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Backing up a Passbolt package installation

Prerequisites​

Making regular backups is a critical aspect of managing a passbolt instance. Because passbolt stores important information, it is equally important to have a backup strategy in place.

As a passbolt administrator it is your responsibility to define how often and when to perform backups. Please automate and customize this process to match the needs and policies of your organization.

Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

  • Ensure that the backups are taken at intervals that match your usage
  • Take these backups off-site, or to another environment than the live one
  • Make sure the backup is encrypted and stored in a safe location
  • Practice drills and test the backups to make sure they work

What to backup?​

If you are a PRO user, ensure you have a backup of your subscription key.

There are also several elements you need to backup:

1. The database​

We made a dedicated command in order to make a backup of the database, it uses mysqldump but we recommend to use the passbolt command as it has been made to avoid any pasting or logins details errors.

sudo su -s /bin/bash -c "/usr/share/php/passbolt/bin/cake passbolt sql_export" www-data

2. The server public and private keys​

The GPG server keys are stored under /etc/passbolt/gpg/ folder:

  • private key is serverkey_private.asc
  • public key is serverkey.asc

3. The application configuration​

Passbolt package stores all configuration files under /etc/passbolt/* but the one you need is /etc/passbolt/passbolt.php

4. The avatars​

Since Passbolt 3.2

User's avatars are no longer stored on disk but on the avatars table of passbolt database.

Back up /usr/share/php/passbolt/webroot/img/avatar to avoid losing the profile images.

sudo tar cvfzp passbolt-avatars.tar.gz -C /usr/share/php/passbolt/ webroot/img/avatar

Backup list​

At the end of the backup process you should have:

  • a dump of your database
  • the server public and private GPG keys
  • a copy of your config/passbolt.php configuration file
  • a copy of your avatar folder (only if Passbolt version < 3.2)

Migrate the back-up to the new server​

We will still consider that the backup files are in your user home directory ~/backup

On the original server​

Use a tool such as tar to compress the backup directory

tar -cvzf /home/backup.tar.gz /home/backup

You should copy the compressed backup file to the new server. Use a tool such as scp to do it

scp /home/backup.tar.gz 
new_server_username@server_ip:/home

On the new server​

The compressed backup file should appears inside your home directory, we will extract using a tool such as tar

tar -xzvf /home/backup.tar.gz -C /home/backup

The uncompressed backup file are now available inside your home directory.

What about the secret keys of my collaborators?​

Every user private key should also be backed up, this is however not something we/you can automate easily for now (passbolt might provide a functionality for this in the future). We believe it is best if this is the responsibility of the end user. There is a dedicated step during the extension setup to that purpose.

As an administrator you should stress the importance of backing up secret keys to other users. For example this warning could be part of the initial information message sent to introduce passbolt to new users.

It is possible that having users back up their own keys may not be realistic or desirable in your case. In this case you can opt in for an alternative strategy such as setting up the account with/for them and taking a backup of the secret keys then. In the worst case scenario you could automate the process by installing a script on your users machine that would make that backup for you.