Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery

Use this when Minecraft will not start — crash loop, mod error on boot, or the panel keeps restarting. The dashboard is not available; you work over SSH on the host.

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Quick steps

Step	What to do
1	SSH to your server, go to the mods/ folder
2	Run java -jar watchtower-cli-1.0.0.jar dr
3	Download the zip file it creates
4	Open it in the DR Viewer in your browser — start on the Fix tab (viewer is early preview — may not work fully yet; see DR Viewer)

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When to use this

Situation	Use recovery tools?
Server crash loop, won't stay up	Yes
Mod won't load on boot	Yes
Server running fine	No — use dashboard + Run Report
Want live charts	No — recovery viewer has no Live tab

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Run the recovery tool

cd /path/to/your/server/mods
java -jar watchtower-cli-1.0.0.jar dr

Creates watchtower-dr-bundle-<timestamp>.zip in the current folder.

Upload that zip to the DR Viewer. Analysis runs in your browser — nothing is sent to Watchtower's servers. The viewer is still early preview; if upload or tabs fail, use the zip contents and logs directly (see DR Viewer).

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Before problems happen

Each successful health report updates watchtower/DR-README.txt with the exact command for your server path.

Keep watchtower-cli-*.jar in mods/ ahead of time, or download from Releases during an incident.

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Panel won't let you save the zip?

java -jar watchtower-cli-1.0.0.jar dr --out /tmp

Download from /tmp via SFTP.

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No CLI? Manual upload

In the DR viewer, expand Advanced: analyze log files locally and upload:

• logs/latest.log (required)
• crash-reports/*.txt (recommended)
• mods/*.jar (optional)
• Old watchtower-facts-*.json (optional)

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DR viewer tabs

Tab	Purpose
Fix	What went wrong and what to try first
Attempts	Restart attempts since last good boot
Logs	Log excerpts from the bundle
Mods	What changed vs last report
Report	Full brief-style summary

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Privacy

Analysis is 100% in your browser. Optional cache stays on your machine only.

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See also

• DR CLI Reference
• DR Viewer