Backups and restoring

Everything Homefellow knows lives in one data folder: a database and the household’s photos and recordings. A backup is a consistent copy of it, taken while the server runs, in a folder named by its time. A backup works as a data folder to restore from.

Making backups

sudo homefellow backups schedule 03:15          # the server's own daily backup (--keep 14 --dir DIR)
sudo homefellow backups run                     # one now
sudo homefellow backups                         # the backups, where they go and how many are kept
sudo homefellow backups check                   # check the newest would restore

The server makes the backups itself, every day at 03:15. It keeps the newest 14. They go into the data folder’s backups/ (/var/lib/homefellow/backups for the packaged install) unless you choose another folder. The setup page’s “Backups” step, the admin and these commands change it. The doctor checks the newest is recent and would restore.

Keep a copy somewhere else too: another disk, or a NAS. A backup holds your family’s answers, so keep it private.

Restoring

sudo homefellow backups restore <name>          # checked, then the household as it is now is backed up first
sudo systemctl restart homefellow               # the restore happens as the server starts
sudo homefellow doctor                          # says what was restored
sudo homefellow backups restore --cancel        # call it off before the restart

A restore is done safely:

1. The backup is checked. It’s refused if it wouldn’t restore.
2. It’s copied into the data folder, so pruning old backups can’t lose it.
3. A fresh backup of the household as it is now is made, so the restore itself can be undone.
4. Nothing changes until the server next starts.
5. Then the household as it was moves aside to before-restore-<time>/ in the data folder. The backup takes its place.

What a restore doesn’t touch: the settings, the home-network certificate and the speech model. What it does undo: devices that signed in after the backup was made, with invites made since. Those devices need a new invite.

Moving to another computer

Install Homefellow on the new computer, copy a backup there and restore it. Then give the family’s devices fresh invites, so they learn the new addresses.