Edit: Results tabulated, thanks for all y'alls input!

Results fitting within the listed categories

Just do it live

• Backup while it is expected to be idle @MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone @khorak@lemmy.dbzer0.com @dandroid@sh.itjust.works

• @Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca suggested adding a real long-ass-backup-script to run monthly to limit overall downtime

Shut down all database containers

• Shutdown all containers -> backup @PotatoPotato@lemmy.world

• Leveraging NixOS impermanence, reboot once a day and backup @thejevans@lemmy.ml

Long-ass backup script

• Long-ass backup script leveraging a backup method in series @STROHminator@lemmy.world @lemmyvore@feddit.nl

Mythical database live snapshot command

(it seems pg_dumpall for Postgres and mysqldump for mysql (though some images with mysql don't have that command for meeeeee))

• Dump Postgres via pg_dumpall on a schedule, backup normally on another schedule @RegalPotoo@lemmy.world

• Dump mysql via mysqldump and pipe to restic directly @youRFate@feddit.de

• Dump Postgres via pg_dumpall -> backup -> delete dump @2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de @SteveDinn@lemmy.ca

Docker image that includes Mythical database live snapshot command (Postgres only)

• Make your own docker image (https://gitlab.com/trubeck/postgres-backup) and set to run on a schedule, includes restic so it backs itself up @Undaunted@discuss.tchncs.de (thanks for uploading your scripts!!)

• Add docker image prodrigestivill/postgres-backup-local and set to run on a schedule, backup those dumps on another schedule @brewery@lemmy.world @Lem453@lemmy.ca (also recommended additionally backing up the running database and trying that first during a restore)

New catagories

Snapshot it, seems to act like a power outage to the database

• LVM snapshot -> backup that @butitsnotme@lemmy.world

• ZFS snapshot -> backup that @ikidd@lemmy.world (real world recovery experience shows that databases act like they're recovering from a power outage and it works)

• (I assume btrfs snapshot will also work)

One liner self-contained command for crontab

• One-liner crontab that prunes to maintain 7 backups, dump Postgres via pg_dumpall, zips, then rclone them @DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com

Turns out Borgmatic has database hooks

• Borgmatic with its explicit support for databases via hooks (autorestic has hooks but it looks like you have to make database controls yourself) @PastelKeystone@lemmy.world

I've searched this long and hard and I haven't really seen a good consensus that made sense. The SEO is really slowing me on this one, stuff like "restic backup database" gets me garbage.

I've got databases in docker containers in LXC containers, but that shouldn't matter (I think).

me-me about containers in containers

---

I've seen:

• Just backup the databases like everything else, they're "transactional" so it's cool
• Some extra docker image to load in with everything else that shuts down the databases in docker so they can be backed up
• Shut down all database containers while the backup happens
• A long ass backup script that shuts down containers, backs them up, and then moves to the next in the script
• Some mythical mentions of "database should have a command to do a live snapshot, git gud"

None seem turnkey except for the first, but since so many other options exist I have a feeling the first option isn't something you can rest easy with.

I'd like to minimize backup down times obviously, like what if the backup for whatever reason takes a long time? I'd denial of service myself trying to backup my service.

I'd also like to avoid a "long ass backup script" cause autorestic/borgmatic seem so nice to use. I could, but I'd be sad.

So, what do y'all do to backup docker databases with backup programs like Borg/Restic?

[Semi-solved edit]: To answer my question, I was not able to figure out podman. There's just too little community explanations about it for me to pull myself up by my own bootstraps.

So I went for Incus, which has a lot of community explanations (also via searching LXD) and made an Incus container with a macvlan and put the adguard home docker in that. Ran the docker as "root" and used docker compose since I can rely on the docker community directly, but the Incus container is not root-privileged so my goal of avoiding rootful is solved.

