volume-backup

An utility to backup and restore docker volumes. For more info, read my article on Medium

Note: Make sure no container is using the volume before backup or restore, otherwise your data might be damaged. See Miscellaneous for instructions.

Note: When using docker-compose, make sure to backup and restore volume labels. See Miscellaneous for more information.

Backup

Syntax:

docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup > [archive-path]

For example:

docker run -v some_volume:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup > some_archive.tar.bz2

will archive volume named some_volume to some_archive.tar.bz2 archive file.

Note: --log-driver none option is necessary to avoid storing an entire backup in a temporary stdout JSON file. More info in Docker logging documentation and in this issue.

WARNING: This method should not be used under PowerShell on Windows as no usable backup will be generated.

Backup to a file (deprecated)

Syntax:

docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume -v [output-dir]:/backup --rm loomchild/volume-backup backup [archive-name]

For example:

docker run -v some_volume:/volume -v /tmp:/backup --rm loomchild/volume-backup backup some_archive

will archive volume named some_volume to /tmp/some_archive.tar.bz2 archive file.

Restore

Syntax:

docker run -i -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm loomchild/volume-backup restore < [archive-path]

For example:

docker run -i -v some_volume:/volume --rm loomchild/volume-backup restore < some_archive.tar.bz2

will clean and restore volume named some_volume from some_archive.tar.bz2 archive file.

Note: Don't forget the -i switch for interactive operation. Note Restore will fail if the target volume is not empty (use -f flag to override).

Restore from a file (deprecated)

Syntax:

docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume -v [output-dir]:/backup --rm loomchild/volume-backup restore [archive-name]

For example:

docker run -v some_volume:/volume -v /tmp:/backup --rm loomchild/volume-backup restore some_archive

will clean and restore volume named some_volume from /tmp/some_archive.tar.bz2 archive file.

Miscellaneous

1. Upgrade / update volume-backup

   docker pull loomchild/volume-backup
   

2. volume-backup is also available from GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io), to avoid DockerHub usage limits:

   docker pull ghcr.io/loomchild/volume-backup
   

   Note: you'll need to write ghcr.io/loomchild/volume-backup instead of just loomchild/volume-backup when running the utility.

3. Find all containers using a volume (to stop them before backing-up)

   docker ps -a --filter volume=[volume-name]
   

4. Exclude some files from the backup and send the archive to stdout

   docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup -e [excluded-glob] > [archive-path]
   

5. Use different compression algorithm for better performance

   docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup -c pigz > [archive-path]
   

6. Show simple progress indicator using verbose -v flag (works both for backup and restore)

   docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup -v > [archive-path]
   

7. Pass additional arguments to the Tar utility using -x option

   docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup -x --verbose > [archive-path]
   

8. Directly migrate the volume to a new host

   docker run -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm --log-driver none loomchild/volume-backup backup | ssh [receiver] docker run -i -v [volume-name]:/volume --rm loomchild/volume-backup restore
   

   Note: In case there are no traffic limitations between the hosts you can trade CPU time for bandwidth by turning off compression via -c none option.

9. Volume labels are not backed-up or restored automatically, but they might be required for your application to work (e.g. when using docker-compose). If you need to preserve them, create a label backup file as follows: docker inspect [volume-name] -f "{{json .Labels}}" > labels.json. When restoring your data, target volume needs to be created manually with labels before launching the restore script: docker volume create --label "label1" --label "label2" [volume-name].