Using the Stash Backup Client

How it works

The Backup Client implements a common and universal way to back up a Stash instance, and does the following:

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

You will get an error message if you try to access the Stash web interface, or use the Stash hosting services, when Stash is in maintenance mode.

The client supports Windows and Linux platforms, and Stash versions 2.7 and higher, but does not provide ways to integrate with your organizations IT policies or processes.

As an indication of the unavailability time that can be expected when using the Stash Backup Client, in our testing and internal use we have seen downtimes for Stash of 7–8 minutes with repositories totalling 6 GB in size. For comparison, using Stash DIY Backup for the same repositories typically results in a downtime of less than a minute.

What is backed up

The Backup Client backs up all the following data:

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

The backup does NOT include the following files and directories:

• export/*
• log/* (except for the audit logs)
• 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) 


Note that the caches directory is included in the backup because it contains previously indexed heads. 

Backing up Stash using the client

The Backup Client must be run from somewhere with access to the Stash home directory. Usually, you will run the Backup Client directly on the Stash server. Run the client with the following commands:

cd <path/to/backup-config.properties file>
java -jar <path/to/stash-backup-client.jar>

Configuration options are kept in the backup-config.properties file, an example of which is included with the client. This file is automatically read from the directory you were in when the stash-backup-client is run.  The properties are fully documented in the backup-config.properties file, but include:

stash.baseUrl

Alternatively, these properties can be given on the command-line, when they need to be prefixed with "-D", and be placed before the "-jar" parameter. For example:

java -Dstash.password="admin" -Dstash.user="admin" -Dstash.baseUrl="http://localhost:7990" -Dstash.home=path/to/stash/home -Dbackup.home=path/to/backup-home -jar stash-backup-client.jar

Cancelling the client backup

You can cancel the running client backup operation if necessary.

To cancel the backup:

1. Copy the cancel token echoed by the client in the terminal (or the Command Prompt on Windows):
   
   
2. Go to the Stash interface in your browser. Stash will display this screen:
   
   
3. Click Cancel backup, and enter the cancel token:
   
   
4. Click Cancel backup.

Restoring Stash to use the existing DB

This section applies if you are restoring Stash to fix a corrupted installation, but are able to use the existing DB that Stash was backed up from. This scenario assumes that Stash is to be restored to the same server from which Stash was originally backed up.

The Restore Client must be run on the machine that Stash should be restored to. To ensure restores do not accidentally delete existing data, the Restore Client will only restore into an empty home directory and an empty database.

The Restore Client will use the JDBC connection configuration contained in the backup you are restoring from.

Follow this process:

1. Stop your Stash instance.
2. Delete the content of the current home directory, so that it is empty.
3. Drop the existing tables in your database so it is empty. The database still needs to exist with the same user/password, and it should have the configuration described in the 'Create the Stash database' section of the relevant page here: 
   • MySQL
   • Oracle
   • PostgreSQL
   • SQL Server

4. Run the Restore Client using the following command (replacing 'path/to/stash/home' and '/path/to/original/backup/file' with your own values):

   java -Dstash.home="path/to/stash/home" -jar stash-restore-client.jar /path/to/original/backup/file

5. If you are restoring Stash to fix a corrupted installation, now follow Steps 4 to 6 of the Stash upgrade guide. Note that you should use the same version of Stash that was used to back up Stash.

Restoring Stash to use a newly created DB 

This section applies if you intend to perform a restore into a newly created DB. This scenario assumes the restore is done to a server different from the one from which Stash was originally backed up.

The restore process is database agnostic, meaning the database you are restoring your backup to could be of a different configuration or type from the originally backed up database.

When restoring Stash, the Restore Client must be run on the machine that Stash should be restored to. To ensure restores do not accidentally delete existing data, the Restore Client will only restore into an empty home directory and an empty database. 

Follow this process:

1. Create a new empty home directory using the user account that will be used to run Stash.
2. Create the database. It should have the configuration described in the ' Create the Stash database'  section of the relevant page here:
   • MySQL
   • Oracle
   • PostgreSQL
   • SQL Server
3. Run the Restore Client. See the following section.
4. Follow Steps 4 to 6 of the Stash upgrade guide. Note that you should use the same version of Stash that was used to back up Stash. If you are using MySQL, you also need to download and install the JDBC driver.

Running the Restore Client from the command line

You can run the Restore Client from the command line. In this scenario, as you will have created a new database, you need to specify the JDBC connection parameters that should be used.

The  Restore Client  uses the JDBC connection configuration specified in the  jdbc.driver ,   jdbc.url ,   jdbc.user  and   jdbc.password   parameters used in the command to run the Restore Client (see below). Once the database backup is successfully restored, the client will write the specified parameters to the  stash-config.properties  file in the newly restored Stash home directory, allowing the new instance to connect to the restored database once the steps outlined below are followed.

In this example, you can follow the restore into a newly created PostgreSQL database:

java -Djdbc.override=true -Djdbc.driver=org.postgresql.Driver -Djdbc.url=jdbc:postgresql://HOSTNAME:PORT/DATABASE -Djdbc.user=stashuser -Djdbc.password=password -Dstash.home="path/to/stash/home" -jar /path/to/stash-restore-client.jar /path/to/original/backup/file

Alternatively, you can configure these parameters on the  backup-config.properties file – make sure the file exists in the current working directory. A sample file is shipped with the client. The properties are fully documented in the backup-config.properties file and more details are described below:

Example use of JDBC properties

Example jdbc.driver and jdbc.url properties are shown below:

Debug logging

Debug logging can be turned on by adding the following to the logback.xml file in the working directory from where you're running the backup client. Create this file if it does not already exist.

<included><logger name="com.atlassian.stash" level="DEBUG"/></included>