---
id: backups
title: Backups
sidebar_label: Backups
---

Two things matter: **MongoDB** and **`KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY`**. A backup missing
either one restores to something unusable.

## What holds what

| Store                | Contents                                                                                                      | Back up                                           |
| -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| MongoDB              | Everything durable servers, keys, assignments, workflows, runs, monitors, incidents, secrets, settings, audit | **Yes**                                           |
| Redis                | Sessions only                                                                                                 | No. Losing it signs everyone out and nothing else |
| `./data` bind mount  | Workflow run logs                                                                                             | Optional                                          |
| `KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY` | Not stored anywhere by the app                                                                                | **Yes, separately**                               |

:::danger The database alone is not a backup
Private keys, vault secrets, OIDC client secrets and console credentials are
encrypted with `KEY_ENCRYPTION_KEY`, which lives in your environment file and
nowhere in the database. Restore the database without it and every one of those
values is permanently unreadable.

Store the key somewhere other than the server it protects.
:::

## Backing up MongoDB

With the bundled Mongo container:

```bash
docker compose exec -T mongo mongodump --archive --gzip --db vantage \
  > /backups/vantage-$(date +%F).archive.gz
```

Restoring:

```bash
docker compose exec -T mongo mongorestore --archive --gzip --drop \
  < /backups/vantage-2026-07-28.archive.gz
```

`--drop` replaces existing collections. Stop the `server` container first, so
nothing writes during the restore.

## Backing up the environment file

```bash
cp /opt/vantage/.env /secure-location/vantage.env
```

Treat it as a credential in its own right it holds the encryption key.

## Run logs

Workflow run logs live in the `./data` bind mount, not in the database. They are
swept on the retention schedule anyway, so most people do not back them up. If
you keep them for compliance, set retention to `0` (forever) and include the
directory.

## What a restore gives you

Everything: fleet, keys, assignments, workflows and their history, monitors and
incidents, secrets, settings and the audit log.

What it does **not** do is reconcile the world. After a restore:

- Agents reconnect with their existing tokens, since the token hashes are in the
  database.
- If the restore is older than an enrolment, that server's token hash is missing
  and the agent will fail to authenticate re-enrol it.
- The next agent poll rewrites `authorized_keys` to match the restored desired
  state, which may remove keys added since the backup.

## A workable schedule

| What              | When                                                  |
| ----------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| MongoDB dump      | Nightly, retained per your policy                     |
| Environment file  | On change, held in a password manager or secret store |
| Restore rehearsal | Occasionally, into a throwaway host                   |

The rehearsal is the part that gets skipped and the part that finds the
problems.

## Cloud instances

We back these up. You do not need to.