Anyone finding this via search, the magic sauce I needed to achieve a technically rootless adguardhome docker setup was:

sudo incus create gooner # For networking, it doesn't need to be named gooner
sudo incus profile device add gooner eth0 nic nictype=macvlan parent=enp0s10 # Get your version of 'enp0s10' via 'ip addr', macvlan thing won't work with wifi
sudo incus profile set gooner security.nesting=true
sudo incus profile set gooner security.syscalls.intercept.mknod=true
sudo incus profile set gooner security.syscalls.intercept.setxattr=true
# Pause here and make adguardhome instance in the Incus web UI (incus-ui-canonical) with the "gooner" profile
# Make sure all network stuff from docker-compose.yml is deleted
# Put docker-compose.yml in /home/${USER}/server/admin/compose/adguardhome
printf "uid $(id -u) 0\ngid $(id -g) 0" | sudo incus config set adguardhome raw.idmap - # user id -> 0 (root), user group id -> 0 (root) since debian cloud default user is root
sudo incus config device add adguardhome config disk source=/home/${USER}/server/admin/config/adguardhome path=/server/admin/config/adguardhome # These link adguard stuff to the real drive
sudo incus config device add adguardhome compose disk source=/home/${USER}/server/admin/compose/adguardhome path=/server/admin/compose/adguardhome
# !! note that the adguardhome docker-compose.yml must say "/server/configs/adguardhome/work" instead of "/home/${USER}/server/configs/adguardhome/work"
# Install docker
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c 'echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null'
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo apt update"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin"
# Disable port 53 binding
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "[ -d /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d ] || mkdir -p /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "printf "%s\n%s\n" '[Resolve]' 'DNSStubListener=no' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/10-make-dns-work.conf"
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved"
# Run the docker
sudo incus exec adguardhome -- bash -c "docker compose -f /server/admin/compose/adguardhome/docker-compose.yml up -d"

I'm trying to get rootless podman to run adguard home on Debian 12. I run the docker-compose.yml file via podman-compose up -d.

I get errors that I cannot google successfully, sadly. I do occasionally see shards of people saying things like "I have adguard running with rootless podman" but never any guides. So tantalizing.

I have applied this change so rootless can yoink port 53:

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

net.ipv4.ip_unprivileged_port_start=53 # at end, required for rootless podman to be able to do 53

(Do I even need that change with a macvlan?)

The sticking point seems to be the macvlan. I want a macvlan so I can host a PiHole as a redundant fallback on the same server. I error with:

Error: netavark: Netlink error: No such device (os error 19) and that error really gets me no where searching for it. I am berry sure the ethernet connection is named enp0s10 and spelled right in the docker-compose file, cause I copied and pasted it in.

I tried forcing the backend to "CNI" but probably did it wrong, it complained about:

WARN[0000] Failed to load cached network config: network dockervlan not found in CNI cache, falling back to loading network dockervlan from disk
WARN[0000] 1 error occurred:
        * plugin type="macvlan" failed (delete): cni plugin macvlan failed: Link not found

(I also made a /etc/cni/net.d/90-dockervlan.conflist file for cni but it didn't seem to see it and I couldn't muster how to get it to see it)

Both still occur if I pre-make the dockervlan with:

podman network create -d macvlan -o parent=enp0s10 --subnet 10.69.69.0/24 --gateway 10.69.69.1 --ip-range 10.69.69.69/32 dockervlan

And adjust the compose file's networks: call to:

networks:
    dockervlan:
        external: true
        name: dockervlan

Has anyone succeeded at this or done something similar?

docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.9'
#
***
NETWORKS
***
networks:
    dockervlan:
        name: dockervlan
        driver: macvlan
        driver_opts:
            parent: enp0s10
        ipam:
            config:
              - type: "host-local"
              - dst: "0.0.0.0/0"
              - subnet: "10.69.69.0/24"
                rangeStart: "10.69.69.69/32" # This range should include the ipv4_address: in services:
                rangeEnd: "10.69.69.79/32"
                gateway: "10.69.69.1"
#
***
SERVICES
***
services:
    adguardhome:
        container_name: adguardhome
        image: docker.io/adguard/adguardhome
        hostname: adguardhome
        restart: unless-stopped
        networks:
            dockervlan:
                ipv4_address: 10.69.69.69# IP address inside the defined dockervlan range
        volumes:
            - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/adguardhome/work:/opt/adguardhome/work'
            - '/home/${USER}/server/configs/adguardhome/conf:/opt/adguardhome/conf'
            #- '/home/${USER}/server/certs/example.com:/certs # optional: if you have your own SSL certs
        ports:
            - '53:53/tcp'
            - '53:53/udp'
            - '80:80/tcp'
            - '443:443/tcp'
            - '443:443/udp'
            - '3000:3000/tcp'

podman 4.3.1

podman-compose 1.0.6

Getting a newer podman-compose is pretty easy peasy, idk about newer podman if that's needed to fix this.