# Backup and Restore Each site owns its own data (single-tenant, ADR-004), so backups are the site's responsibility. A complete backup is two parts: 1. **The MySQL database** - all asset, user, audit, and settings data. 2. **The `instance/` directory** - uploaded floor plans, branding assets, `plugins.json` (the enabled-plugin list), and any tokens or files the app writes to disk. These are NOT in the database, so a DB-only backup loses them. Back up `instance/` alongside every database dump. Restoring the database without the matching `instance/` directory leaves the app pointing at floor plans and logos that no longer exist. ## What to back up | Item | Location | Why | |------|----------|-----| | Database | MySQL `shopdb_flask` | All application data. | | `instance/branding/` | repo `instance/` dir | Uploaded logos and favicon. | | `instance/modelimages/` | repo `instance/` dir | Uploaded vendor-model photos. | | `instance/employeephotos/` | repo `instance/` dir | Uploaded self-hosted employee photos (external mode serves photos from the HR database instead). | | `instance/` floor plans | repo `instance/` dir | Uploaded map blueprints. | | `instance/plugins.json` | repo `instance/` dir | Which plugins this site enabled. | | `.env` | repo root (offline, secured) | Secrets needed to bring the stack back up. Store separately from the data backup, in a secrets manager. | ## Backup ### Database (Docker) ```bash docker compose exec -T db mysqldump \ -u root -p"${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}" \ --single-transaction --routines --triggers \ shopdb_flask | gzip > shopdb-$(date +%F).sql.gz ``` `--single-transaction` gives a consistent dump without locking the tables (InnoDB). ### Database (external MySQL, no container) ```bash mysqldump -h -u -p \ --single-transaction --routines --triggers \ shopdb_flask | gzip > shopdb-$(date +%F).sql.gz ``` ### instance directory ```bash tar czf instance-$(date +%F).tar.gz instance/ ``` Recommended cadence: nightly database dump to offsite storage, 14-day retention; `instance/` captured on the same schedule (and always right before an upgrade). Verify a restore quarterly. ## Restore Restoring replaces the current database contents. Do it into a known-empty or a throwaway target first if you are unsure. ### Step 1: Bring up the stack (or a fresh one) ```bash cp .env.example .env # or restore your saved .env # ensure MYSQL_* and DATABASE_URL match the dump's database name (shopdb_flask) docker compose up -d db ``` Wait for the `db` container to report healthy (`docker compose ps`). ### Step 2: Load the database dump ```bash gunzip -c shopdb-2026-07-10.sql.gz | \ docker compose exec -T db mysql -u root -p"${MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD}" shopdb_flask ``` For an external MySQL: ```bash gunzip -c shopdb-2026-07-10.sql.gz | mysql -h -u -p shopdb_flask ``` If the target database does not exist yet, create it as utf8mb4 first (matching the schema charset): ```sql CREATE DATABASE shopdb_flask CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; ``` ### Step 3: Restore the instance directory ```bash tar xzf instance-2026-07-10.tar.gz # restores ./instance/ ``` The default `docker-compose.yml` does NOT bind-mount `instance/` into the api container (its only volume is `- ./plugins:/app/plugins:ro`, and the image never copies `instance/`), so the container's Flask instance path is an empty `/app/instance` and a restored host `./instance` is invisible to it. To make the restored `instance/` visible, add a bind mount to the api service before starting it: ```yaml api: volumes: - ./plugins:/app/plugins:ro - ./instance:/app/instance ``` Make sure `./instance` is present on the host before starting `api`. ### Step 4: Bring up the API and reconcile migrations ```bash docker compose up -d api docker compose exec api flask db upgrade docker compose exec api flask plugin upgrade-all ``` For a non-docker deploy: ```bash flask db upgrade flask plugin upgrade-all ``` `flask db upgrade` is a safety net: if the dump predates the current code, this applies only the core Alembic chain. `flask plugin upgrade-all` then applies any newer per-plugin migrations (each bundled plugin owns its own chain, ADR-008); without it, plugin-owned tables stay un-migrated. If the dump is at the same version both are no-ops. ### Step 5: Verify - Log in with a known account. - Confirm the floor map renders (branding and map blueprints resolve from `instance/`). - Spot-check a few asset records and the audit log. - `curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{}' http://localhost:5001/api/auth/login | jq .