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docker-backup

Simple utility for backing up a Docker data container (optionally to s3).

other solutions

There are a number of existing solutions available which typically operate in a similar fashion.

  • docker inspect (api call) to determine volumes provided by a container
  • access container volumes using --volumes-from or /var/lib/docker/vfs/dir
  • store container description (from inspect) and volumes
  • restore using container description to re-create data container before restoring files

The above approach results in a fairly sizable tool mostly due to unuseful complexity which unfortunately also restricts flexibility.

advantages

Unlike other solutions this tool opperates entirely from within the container in which it resides. There is no communication with Docker API or storage of data container description. This results in a number of advantages and provides increased flexibility as described below.

  • does not break on Docker API change or container description format
  • restore into container using different image
  • merge backups into single data container
  • simplicity allows for easy customization and expansion
    • does not act like a daemon to allow scheduling via typical system tools
    • separates base backup from remote storage
  • does not require bind mounting the docker socket nor /var/lib/docker/vfs/dir

assumptions

This tool assumes that the data container it is to operate on exists. In the event of a catastrophic failure this means the data container must be initialized before this tool can restore the data into it.

Typically that will look something like the following.

$ docker run --name data-container -v /some/volume boombatower/opensuse /bin/true

usage

backup.sh backup|restore [filename]
- filename: backup.tar.xz
Environment variables:
- optional: TAR_OPTS

Backups are placed in the /backup directory which is exposed as a volume so that other containers may access the tarballs after they are created. The backup can either be transported directly from the container to remote storage or using Docker bind mount can be extracted onto the host.

To dump backup archive from data-container into current directory:

$ docker run --rm \
  --volumes-from data-container \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  boombatower/docker-backup backup

To restore:

$ docker run --rm \
  --volumes-from data-container \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  boombatower/docker-backup restore

To use a date based file name and add --verbose flag to tar command:

$ docker run --rm \
  --volumes-from data-container \
  -v $(pwd):/backup \
  -e TAR_OPTS="--verbose" \
  boombatower/docker-backup backup "$(date +%F_%R).tar.xz"

One interesting option would be to remove the --rm flag a simply let the backup containers persist as they will provide a backup until they are removed. Using other tools the containers could be perged at desired intervals. Since this image exposes /backup as a volume the backup container could be accessed via --volumes-from for the restore script.

Any existing container or tools designed to work with a tarball can be compiled into a Docker container that builds on the basic tool as the s3 tool included in this repository.

s3.sh backup|restore [filename]
- filename: backup.tar.xz
Environment variables:
- required: ACCESS_KEY, SECRET_KEY, and BUCKET
- optional: S3CMD_OPTS

To upload backup directly to s3:

$ docker run --rm \
  --volumes-from data-container \
  -e ACCESS_KEY="..." \
  -e SECRET_KEY="..." \
  -e BUCKET="s3://[BUCKET]/" \
  boombatower/docker-backup-s3 backup data-container.tar.xz

Used in combination with a versioned s3 bucket and even glacier this static file name is still quite powerful.

To restore backup directly from s3:

$ docker run --rm \
  --volumes-from data-container \
  -e ACCESS_KEY="..." \
  -e SECRET_KEY="..." \
  -e BUCKET="s3://[BUCKET]/" \
  boombatower/docker-backup-s3 restore data-container.tar.xz

systemd scheduling

If you are using CoreOS or similar it can be convenient to schedule the backups using systemd and include them in your cloud-config. An example timer and backup service are provided in doc directory.

docker registry

The Docker registry repositories can be found at: