Backups

Two different things need backing up, with different tools and rhythms.

1. The panel database

PostgreSQL holds users, servers, roles, audit logs — everything except the game files themselves. If it is gone, the fleet is unmanageable.

• Take automated dumps on a schedule (daily minimum) and ship them off the panel host.
• Retain enough history to survive a weekend discovery (7–30 days is typical).
• Restore-test quarterly into a scratch environment. See disaster recovery.

2. Game servers

Users back up their own servers (user backups), but operators own the policy underneath:

• Set sane default quotas and retention so one server cannot fill a node.
• Keep node-level snapshots or off-node copies for what user backups do not cover (same-node copies die with the node).
• Monitor backup failures — a backup job that has errored for a month is the same as no backup. Failures surface in server views and logs.

Rules

1. 3-2-1: three copies, two media, one off-site — for the database at least.
2. Encrypt off-site copies. Backups contain credentials and private player data.
3. Document the restore path where the on-call person will find it at 3 AM, not in someone’s head.