Backup Restore and Rollback

Backup, Restore, and Rollback

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A backup is not trusted until its restore has succeeded somewhere disposable. Wayfindr's archive contains the PostgreSQL dump, local attachment binaries, and a manifest describing the release and any remote attachment disks it still depends on.

Take a Backup

docker compose -f wayfindr/compose.yml --env-file wayfindr/.env \
  exec web php artisan wayfindr:backup

Keep a copy away from the Wayfindr host. If attachments live in R2 or S3, the archive restores their database rows but does not duplicate those remote binaries; protect and retain that bucket too.

Restore Safely

Restore on a disposable VM first. For a real recovery, quiesce HTTP writes and background workers, enter maintenance mode, restore, reconcile version/schema warnings, restart workers, and only then lift maintenance mode.

docker compose -f wayfindr/compose.yml --env-file wayfindr/.env \
  exec web php artisan wayfindr:restore /path/to/archive.tar.gz

Restoring over populated data requires --force and replaces the database. Version skew or an unverifiable release identity deliberately leaves the site in maintenance for operator review.

Rollback

Before an upgrade, retain the previous image tag, stack files, environment, and a current backup. Roll back code/image first when the schema remains compatible. If the failed change altered data or schema incompatibly, follow the guarded restore procedure; do not improvise against the production database.

Commands, remote-storage caveats, retention, GUI restore constraints, and the maintenance procedure are authoritative in Backup and Restore.