An
HA deployment keeps running when one of its three machines fails, because every part of Buttons, including the database, runs on all three. That protects you against losing a machine. It doesn't protect you against a bad change, an accidental deletion or losing the whole cluster: a mistake is copied to all three machines just as quickly as everything else. For those cases you need a backup.
Where backups are kept#
Scheduled and manual backups are stored on storage that is copied to all three machines. A backup therefore survives losing any one machine, and you can restore it from Settings as usual.
The backups are still kept inside the cluster, though. If you lose all three machines, or their storage, the backups are lost with them.
Keep a copy outside the cluster#
To be able to recover from losing the whole cluster, keep a recent copy of your configuration somewhere else:
- Export the configuration from Settings → Configuration data, as described in Export configuration.
- Store the downloaded archive outside the cluster, for example on a file server or in your organization's backup system.
- Repeat this regularly, and after any large change.
Note
A future version of Buttons will be able to copy backups automatically to S3 or Azure Blob Storage. Until then, exporting the configuration is how you get a copy out of the cluster.
Recover#
What to do depends on what you've lost:
What happened | What to do |
|---|
One machine failed. | Nothing needs restoring. Buttons keeps running on the other two machines. Bring the failed machine back as soon as you can, because the cluster can't survive losing a second one. |
A change or deletion went wrong. | |
The whole cluster or its storage is lost. | Contact Bitfocus to reinstall the cluster, then import your most recent exported archive, as described in Import configuration. |
A restore replaces the current configuration. Everyone connected is disconnected while it runs, and anything changed after the backup or export was made is lost.
Where to go next#
