Bitbucket server backup client

[Yogesh Mude]

I have some questions regarding Bitbucket server backup client, these are as follows

1. If using the backup client, it will take backup of all data/home directory so we can also able to copy home directory manually, then why we need to use the Backup client.
2. Using backup client can we able to restore data from one server to another.
3. We have around 120 GB data on our server and we want to take backup of every 2-3 hrs, this backup we want to store on another server.
4. We want to resync our Bitbucket server data from one server to another, for this which approach we have to use or please provide some suggestions so that we achieve this.

 Thanks,

Yogesh

[Ana Retamal]

Hi Yogesh, find below the answer to your questions: 

1. In short, using the Backup client is safer and less time consuming than doing it manually.The Backup Client backs up all the following data:

• the database Bitbucket Server is connected to (either the internal or external DB)
• managed Git repositories
• the Bitbucket Server audit logs
• installed plugins and their data

The backup does NOT include the following files and directories:

• export/*
• log/* (except for the audit logs)
• shared/data/db* (HSQL data in the DB is backed up, but the files on disk are not)
• tmp
• the plugins directory (except for the installed-plugins directory)  

It also:

• Locks access to the Bitbucket Server application, the repositories managed by Bitbucket Server and the Bitbucket Server database for the entire duration of the back up. This state is called 'maintenance mode'.
• Checks that all Git and database operations have completed.
• Performs an application-specific backup of the Bitbucket Server home directory and the Bitbucket Server database. The backup is generic and does not depend on the server or database configuration. 
• Stores the backup as a single tar file on the local filesystem in the specified location. 
• Unlocks Bitbucket Server from maintenance mode.

2. Yes, the instructions are provided at Restoring Bitbucket Server.

3. You should only need to create a bare mirror of the git repository. This will backup in full the git repository. To do that:

git clone --mirror

Then you can do a git remote update every hour to get updates. You don't have to move the 120GB every 2-3 hours.

4. What do you mean by resync from one server to another? Are you referring to a mirror? The mirrors automatically keep all repositories hosted on them in sync with the primary Bitbucket instance. Mirrors can be configured to mirror all repositories in all projects from their primary Bitbucket instance, or a selection of projects configured by an administrator. For more information you can read Smart mirroring.

Hope that helps :)

Ana