` should return a `VALIDATION_ERROR`, not a 500. ## Windows sites (installer-built) On a server installed from the Windows installer, everything above is wrapped by the operator console. Do not run mysqldump by hand: ```powershell cd C:\shopdb-flask .\shopdb-admin.ps1 backup # C:\ProgramData\ShopDB-Flask\backups .\shopdb-admin.ps1 backup D:\backups ``` The dump is verified complete before it is reported as good; a truncated one is deleted rather than left to be discovered when it is needed. An upgrade takes its own backup automatically before touching the schema, and restores from it if a migration fails. Two Windows-specific notes: - The backup directory is locked to Administrators and SYSTEM, because a dump contains every row including user password hashes. Keep it that way. - `mysqldump` must be present. It ships with the bundled-database option; a site using a remote MySQL needs `mysqlclient\` in its installer bundle, or the pre-upgrade backup is skipped. `shopdb-admin.ps1 check` reports this. ### Restoring on Windows, in order Order matters. Restoring the database under running code that expects a different schema is how a restore turns into a second incident. ```powershell cd C:\shopdb-flask # 1. Stop serving. The pool, not the whole site: other applications on this # IIS server are unaffected. .\shopdb-admin.ps1 stop # 2. Restore the database. Use the dump taken closest BEFORE the problem, # not the newest one - the newest may already contain it. mysql -u root -p shopdb_flask < C:\ProgramData\ShopDB-Flask\backups\shopdb_flask-pre-upgrade-20260814-0730.sql # 3. Restore instance\ if you are rebuilding a server rather than just # reverting data. It holds uploaded branding, map blueprints, application # images and warranty proofs - none of which are in the database. robocopy D:\backups\instance C:\shopdb-flask\instance /MIR # 4. Start, then prove it. .\shopdb-admin.ps1 start .\shopdb-admin.ps1 check -Json ``` `check -Json` reports version, publishing method, IIS and pool state, HTTP reachability, database reachability, Python version and installed plugins. If it passes, the restore worked; if the version it reports is not the version you expect, see "Rolling back a release" in [UPDATES-WINDOWS.md](UPDATES-WINDOWS.md), because a restored database and newer code is the one combination the installer cannot fix for you. ### What is lost if `.env` is lost `.env` is not in the database dump, and rebuilding it is not simply retyping it: | Value | If it is lost | |---|---| | `SECRET_KEY`, `JWT_SECRET_KEY` | Every issued token and session becomes invalid. Users log in again; managed API tokens must be reissued, which means every collector and GE-Enforce client needs its key replaced. Recoverable, but it is a fleet-wide job. | | `DATABASE_URL` password | Recoverable: reset the MySQL user's password and write the new one in. | | `MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD` | Recoverable through MySQL's own reset procedure, which requires stopping the server. | | `ZABBIX_TOKEN` and similar integration tokens | Reissue at the far end. Nothing else breaks. | So back it up with the database, to somewhere as protected as the dump - it is ACL'd to Administrators and SYSTEM on the server for the same reason. A dump without its `.env` restores the data and locks everyone out of it. See [OPERATE-WINDOWS.md](OPERATE-WINDOWS.md). ## See also - [DEPLOY.md](DEPLOY.md) - first-time deploy - [INSTALL-WINDOWS.md](INSTALL-WINDOWS.md) - Windows Server install - [UPGRADE.md](UPGRADE.md) - upgrade procedure (back up first) - [CONFIG.md](CONFIG.md) - environment variables and Setting keys