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Backups

Hostim backs up your databases and volumes every day. Backups are included in every plan. There is nothing to configure.

What is backed up​

ResourceBacked upWhat you download
PostgreSQLYesSQL dump (.sql.zst)
MySQLYesSQL dump (.sql.zst)
VolumesYesArchive of all files (.tar.zst)
RedisNo—

Redis is not backed up. Use it for data you can rebuild, like caches, sessions and queues.

Schedule and retention​

  • Each project is backed up once a day, at a fixed time. Every database and volume in the project is backed up in the same run.
  • We keep the backups of the last 7 days. Older backups are removed automatically.
  • A new database or volume is included in the next daily run.

The console and hostim backups show the backup time in your local time zone, and when the next run starts.

Where backups are stored​

Backups are stored outside the cluster, in object storage at Hetzner in Falkenstein, Germany. They are encrypted, and each project has its own backup repository.

See your backups​

Console. Open a project and go to the Backups tab. It lists every database and volume with the time of its last backup, and the history of the daily runs. Every database and volume page also has its own Backups tab with all its backups.

CLI.

hostim backups                    # last backup per database and volume, schedule, retention
hostim backups ls <name>          # all backups of one database or volume, newest first

If a database and a volume have the same name, add --kind postgres, --kind mysql or --kind volume.

Download a backup​

Console. Click Download next to a backup. Hostim prepares the file first. This can take a few minutes for a large volume. Then the download starts. The download link stays valid for 24 hours.

CLI.

hostim backups download --latest <name>   # newest backup of one database or volume
hostim backups download <backup-id>       # one specific backup

The CLI waits until the file is ready, then downloads it. If the download stops, run the same command again. It continues where it stopped.

The size in the backup list is the size of the data before compression. The downloaded file is smaller.

Use a downloaded backup​

The file name is the name of the database or volume, plus the backup time in UTC. Files are compressed with zstd.

Database:

zstd -d db-20261006-1255.sql.zst
psql -h <host> -U <user> -d <database> < db-20261006-1255.sql    # PostgreSQL
mysql -h <host> -u <user> -p <database> < db-20261006-1255.sql   # MySQL

When you load a PostgreSQL dump into a server outside Hostim, psql may print errors for the extensions pg_stat_kcache and set_user. Our servers have these extensions. Other servers often do not. You can ignore these errors. Your tables and data still load.

To load a PostgreSQL dump back into a Hostim database, use the CLI:

hostim db postgres import <name> -f db-20261006-1255.sql

For MySQL, run mysql through the Bastion.

Volume:

tar --zstd -xf data-20261006-0605.tar.zst

The archive unpacks into a folder named after the volume.

Restore​

You cannot restore a backup from the console or the CLI yet. To restore, download the backup and load it yourself (see above), or contact support and we restore it for you.

Your own backups​

You can also take your own backups at any time, and keep them as long as you want. Run pg_dump or mysqldump, or copy volume files, over SSH through the Bastion.