zst is the backup, its name contains date and time of its creation. You can view the contents of the backup directory, for example:
$ ls -lhn /var/lib/docker/volumes/ngwdocker_backup/_data/
total 6.8M
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 6.8M Jan 17 03:23 archivist-20260117-002345.tar.zst
To view the list of all the files in the archive you can use:
$ tar -tvf /var/lib/docker/volumes/ngwdocker_backup/_data/archivist-20260117-002345.tar.zst
8.3.2.2. Restore from backup
To restore data, first shut down all the services of the stack:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose down
Then run the command to restore from backup, entering the path to the backup in the same way as it was output during backup creation (backup/*.tar.zst):
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose run --rm archivist restore backup/archivist-20260117-002345.tar.zst
Container ngwdocker-archivist-run-2ab5bee644f6 Creating
Container ngwdocker-archivist-run-2ab5bee644f6 Created
After the restoration is complete, you can restart the stack:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose up -d
8.3.3. Online backup
Online backup is performed by a built-in mechanism within NextGIS Web container. This mechanism does not require shutting down the services. From the technical point of view, it’s a PostgreSQL database dump and an archive with all the data files from NextGIS Web.
Backups created using this method are meant to be restored to the same version of NextGIS Web On-Premise where the backup was created.
8.3.3.1. Create backup
To create a backup run the command:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose run --rm app nextgisweb backup
Container ngwdocker-app-run-36f652b37a86 Creating
Container ngwdocker-app-run-36f652b37a86 Created
backup/nextgisweb-20260117-131917.ngwbackup
The name of the backup file contains date and time of its creation, same as for the backups created with the archivist. The files are stored in /opt/ngw/backup inside the app container mounted to the backup volume of Docker stack. If you view the contents of the backup directory, you can see the created file:
$ ls -lhn /var/lib/docker/volumes/ngwdocker_backup/_data/
total 210K
-rw-r--r-- 1 1000 1000 210K Jan 17 16:19 nextgisweb-20260117-131917.ngwbackup
8.3.3.2. Restore from backup
To restore from an online backup, shut down all the services of the stack, then run only the postgres service:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose down
$ docker compose up -d postgres
Wait for postgres to launch, it takes between 10 and 30 seconds normally, then delete the nextgisweb database and restart postgres to create a blank database. Also you need to delete the volume containing NextGIS Web data files:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose exec postgres psql -c "DROP DATABASE nextgisweb"
$ docker compose up -d --force-recreate postgres
$ docker volume rm ngwdocker_data_app
Wait for postgres to start again, it should take between 10 and 30 seconds. Next you can restore the data from the backup. Enter the path to the backup the same way it was output during backup creation (backup/*.ngwbackup):
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose run --rm app nextgisweb restore backup/nextgisweb-20260117-131917.ngwbackup
✔ Volume ngwdocker_data_app Created
✔ Container ngwdocker-postgres-1 Running
Container ngwdocker-app-run-10fb82472656 Creating
Container ngwdocker-app-run-10fb82472656 Created
After the restoration is complete, you can restart the stack:
$ cd /srv/ngwdocker
$ docker compose up -d