Backing up database when not using docker-compose

[jdhorner]

I've recently migrated a bunch of my docker setups to one central instance of Portainer, with different stacks grouping my containers into purpose. For example, my new Tesla stack runs teslamate, grafana, postgres, and mosquitto. I used to have all that in a docker-compose file, but obviously, that's no longer needed with the new setup. So now, when I run the standard command to create a backup file:

❯ sudo docker-compose exec -T postgres pg_dump -U teslamate teslamate > ./teslamate.bck2

I get an error:

ERROR:
        Can't find a suitable configuration file in this directory or any
        parent. Are you in the right directory?

        Supported filenames: docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.yaml

This is obviously because I don't have a docker-compose.yml file any more. I tried changing it to just use docker, with the lower-case T option:

❯ sudo docker exec -t postgres pg_dump -U teslamate teslamate > ./teslamate.bck2

But that also doesn't work. It just exports the dump script itself into the backup file, instead of the actual DB "doing" stuff.

What's the right way to create a backup if I'm not using docker-compose? I thought it would be easy, but I'm obviously missing something. Thanks very much!

[DrMichael]

This is obviously because I don't have a docker-compose.yml file any more. I tried changing it to just use docker, with the lower-case T option:

❯ sudo docker exec -t postgres pg_dump -U teslamate teslamate > ./teslamate.bck2

But that also doesn't work. It just exports the dump script itself into the backup file, instead of the actual DB "doing" stuff.

What's the right way to create a backup if I'm not using docker-compose? I thought it would be easy, but I'm obviously missing something. Thanks very much!

You need to use the container id instead of "postgres".

[jdhorner]

Strange. It still didn't work, but it didn't work in a new way. This time there was some data exported, but it still just basically dumped the pg_dump script into a text file called teslamate.bck2 instead of filling it with data.

I can always quickly tell because my current backup is around 650 MB, and it's only dumping around a single MB each time, now.

[jdhorner]

Going into Grafana now, I see that something wrong has happened. :/

I had been under the impression that my database was saved as a local file on my docker host machine, mapped in the config file. But I see now it's a volume specified within the config. So I'm actually glad I have a backup! I need to restore my previous data into this new database. But I guess that's beyond the scope of this discussion. (I'm also guessing I can't merge the past day or two of data with my old data? Which is fine; I'd rather have the old data and lose just the last day or two)

version: "3"

services:
  teslamate:
    container_name: teslamate
    image: teslamate/teslamate:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DATABASE_USER=teslamate
      - DATABASE_PASS=[masked]
      - DATABASE_NAME=teslamate
      - DATABASE_HOST=postgres
      - MQTT_HOST=mosquitto
    ports:
      - 4000:4000
    volumes:
      - /home/ubuntu/volumes/teslamate/import:/opt/app/import
    cap_drop:
      - all

  postgres:
    container_name: postgres
    image: postgres:13
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=teslamate
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=[masked]
      - POSTGRES_DB=teslamate
    volumes:
      - teslamate-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data  // <-- like an idiot, I thought this was local. But it's a docker-managed volume. 
      
  grafana:
    container_name: grafana
    image: teslamate/grafana:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - DATABASE_USER=teslamate
      - DATABASE_PASS=[masked]
      - DATABASE_NAME=teslamate
      - DATABASE_HOST=postgres
    ports:
      - 3000:3000
    volumes:
      - teslamate-grafana-data:/var/lib/grafana

  mosquitto:
    container_name: mosquitto
    image: eclipse-mosquitto:2
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: mosquitto -c /mosquitto-no-auth.conf
    ports:
      - 1883:1883
    volumes:
      - mosquitto-conf:/mosquitto/config
      - mosquitto-data:/mosquitto/data

volumes:
  teslamate-db:
  teslamate-grafana-data:
  mosquitto-conf:
  mosquitto-data:

[reuten75]

Hi,
I am also trying to get this to work.
Also running a portainer stack but cannot do the backup with the "standard" command.
Tried to move to the portainer directory where my docker-compose.yml file is located.

When I run this: docker-compose exec -T database pg_dump -U teslamate teslamate > /volume1/docker/backup/teslamate.bck

The output is this:
permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket at unix:///var/run/docker.sock: Get "http://%2Fvar%2Frun%2Fdocker.sock/v1.24/containers/json?filters=%7B%22label%22%3A%7B%22com.docker.compose.container-number%3D1%22%3Atrue%2C%22com.docker.compose.project%3D1%22%3Atrue%2C%22com.docker.compose.service%3Ddatabase%22%3Atrue%7D%7D": dial unix /var/run/docker.sock: connect: permission denied

What will happen if I run it as sudo?

[reuten75]

This happens when I run this command:
sudo docker-compose exec -T database pg_dump -U teslamate teslamate > /volume1/docker/backup/teslamate.bck
Password:
service "database" is not running container #1

It says the service database is not running, why?
Am I pointing to wrong place here?

[bikeymouse]

I use Portainer as well, but still use docker-compose to easily set-up the initial start of all containers, including naming services and creating networks.
From that point on you can manage your containers (start/stop/renew) from Portainer while all the rest keeps working as before, like the naming of the services (like “postgress”) which you then can call from the CLI.

[jdhorner]

Yes, but then it's a "limited" stack inside Portainer, instead of an actual Portainer-controlled stack. I do see the benefits now though.

[sonaldinho89]

Hi,
I recently ran into the same problem.
was able to solve it by running the require commands (slightly modified to remove the "docker-compose exec -T database" component) from within the database container console/terminal that you can access from inside portainer
was then a matter of moving the backup file out of the container using "docker cp"
reverse steps to move the backup file into the new server teslamate-database container
remainder was otherwise as per official instructions. Happy to elaborate further if required

[James62370]

Apologies for bringing up an old thread. I have a good backup. However, since I don't have docker compose, can you explain how you restored it? The online instructions seem to require docker compose. Thank you and I appreciate your assistance.

[Chimpepe]

Hi Guys,

I'm using the Hassio addon https://github.com/matt-FFFFFF/hassio-addon-teslamate and I don't know how to export the data to import it into my new Raspberry with the standalone version.

Does anyone have any ideas? Portainer runs on the Hassio.