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Intermediate6 lessons149 minutes

Backups and restores

Back up a database and files, apply retention, and above all verify that a restore works before you need it.

A backup never restored is not a backup: it is an assumption. This course builds a full chain, then spends as long restoring it as producing it.

What you will be able to do

  • Back up a PostgreSQL or MariaDB database consistently
  • Back up files with rsync without destroying the destination
  • Apply a retention rule that does not delete the only valid copy
  • Restore for real, and make that verification routine

Before this course

Taken from the learning path this course belongs to: the course placed just before it. A suggested order, not a lock — nothing here closes until you have finished it.

Outline

  1. 01

    Producing backups

    Databases and files, with the traps particular to each.

  2. 02

    Restoring

    The only step that proves the rest was worth anything.

Technical content last reviewed on 3 August 2026