Node backup recommendations

There are two ways to back up. It is either possible to back up the entire disk or individual directories.

• Very simple and straightforward option
• Especially suitable when using VM
• There is no need to deal with anything else when backing up the entire disk. However, this option is demanding on disk capacity, the size of the backed up data will increase over time.

• A more complex but definitely more economical option in terms of disk capacity
• What to back up:
  • /var/elachain/ca
    • Contains the cryptography of your node and is probably the most important part of the backup. If this data is lost, it would be necessary to generate a new cryptography and update the entire network config.
  • /var/elachain/gateway/wallet
    • Contains already issued user certificates. If you want to maintain the true uniqueness of individual users, it is essential to have these certificates available at the time of renewal.
  • /var/elachain/apps/admin/mongo
    • The database is used at the user level. To restore all things created in the Admin application, it is necessary to have this db. It is possible to back up only the dump or the whole directory. In the case of a full directory backup, the database keys stored in the /usr/local/NODE_CONTROL/scripts/apps/admin/.env file must also be backed up. The database dump can be done using the command (assuming the container with the db is OK)
    • The dump will be saved in the directory /var/elachain/apps/admin/mongo_dump

source /usr/local/NODE_CONTROL/scripts/apps/admin/.env && docker exec apps-admin-mongo bash -c „mongodump –username=${mongo_username} –password=${mongo_password} –authenticationDatabase=admin –db=blockchain -o=/data/dump“

• What you don't need to back up:
  • Files in the directory /usr/local/NODE_CONTROL
    • It mainly contains files available from the git repository and possibly generated files that are not necessary for recovery
  • peerX and couchdbX directories in /var/elachain
    • They contain data about the current configuration of the peer and the data in the ledger itself
    • Peers can be restarted (and connected to the same channel / installed cc) and the data stored in the ledger itself is automatically synchronized