Lab notes: Gitlab container backup
A quick note about how to backup a self hosted Gitlab container.
Hosting my code in a private git repository was in my initial plans for the container edition of my home-server.
The installation with docker-compose was straightforward.
I published the container behind an Nginx Proxy Manager secured with an Let's Encrypt certificate and 2FA.
How to backup
Create a backup
docker exec -t gitlab gitlab-backup create
Verify the backup was created
docker exec -t gitlab ls -lsha /var/opt/gitlab/backups
Copy the backup files to a safe place
docker cp gitlab:/var/opt/gitlab/backups/. /mnt/nas/backup/cargo/gitlab
Customize retention
## Limit backup lifetime to 7 days - 604800 seconds
gitlab_rails['backup_keep_time'] = 604800
And rembember to include the config and secrets in the backup
Warning
Warning: Your gitlab.rb and gitlab-secrets.json files contain sensitive data and are not included in this backup. You will need these files to restore a backup. Please back them up manually.