Nextcloud - DB storage, backups and restore

[Migsi]

Hello,

I just read through and tested a full nextcloud setup using the TrueChart provided "app". So far, so good, everything went fine and the instance is running.
As the installer asks for a hostPath to store the nextcloud data, I was curious if there was a way to define a hostPath for the database files too (to perform fs level backups/restores). After poking around a while I found that there is no such setting, but I managed to find the DB within the postgres pod which is spawned as part of the nextcloud instance. I hoped to be able to locate the db files somewhere within the ix-applications dataset, but had no luck. This ultimately leads to my question: How is the nextcloud db, postgres in this case, persisted across reboots? I'd expect it to be at least some sort of docker volume, which should be visible from outside the container/pod. How am I supposed to perform backups of the database? How can I restore a fs level backup from an instance that ran on TN Core within a jail?

If you miss any information, don't hesitate to ask.

 

[truecharts]

Hello,

By default PVC storage isn't user accessible unless mounted, so if you wish to see the contents of your nextcloud install and do manual backups you're best off chosing HostPath when you install Nextcloud. See image below (step #5), but remember reverting and using snapshots won't be supported from inside the app.

PVC is the default method when because it supports reverting and other aspects of Kubernetes, some more info is on our website. You can also reach us on Discord if you need more info

 

[Migsi]

Hello,

By default PVC storage isn't user accessible unless mounted, so if you wish to see the contents of your nextcloud install and do manual backups you're best off chosing HostPath when you install Nextcloud. See image below (step #5), but remember reverting and using snapshots won't be supported from inside the app.

View attachment 55027

PVC is the default method when because it supports reverting and other aspects of Kubernetes, some more info is on our website. You can also reach us on Discord if you need more info

Thank you for the answer. As I noted above, I already made use of this setting. But this hostPath is for the nextcloud data directory only, leaving out the database itself. I have to apply the backups I've made of my previous instance (before moving to scale) and can't figure out how to do so. I have a filesystem level backup of my database (the postgres data directory itself) and would like to use that within the scale nextcloud "app".
Even if using filesystem level backups are not recommended for this deployment (?), I'd be happy to know, how I am supposed to handle backups of the nextcloud database for this "app".

I'll joint your discord for further discussions, but I'd be happy if such information would be provided somewhere in the doc.

 

[truecharts]

Thank you for the answer. As I noted above, I already made use of this setting. But this hostPath is for the nextcloud data directory only, leaving out the database itself. I have to apply the backups I've made of my previous instance (before moving to scale) and can't figure out how to do so. I have a filesystem level backup of my database (the postgres data directory itself) and would like to use that within the scale nextcloud "app".
Even if using filesystem level backups are not recommended for this deployment (?), I'd be happy to know, how I am supposed to handle backups of the nextcloud database for this "app".

I'll joint your discord for further discussions, but I'd be happy if such information would be provided somewhere in the doc.

What is and isn't documented depends on what the communities does or doesn't document.

But generally speaking we do not support direct filesystem access to the databases and only support backups using special database managers and/or the backup system layed out in our quick-start guides :)

 

[Migsi]

What is and isn't documented depends on what the communities does or doesn't document.

But generally speaking we do not support direct filesystem access to the databases and only support backups using special database managers and/or the backup system layed out in our quick-start guides :)

I'd be happy to create a quick writeup, when my instance is running again! :)

I already expected this to be the case. Which (available) database managers do you recommend? The backup system mentioned in the quick-start guides does not help when trying to migrate from Core :/

 

[victort]

How does one mount the postgres database outside the app?

 

[Krautmaster]

im trying to do the same. I want to use occ migrate database command to fill/restore my Truecharts postgresql database to migrate from jail / mariadb to app/postgresql

 

[indivision]

I'm not sure what additional steps might be needed for that migration. But, you can use this excellent script to mount the PVC storage: https://heavysetup.info/scripts/heavyscript/utilities/

 

[ver151set]

How does one mount the postgres database outside the app?

With the pgadmin app you can easily backup and restore databases. On the truecharts website they have a script you can save which shows you the address, username, and password of every postgres database your apps are using - and even a guide on using it

 

[victort]

With the pgadmin app you can easily backup and restore databases. On the truecharts website they have a script you can save which shows you the address, username, and password of every postgres database your apps are using - and even a guide on using it

I mean when installing the app, you can pretty much mount everything outside using hostpath. But the database (Nextcloud in this case) is in a separate container and seems to not be able to be mounted.

I prefer to be able to tear down an app and reinstall and pick up where I left off.

Backup and restore seems unnecessary especially if the data stays on the same pool, and could just be remounted.