Your data within your Deskpro helpdesk is stored either in the database, or as an attachment. We recommend ensuring that both of these are backed up on a regular basis and stored off-server.

Backing up your database - mysqldump

Deskpro uses MySQL as a database engine, which has the function mysqldump to export databases. This can be used to do a one-time backup of the database, which can be useful for migrations or before making database changes.

The following command should work for most helpdesks:

sudo mysqldump --opt -Q --hex-blob {instance_id} > ~/{instance_id}.sql
 copy

You will need to replace {instance_id} with the ID of your instance and the file will be created in your home (~/) directory.

Troubleshooting

Access Denied

If you see the following error:

ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO)
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You need to enter your database credentials in order to run this command. If you know your database root password (this may differ from your server root password), you can add the flag -p to the command to be prompted for the password:

sudo mysqldump --opt -Q -p --hex-blob {instance_id} > ~/{instance_id}.sql
 copy

If you do not know your database root password, you can fall back to using the credentials Deskpro uses to access your database. These can be found in /opt/deskpro/data/instances/{instance_id}/services/deskpro/config/deskpro-config.php.

You can then use these credentials by specifying the user with -u{user} and prompting for the password with -p:

sudo mysqldump --opt -Q -u{user} -p --hex-blob {instance_id} > ~/{instance_id}.sql
 copy

External MySQL servers

If you are using an external MySQL server, you can still perform the mysqldump, but you need to also specify the IP or hostname of the external server with the -h flag. You will also have to specify a user which is allowed to access the database from the server you're on.

We recommend using the credentials Deskpro are using (as the above example) if this applies to your instance.

sudo mysqldump --opt -Q -u{user} -p -h {IP or hostname} --hex-blob {instance_id} > ~/{instance_id}.sql
 copy

Backing up your attachments

Filesystem

If you are using the filesystem to store your attachments, these will be stored by default in /opt/deskpro/data/instances/{instance_id}/attachments

You can compress these into a tarball with the following command:

sudo tar cvzf ~/{instance_id}.tar.gz /opt/deskpro/data/instances/{instance_id}/attachments
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This will create a tarball in your home directory (~/) containing your attachments.

S3

We recommend following your S3 provider's best practices for backing up attachments stored in S3.

Restoring your backup

You should now have either 2 backup files (a .sql file and a .tar.gz file), or a database backup (.sql) and a restored S3 bucket.

Recreating your instance

To restore your backup, you will first need to ensure you have a working OPC. If not, you will need to follow the installation instructions for a fresh install:

• Install on Ubuntu

• Install on VMWare

Once you have a working OPC, you will need to create a new instance. With this new instance, you may have a new Instance ID which will need to be placed in {new_instance_id} in the following commands.

Restoring your database

With your recreated instance, you will need to restore your database. To do so, you will need to empty your new instance's database and recreate it in MySQL:

mysql
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After logging into your MySQL prompt, first drop your database and then recreate it with the following commands:

DROP DATABASE {new_instance_id};
CREATE DATABASE {new_instance_id};
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Exit the MySQL prompt.

exit
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Now you're back on your bash prompt, you can now import the sql file into the new database:

mysql {new_instance_id} < ~/{instance_id}.sql
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The MySQL backup will now restore into the new instance's database.

Restoring your attachments - Filesystem

With the new instance created, you will need to extract your tarball backup into the new attachments directory of the restored instance. Assuming the backup file is stored in your home directory (~/), the command to do so is as follows:

sudo tar xzvfC ~/{instance_id}.tar.gz /opt/deskpro/data/instances/{new_instance_id}
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You will now need to confirm the ownership of the files is correct by running the following command:

chown -R deskpro:deskpro /opt/deskpro/data/instances/{new_instance_id}/attachments
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Restoring your attachments - S3

As the S3 bucket will retain the attachments and file structure, you will simply need to re-attach the S3 bucket to your instance to restore access to your files.

To do that, please follow the guide on configuring an S3 bucket.