Create backups

Create backup service or stack.

Use the same image and tag as your running bench, including any custom apps. Set PROJECT_NAME in your environment file to the bench's Compose project name. This example uses its default network and named sites volume; adjust the external network and volume names if your deployment uses different names.

yaml

# backup-job.yml
services:
  backup:
    image: ${CUSTOM_IMAGE:-frappe/erpnext}:${CUSTOM_TAG:-$ERPNEXT_VERSION}
    entrypoint: ["bash", "-ec"]
    command:
      - |
        bench --site all backup
        ## Uncomment for restic snapshots.
        # restic snapshots || restic init
        # restic backup sites
        ## Uncomment to keep only last n=30 snapshots.
        # restic forget --group-by=paths --keep-last=30 --prune
    environment:
      # Set correct environment variables for restic
      - RESTIC_REPOSITORY=s3:https://s3.endpoint.com/restic
      - AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=access_key
      - AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=secret_access_key
      - RESTIC_PASSWORD=restic_password
    volumes:
      - "sites:/home/frappe/frappe-bench/sites"
    networks:
      - frappe-network

networks:
  frappe-network:
    external: true
    name: ${PROJECT_NAME:-erpnext}_default

volumes:
  sites:
    external: true
    name: ${PROJECT_NAME:-erpnext}_sites

The bench command above creates database backups. Add --with-files to include uploaded public and private files, as in the direct backup example below. The optional restic commands snapshot the sites directory.

In case of single docker host setup, add crontab entry for backup every 6 hours.

0 */6 * * * docker compose --env-file /path/to/bench.env -f /path/to/backup-job.yml run --rm -T backup > /dev/null

Alternatively, run backups in the existing backend container instead of using a separate backup service. The command below includes uploaded files with --with-files. It does not run the optional restic commands above.

0 */6 * * * docker compose -p erpnext -f /path/to/compose.yml exec -T backend bench --site all backup --with-files > /dev/null

Notes:

Make sure docker compose is available in path during execution.
Replace /path/to/bench.env with the bench environment file and /path/to/compose.yml with the rendered Compose file for the running stack. The separate backup service runs as a one-off container and is removed after completion; -T disables terminal allocation for cron.
Change the cron string as per need.
Set the correct project name in place of erpnext.
For Docker Swarm add it as a swarm-cronjob
Add it as a CronJob in case of Kubernetes cluster.

Create backups ​

Create backups