Custom backup in WordPress app

federico.ballarini · February 26, 2025, 12:09pm

Hi all, I installed the WordPress app and created a secondary db. The modulo backup only the WordPress db, It’s possibile to define custom backup and restore commands?

capote · February 26, 2025, 1:42pm

This is what you should do with WordPress. I use the Plugin Updraftplus

federico.ballarini · October 15, 2025, 8:21pm

Hi all, anyone could help me with this topic wihtout using internal wordpress plugin?

mrmarkuz · October 15, 2025, 9:59pm

That’s not possible without modifiying the app package to backup all databases and restore them.

The problem is that on restore a new wordpress package is pulled that again just restores the wordpress database.

It’s possible to change ../etc/state-include.conf and ../bin/module-dump-state to at least backup the second database so you can find it in the restored app in the state directory to maybe import it manually. But this change won’t survive an update.

stephdl · October 16, 2025, 7:00am

github.com/NethServer/ns8-wordpress

imageroot/bin/module-dump-state

14f28e8fc


      
          # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
          #
          
          set -e
          
          if ! systemctl --user -q is-active wordpress.service; then
              exit 0
          fi
          
          podman exec mariadb-app mysqldump \
                  --databases wordpress \
                  --default-character-set=utf8mb4 \
                  --skip-dump-date \
                  --ignore-table=mysql.event \
                  --single-transaction \
                  --quick \
                  --add-drop-table  > wordpress.sql

github.com/NethServer/ns8-wordpress

imageroot/actions/restore-module/40restore_database

main

#!/bin/bash

#
# Copyright (C) 2022 Nethesis S.r.l.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
#

set -e -o pipefail
exec 1>&2 # Redirect any output to the journal (stderr)

# Prepare an initialization script that restores the dump file
mkdir -vp initdb.d
mv -v wordpress.sql initdb.d
#do the bash file to restore and exit once done
cat - >initdb.d/zz_wordpress_restore.sh <<'EOS'
# Print additional information:
mysql --version
# The script is sourced, override entrypoint args and exit:
set -- true
docker_temp_server_stop

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github.com/NethServer/ns8-wordpress

imageroot/etc/state-include.conf

main

#
# Roundcube state/backup include patterns for Restic
# Syntax reference: https://pkg.go.dev/path/filepath#Glob
# Restic --files-from: https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/stable/040_backup.html#including-files
# List here what you want to save during backup : volumes or file Path


state/wordpress.sql
state/config/uploads.ini
volumes/wordpress-app

stephdl · October 16, 2025, 7:29am

Can we accept to backup and restore all the databases ???

I designed ns8-lamp for that but for ns8-wordpress ???

mrmarkuz · October 16, 2025, 7:38am

May I ask why another database is needed in Wordpress? Is it because of a plugin?

federico.ballarini · October 16, 2025, 10:26am

Hi @mrmarkuz and @stephdl

I know that this is not the standard configuration, but we have some sites with a sub-site (maybe imported from other servers) and we have two separates databases.

I think that is better to backup all to avoid data-loss, but if this is not possible, should be better to avoid users creating databases…

stephdl · October 16, 2025, 10:29am

is it possible to use ns8-mariadb and connect from the pod to the mysql server by using the wiregard IP ? 10.5.4.1 ……

like this the database is external and everything could be saved/restored ?

federico.ballarini · October 16, 2025, 10:50am

I think it could work, but it was only for convenience to have all inside the same cointainer and if you restart the instance you restart wordpress and the db.

mrmarkuz · October 16, 2025, 12:27pm

It’s some effort but you could change the table prefix from wp_ to for example wp2_ for the second site so the tables for both sites could be in one database.

federico.ballarini · October 18, 2025, 8:02pm

It’s not simple because if you have an external agency that works only on this db, it’s better to have separate databases. But I don’t understand why we don’t want to backup all databases… if it is allowed to create the db, we should backup them.

mrmarkuz · October 18, 2025, 10:22pm

It’s always possible to create a database in the DB containers of the apps but usually just the database that’s used by the app is added to the backup (except for the database apps and ns8-lamp AFAIK) so we were just looking if we can keep it like that.

It’s possible to backup all databases but it needs a code update, a test and a new release.

As you want to keep the databases in ns8-wordpress (and not move it to ns8-mariadb) to be able to restart everything together in one app, there seems no other way than to include all databases in the backup/restore.

EDIT:

It seems multisite is also a legitimate use case for multiple databases, see for example WordPress Multisite: The Everything-You-Need-To-Know Guide

stephdl · October 19, 2025, 7:49am

this was how ns7 worked…..we backuped and restored all databases, if one failed then the full restoration was failed. Therefore I am not really a big fan of this.

stephdl · October 20, 2025, 7:13am

how to install it, is it a another container I guess

mrmarkuz · October 20, 2025, 7:23am

I’m not sure if another container is needed, I think it’s workable in the same wordpress container but it needs to be manually configured.

Multisite can be enabled in wp-config, see Create A Network – Advanced Administration Handbook | Developer.WordPress.org

Then it seems you can either use either domain names (in that case another HTTP route is needed) or paths for the other sites.

But I didn’t test it yet…

EDIT:

Another resource: Migrate WordPress sites into WordPress Multisite – Advanced Administration Handbook | Developer.WordPress.org

stephdl · October 20, 2025, 7:28am

ok

@federico.ballarini can you help us to integrate multi database backup in wordpress

the backup could look to something like that

the restore could look to

federico.ballarini · October 20, 2025, 9:07am

Yeah, for sure. Tell me what you need

stephdl · October 20, 2025, 9:32am

a pull request and the tests of the changes

ask anything you need