Mastodon: Manual backups

This is an updated version (26-08-2024)

This manual is a transcript of the way that I have made a backup of my Mastodon instance. Please make sure you are careful and use your brain while following this manual.

Preparing the backup folder

1. Log in as root

2. cd /home/mastodon

3. mkdir backups

4. cd backups

Making the backups

1. Database (three steps)

2. #NOTE: You might need to elevate to ROOT first before entering the commands in this section below.
   su - mastodon
   cd /home/mastodon/backups
   pg_dump -U mastodon mastodon_production -F t > DATE_FILENAME.tar
   
   

   Example: pg_dump -U mastodon mastodon_production -F t > 2024-02-02-mastodon_production.tar

3. Settings file (one step)

   cp /home/mastodon/live/.env.production /home/mastodon/backups/DATE_.env.production
   
   

   Example: cp /home/mastodon/live/.env.production /home/mastodon/backups/2024-02-02-.env.production

4. Redis (two steps, perform as root)

   exit
   cp /var/lib/redis/dump.rdb /home/mastodon/backups/DATE_dump.rdb
   
   

   Example: cp /var/lib/redis/dump.rdb /home/mastodon/backups/2024-02-02-REDIS-dump.rdb

You can now check your backups folder to see if all three files are present. This is also a good moment to copy the backup files to another, safe, location.

If you wish to backup your assets like images and stuff (User-uploaded files), backup the folder named “public/system”. Keep in mind that this folder can be rather large. Actually, it can become rather massive.