Backup, Restore & Disaster Recovery

AlphaDrive includes native hot online backup and disaster recovery tools built directly into the core binary.

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1. Creating a Hot Online Backup

You can execute a hot backup while the server is running without any downtime:

# Create a hot backup archive
sudo -u alphadrive alphadrive backup --data-dir /var/lib/alphadrive/data --out /var/backups/alphadrive-$(date +%F).tar.gz

What the backup contains:

• SQLite Database Snapshot: Uses SQLite's online vacuum/backup API to create a clean, consistent snapshot without database locks.
• Session Keys: Preserves session.key to maintain active logins.
• Binary Object Store: Archives all uploaded file blobs (files/objects/).
• Metadata: Embedded backup manifest and schema version.

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2. Automated Daily Backups (Cron)

To schedule automated daily backups at 03:00 AM:

sudo tee /etc/cron.daily/alphadrive-backup > /dev/null << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="/var/backups/alphadrive"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
BACKUP_FILE="$BACKUP_DIR/alphadrive-$(date +\%Y\%m\%d_\%H\%M\%S).tar.gz"

sudo -u alphadrive /usr/local/bin/alphadrive backup --data-dir /var/lib/alphadrive/data --out "$BACKUP_FILE"

# Keep last 7 days of backups
find "$BACKUP_DIR" -type f -name "*.tar.gz" -mtime +7 -delete
EOF

sudo chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/alphadrive-backup

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3. Full Server Restoration

To restore AlphaDrive from a backup archive (e.g. onto a new VPS):

1. Install AlphaDrive binary on the target server.
2. Stop the daemon:

   sudo systemctl stop alphadrive

3. Execute restore:

   sudo -u alphadrive alphadrive restore --data-dir /var/lib/alphadrive/data --in /var/backups/alphadrive-2026-09-17.tar.gz

4. Start the daemon:

   sudo systemctl start alphadrive

5. All users, files, folders, shares, and settings are fully restored.