Backup¶
Manual¶
You can use the provided script helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh to backup mailcow automatically.
Please do not copy this script to another location.
To run a backup, write "backup" as first parameter and either one or more components to backup as following parameters.
You can also use "all" as second parameter to backup all components. Append --delete-days n to delete backups older than n days.
# Syntax:
# ./helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup (vmail|crypt|redis|rspamd|postfix|mysql|all|--delete-days)
# Backup all, delete backups older than 3 days
./helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup all --delete-days 3
# Backup vmail, crypt and mysql data, delete backups older than 30 days
./helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup vmail crypt mysql --delete-days 30
# Backup vmail
./helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup vmail
The script will ask you for a backup location. Inside of this location it will create folders in the format "mailcow_DATE". You should not rename those folders to not break the restore process.
To run a backup unattended, define MAILCOW_BACKUP_LOCATION as environment variable before starting the script:
MAILCOW_BACKUP_LOCATION=/opt/backup /opt/mailcow-dockerized/helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup all
Cronjob¶
You can run the backup script regularly via cronjob. Make sure BACKUP_LOCATION exists:
5 4 * * * cd /opt/mailcow-dockerized/; MAILCOW_BACKUP_LOCATION=/mnt/mailcow_backups /opt/mailcow-dockerized/helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup mysql crypt redis --delete-days 3
Per default cron sends the full result of each backup operation by email. If you want cron to only mail on error (non-zero exit code) you may want to use the following snippet. Pathes need to be modified according to your setup (this script is a user contribution).
This following script may be placed in /etc/cron.daily/mailcow-backup - do not forget to mark it as executable via chmod +x:
#!/bin/sh
# Backup mailcow data
# https://mailcow.github.io/mailcow-dockerized-docs/backup_restore/b_n_r-backup/
set -e
OUT="$(mktemp)"
export MAILCOW_BACKUP_LOCATION="/opt/backup"
SCRIPT="/opt/mailcow-dockerized/helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh"
PARAMETERS="backup all"
OPTIONS="--delete-days 30"
# run command
set +e
"${SCRIPT}" ${PARAMETERS} ${OPTIONS} 2>&1 > "$OUT"
RESULT=$?
if [ $RESULT -ne 0 ]
then
echo "${SCRIPT} ${PARAMETERS} ${OPTIONS} encounters an error:"
echo "RESULT=$RESULT"
echo "STDOUT / STDERR:"
cat "$OUT"
fi
Backup strategy with rsync and mailcow backup script¶
Create the destination directory for mailcows helper script:
mkdir -p /external_share/backups/backup_script
Create cronjobs:
25 1 * * * rsync -aH --delete /opt/mailcow-dockerized /external_share/backups/mailcow-dockerized
40 2 * * * rsync -aH --delete /var/lib/docker/volumes /external_share/backups/var_lib_docker_volumes
5 4 * * * cd /opt/mailcow-dockerized/; BACKUP_LOCATION=/external_share/backups/backup_script /opt/mailcow-dockerized/helper-scripts/backup_and_restore.sh backup mysql crypt redis --delete-days 3
# If you want to, use the acl util to backup permissions of some/all folders/files: getfacl -Rn /path
On the destination (in this case /external_share/backups) you may want to have snapshot capabilities (ZFS, Btrfs etc.). Snapshot daily and keep for n days for a consistent backup.
Do not rsync to a Samba share, you need to keep the correct permissions!
To restore you'd simply need to run rsync the other way round and restart Docker to re-read the volumes. Run docker compose pull and docker compose up -d.
If you are lucky Redis and MariaDB can automatically fix the inconsistent databases (if they are inconsistent). In case of a corrupted database you'd need to use the helper script to restore the inconsistent elements. If a restore fails, try to extract the backups and copy the files back manually. Keep the file permissions!