Backups & restore
What OSS Panel backs up, where it sends it, and how to put an application back after something goes wrong.
A backup in OSS Panel is a copy of one application — its files, its database, or both — written to storage that is not this server, on a schedule, and checked after it lands. A restore puts that copy back, taking a safety copy of the live application first so the restore itself can be undone.
Everything is organised per application. There is no "whole server" backup button: you turn backups on for each application, and the Backups section in the server sidebar is the view across all of them.
The three tabs
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Overview | One card per application: what is backed up, how often, where to, when it last ran and when it runs next. |
| History | Every backup run on the server, with filters, download and restore. |
| Restores | Every restore that has been performed, and the safety copy each one took. |
How a backup run works
Each run goes through five steps, in this order:
- Dump the database — if the backup includes one.
- Archive the files — a
tar.gzof the application's web root, minus anything you excluded. - Upload the archive to the storage destination.
- Verify it — the panel asks the destination how big the stored object is and compares it with what was sent. "Uploaded without an error" is a claim about the panel; "the file is there, at that size" is a claim about the storage.
- Prune older backups down to your retention count.
Prune is last on purpose: the panel never deletes an old backup to make room for one that then fails. Only verified backups count towards retention, and safety copies are never counted or pruned.
What is not backed up
These are the gaps worth knowing before you rely on the feature.
- The panel's own database. OSS Panel dumps it automatically before an update migrates it, but it is not part of this feature and it is not sent to your storage destination.
- Server configuration — system users, firewall rules, cron jobs, installed engines. Those live in Server management.
- Databases that are not linked to an application. A database backup backs up the databases attached to that application. The Databases screen warns about unlinked ones for this reason.
- Anything you excluded. Excluded paths are not in the archive, so they are not restored either.
Where to start
Storage destinations
Connect S3, FTP, SFTP or Google Drive — backups cannot run without one.
Schedule a backup
Turn backups on for an application: what to copy, how often, how many to keep.
Backup history
Find a run, check it verified, download the archive, delete old ones.
Restore an application
Put a backup back, and undo the restore if it was the wrong one.