Database Automation

BarakoCMS includes built-in tools for automated database management, ensuring your data is safe and easy to restore without deep DBA knowledge.

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Automated Backups

For production environments using Docker Compose, we include a Backup Sidecar service.

• Schedule: Runs automatically at 2:00 AM daily.
• Location: Backups are stored locally in the ./backups directory.
• Retention: Keeps the last 7 days of backups (older files are auto-deleted).

Configuration

You can adjust the schedule and retention in docker-compose.yml:

environment:
  # Cron expression (e.g., "0 2 * * *" = 2:00 AM)
  BACKUP_CRON_SCHEDULE: "0 2 * * *"
  
  # Number of days to keep files
  BACKUP_KEEP_DAYS: 7

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Manual Operations

Trigger a Backup Immediately

If you need to make a snapshot before a deployment:

docker compose exec db-backup /backup_job.sh

You will see a new file in your ./backups folder: barako_backup_YYYY-MM-DD_...sql.gz.

Restoring Data

We provide a helper script to restore your database from a backup file.

⚠️ Warning: This will overwrite your current database!

# 1. Make the script executable (only needed once)
chmod +x scripts/restore-db.sh

# 2. Run the restore command
./scripts/restore-db.sh ./backups/barako_backup_2025-12-16_02-00-00.sql.gz

The script will:

1. Ask for confirmation.
2. Stop the application container (to verify no locks).
3. Drop and recreate the database schema from the backup.
4. Restart the application.

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Schema Migrations

BarakoCMS uses Marten for document storage. Database schema changes are handled automatically on application startup.

Development Mode

• Behavior: AutoCreate.All
• What it means: The app can make destructuve changes to the schema. Great for rapid prototyping.

Production Mode

• Behavior: AutoCreate.CreateOrUpdate
• What it means: The app will only make safe, additive changes (e.g., adding a column/index). It will never drop tables or columns, preventing accidental data loss during updates.