Backups

Written for highsea 0.1.0.

A backup is one zip file holding highsea's database: settings, people, history and the library's records. Your films, downloads and subtitles aren't in it; they live on their own disks.

Two places look after backups, and only the Owner sees either:

• Settings › Backups sets the schedule, how many to keep and where they go.
• System › Backups lists them, makes one now, downloads, restores and deletes them.

The scheduleCopy Anchor Link

Choose Save to apply them. highsea checks that it can write to a new folder before it saves.

With Never, nothing is backed up on its own, and a failed disk takes your settings, history and people with it.

The default folder is inside the config folder, on the same disk as everything else. If you can, mount another disk into the container and point Folder at it, or copy the backups somewhere else from time to time.

Kinds of backupCopy Anchor Link

System › Backups marks each backup with how it was made:

Each row also shows when it was made, the highsea version that made it, and its size.

Make a backup nowCopy Anchor Link

In System › Backups, choose Back up now. It appears at the top of the list a moment later.

Download a backupCopy Anchor Link

Choose Download beside a backup to save its zip. Keep a copy off the server, on another disk, another machine or a cloud drive, so one failed disk can't take both.

The secret keyCopy Anchor Link

Backups never hold secret.key, the file in the config folder that seals passwords and tokens, such as provider accounts and two-step verification. Copy it somewhere safe yourself, once: it doesn't change. To restore on another machine, put that file in its config folder first, or sign-ins and connections stop working.

Restore a backupCopy Anchor Link

1. In System › Backups, choose Restore beside the backup.
2. Read what will happen, then choose Restore and restart.

highsea first makes a Before a restore backup of what's there now, then restarts on the one you chose. Settings, people and history go back to that moment, and anything since is lost. Media files aren't touched, and apps reconnect on their own. The page reloads when the server is back, usually within a minute.

highsea checks each backup before it restores it:

• A backup made by a newer version of highsea is refused: update highsea first.
• A file that isn't a highsea backup, or can't be read, says so in the list and can't be restored.
• If the restored database doesn't start, highsea puts the previous one back and says why in System › Health.

Restore a backup from somewhere elseCopy Anchor Link

System › Backups lists every highsea backup in the backups folder. To restore one you downloaded or copied away, put the zip back in that folder, keeping its file name, which begins with highsea-. It shows in the list, ready to restore.

Move to another machineCopy Anchor Link

The simplest way is to copy the whole config folder, which carries secret.key with it. Upgrade walks through it.

To move with a backup instead:

1. On the new machine, put your secret.key in the config folder before starting highsea there for the first time. highsea makes a new key when it finds none, and a new key can't open what the old one sealed.
2. Start highsea and go through setup, so you can sign in.
3. Put the backup zip in the backups folder, then restore it from System › Backups. Your people, settings and history come back with it, including your old Owner account.

Keep the data folder at /data inside the container, so the library's paths still match.