# Backups > Audience: administrators. This page is hidden from members and guests in the sidebar, the search > index, and the documentation export. It describes the backup service, where archives live, and how > to schedule and rotate them. DevPlace ships an enterprise-grade backup service that captures point-in-time copies of platform data as compressed `tar.gz` archives. Every backup runs as an asynchronous job in a subprocess off the request path, so creating a backup never blocks the server or slows requests. ## Targets A backup captures one of four targets: - **Database** - a consistent SQLite snapshot of the main database plus the Devii task and lesson databases. The snapshot uses SQLite's online backup API, so it is consistent even while the server is writing under WAL. - **Uploads** - every attachment and project file under the uploads directory. This is normally the largest target. - **Keys and config** - the VAPID notification keys and other small config artifacts. - **Full data directory** - the database snapshot, uploads, and keys in one archive. Regenerable and volatile data (job staging, locks, zip archives, container workspaces, search caches) is excluded because it can be rebuilt and would only bloat the archive. ## Where backups live Archives are written under the runtime data directory at `data/backups/`, sharded into a two-level `xx/yy` tree taken from the random tail of each backup's identifier so no single directory grows without bound. Each archive is named `target-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-id.tar.gz` and recorded with its size, file count, and a SHA-256 checksum for integrity verification. Staging happens under `data/backup_staging/` and is removed as soon as the archive is built. Because everything lives under the single data directory, pointing `DEVPLACE_DATA_DIR` at a mounted volume in production places backups on that volume automatically. ## Creating a backup Open **Admin -> Backups**, choose a target, and select **Create backup**. The dashboard shows the job moving from pending to running to done; when it completes a download link appears. Backups can also be created from the command line with `devplace backups run ` (the running server processes the enqueued job), or by asking Devii to back up a target. **Downloading is restricted to the primary administrator** - the earliest-created Admin, resolved by `database.get_primary_admin_uid` / `utils.is_primary_admin`. `GET /admin/backups/{uid}/download` returns `403` for every other administrator, and the `download_url` is withheld from them at every endpoint (their Download control renders disabled). Any admin may still create, schedule, and delete backups. ## Scheduling and rotation A backup schedule fires backups automatically. Each schedule has: - a **target** (database, uploads, keys, or full), - a **trigger** - either an interval in seconds or a 5-field cron expression (`minute hour dom month dow`), - a **keep_last** retention count - after each scheduled backup completes, older backups created by the same schedule beyond this count are deleted to reclaim space (0 keeps them all). Schedules are evaluated by the backup service, which runs only on the worker holding the service lock, so each scheduled backup fires exactly once. Create, edit, enable, disable, run, and delete schedules from the dashboard. ## Storage visibility The dashboard reports the size and file count of every major data area (database, uploads, attachments, project files, keys, zip archives, search data, container workspaces, and the backups themselves), the total data-directory footprint, the total size and count of stored backups, and the underlying disk usage (total, used, free, and percent). The scan runs in a worker thread and is cached briefly so it never blocks page rendering. ## Retention and deletion Backup archives are permanent operational artifacts: unlike the async job rows that track them, an archive is never swept away by job retention. It is removed only when an administrator deletes it, when a schedule rotates it out via keep_last, or by the `devplace backups clear` command. Deleting a backup is a hard delete that unlinks the archive file and reclaims its disk space immediately, and is recorded in the audit log. ## Restore This service creates and stores backups; it does not restore them into a live server, because overwriting the database or uploads while the application is running risks corruption. To restore, stop the server, unpack the relevant archive over the data directory (each archive is rooted at `database/`, `uploads/`, or `keys/`), verify the SHA-256 checksum recorded for the backup, and start the server again. ## Command line - `devplace backups list` - list recorded backups with target, status, size, and filename. - `devplace backups run ` - enqueue a backup for the running server. - `devplace backups prune` - remove backup records whose archive file is missing. - `devplace backups clear` - delete every backup archive and record.