Disaster Recovery EN

Ελληνικά · English

Disaster recovery

Karta's machine is gone: the VPS was deleted (e.g. the Oracle Cloud account was closed) or the PC / Raspberry Pi broke, was stolen or destroyed. This page brings you back on a new machine, with all data up to the last backup. The steps are the same in both cases; where they differ, it says so.

Time: about an hour.

The encryption password is all you need: the cloud backup holds the database and the key that locks the Ergani password, the PINs and the QR cards inside it (PIN_KEY). Karta takes it over by itself when restoring.

What you need

What	Why
The encryption password of the backups	The one you wrote on paper or in a password manager. Without it the cloud backups can't be opened.
The cloud account	The same Google Drive, Dropbox or Backblaze B2 account the backups went to. Don't touch the folder there (data, index, keys, locks, snapshots, config).
The Cloudflare account	Your domain is there.
A new machine	A VPS, or a PC / Raspberry Pi with Ubuntu, as in Easy installation.

A local machine with a USB backup that survived? See With USB: it's simpler, and the USB has the .env too.

Until Karta is back

• The shop screen doesn't work. Staff punch with the Ergani app on their phone (the screen says the same when it's offline). Those punches go straight to Ergani.
• If the old machine still exists somewhere (e.g. a VPS that was "deleted" but came back), switch it off before you start. Two Karta installations with the same data could send the same punches to Ergani twice.

Step 1: A new machine

• VPS: create a new VPS and connect with SSH (Option C: Oracle Cloud).
• Local: a PC, laptop or Raspberry Pi with Ubuntu (Option A / Option B).

Step 2: Install Karta with the setup assistant

Do steps 3–5 of Easy installation, with the same answers as the first time:

• The same address (e.g. karta.tokatastimamou.gr) and the same admin emails.
• "1" for a local machine, "2" for a VPS.
• A new Cloudflare key (step 4). The assistant reuses the tunnel and the admin page protection, which live in Cloudflare and weren't lost.
• "y" to the nightly backup.

Don't set anything up on the admin page («Πρώτα βήματα», employees, Ergani): it all comes from the backup.

Step 3: Connect the cloud to the existing backups

Open the admin page (https://…/admin) → «Ρυθμίσεις» → «Αντίγραφα ασφαλείας»:

1. «Πού» (where): the same provider (e.g. Google Drive).
2. A new access code, as the page says (for Google Drive: rclone authorize "drive"), with the same Google account. Paste it.
3. Open «Έχω ήδη αντίγραφα στο cloud», type the encryption password and press «Σύνδεση στα υπάρχοντα αντίγραφα». The page shows how long it has been; on Google Drive it takes 1–2 minutes (and so does the list of backups in the next step).

Don't press «Σύνδεση και πρώτο ανέβασμα»: that's for new backups (and it will tell you some already exist).

Step 4: Restore

1. On the same page: «Επαναφορά» → «Από το cloud…».
2. Pick the most recent backup and press «Έλεγχος αντιγράφου» (check backup). It is downloaded and checked; on Google Drive this takes 1–2 minutes, and the page shows how long it has been («Κατεβαίνει και ελέγχεται το αντίγραφο… 45″»).
3. Check what it says: business name, number of employees and the date of the last punch. It should be the last day the old machine worked. It also says that the backup's own key (PIN_KEY) will be used automatically.
4. «Επαναφορά τώρα» (restore now).

Within seconds Karta has everything it had: employees (PINs and QR cards work as before), schedules, leave, punches, settings, the mode (e.g. «Κανονική λειτουργία») and the registered shop screens.

Step 5: Check

• «Ρυθμίσεις» → «Επιχείρηση και σύνδεση με το ΕΡΓΑΝΗ» → «Δοκιμή σύνδεσης». If the backup is from a version before 1.7.5 (without the key), or the backup check said it has no Ergani password (it was only in the old machine's .env), type the Ergani web-services user's password again and press «Αποθήκευση»; the same for the ntfy token, if you had one.
• «Λειτουργία» (mode): the same as before. If not (it was only in the old machine's .env), choose it again.
• «Αντίγραφα ασφαλείας»: press «Ανέβασμα τώρα», for a first backup from the new machine.
• On the machine: cd ~/karta && ./setup.sh check.

Step 6: The shop screen

• VPS (the shop device survived): open Karta's address as always. It works as before, because its registration is in the backup.
• Local (the screen was the same machine that was lost), or if it says «Η συσκευή δεν είναι εγγεγραμμένη»: register the device again: «Ρυθμίσεις» → «Συσκευές» → «Δημιουργία κωδικού εγγραφής» and /enroll on the device (Shop screen). You can delete the old one from the list.

Step 7: Punches during the gap

Whatever happened after the last backup (the cloud copy goes up every night at 23:40) until Karta came back isn't in Karta:

• Ergani has it all: what Karta sent that day and what staff punched with the Ergani app. The legal record is complete.
• For Karta's reports to be right, add those shifts with «Σήμερα» → the person's «Ενέργειες ▾» → «Ξεχασμένη βάρδια…» (forgotten shift). They go into Karta only and are never sent to Ergani again.

With USB (local machine only)

If you had set up USB backups (./setup.sh usb) and the USB stick survived, it has the nightly backup and the .env (with the PIN_KEY).

1. Do steps 1 and 2.

2. Plug the USB into the new machine and run:

   cd ~/karta && ./setup.sh usb
   ./setup.sh restore

   Choose "2) από USB" (from USB) and the most recent backup. When asked about the backup's PIN_KEY, answer "y".

3. Continue with steps 5–7.

4. Reconnect the cloud as in step 3 (with «Έχω ήδη αντίγραφα στο cloud» and the encryption password), so the backups carry on in the same folder.

Be ready, starting now

• Keep the encryption password on paper or in a password manager («Εμφάνιση κωδικού κρυπτογράφησης» shows it again). It's the only thing you need.
• Print this page and keep it with it.