Backup

The most important thing to back up is the Postgres database, that’s where all user data lives. The media volume can usually be re-fetched from upstream, and static files are regenerated on every container start.

You should perform a test restore at least once, so you know the procedure works when you actually need it.

Database

Make a dump of the database:

# Stop the other services so the database isn't changed mid-export
docker compose stop web nginx cache celery_worker celery_beat
docker compose exec db pg_dumpall --clean --username wger > backup.sql
docker compose start

To restore from a dump:

docker compose stop
docker volume remove docker_postgres-data
docker compose up db
cat backup.sql | docker compose exec -T db psql --username wger --dbname wger
docker compose up

Media

If you haven’t uploaded your own exercise images, exercise videos or gallery images, you don’t need to back up the media volume, the contents can be re-downloaded from the upstream wger instance. Truncate the relevant tables and run the sync commands again:

docker compose exec db psql -U wger -c "TRUNCATE TABLE exercises_exerciseimage, exercises_exercisevideo;"
docker compose exec db psql -U wger -c "TRUNCATE TABLE nutrition_image;"

docker compose exec web python3 manage.py download-exercise-images
docker compose exec web python3 manage.py download-exercise-videos

If you do have uploaded media that needs to be preserved, such as gallery entries, consult these options for backing up Docker volumes:

• https://www.docker.com/blog/back-up-and-share-docker-volumes-with-this-extension/

• https://github.com/BretFisher/docker-vackup

Static files

The contents of the static volume are 100% generated and recreated on startup, no need to back up anything.