# How I do local development CockroachDB Backups

I have this [taskfile](https://taskfile.dev/) tasks to make running commands easier:

```yaml
version: 3
tasks:
  backup:
    desc: Backup the local CockroachDB database
    cmds:
      - task: backup-to
        vars:
          FOLDER: "backup/local-node-backup"
  restore:
    desc: Restore the local CockroachDB backup database
    cmds:
      - task: restore-from
        vars:
          FOLDER: "backup/local-node-backup"
  backup-to:
    requires:
      vars:
        - FOLDER
    cmds:
      - cmd: mkdir -p cockroach-extern
        ignore_error: true
      - |
        cockroach sql --insecure --host=localhost --port=26257 --execute="BACKUP INTO 'nodelocal://1/{{.FOLDER}}';"
  restore-from:
    requires:
      vars:
        - FOLDER
    cmds:
      - |
        cockroach sql --insecure --host=localhost --port=26257 --execute="DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS defaultdb;"
      - |
        cockroach sql --insecure --host=localhost --port=26257 --execute="RESTORE DATABASE defaultdb FROM LATEST IN 'nodelocal://1/{{.FOLDER}}';"
```

And I have my `docker-compose.yml` setup like this:

```yaml
services:
    crdb:
        image: cockroachdb/cockroach:latest-v25.1
        ports:
            - '26257:26257'
            - '8080:8080'
        command: start-single-node --insecure
        volumes:
            - crdb:/cockroach/cockroach-data
            - type: bind
              source: ./cockroach-extern
              target: /cockroach/cockroach-data/extern
volumes:
    crdb:
```

And from my own project docs:

## Database Backup and Restore

You will notice in `docker-compose.yaml` these few lines of code at the database declaration. Let me explain what's going on.

```yaml
    - type: bind
      source: ./cockroach-extern
      target: /cockroach/cockroach-data/extern
```

CockroachDB saves all backups, exports etc. to folder `/cockroach/cockroach-data/extern` so we will bind this folder to a local folder in the project directory so we can have access to this data and manipulate it.

## Backups

Info about backups [https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/take-full-and-incremental-backups](https://www.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/take-full-and-incremental-backups)

To run a full backup we will run the following command

```sql
BACKUP TO 'nodelocal://1/cockroach-backup';
```

This will backup all the data into the cluster to the local directory of nodeID `1` and into the `cockroach-backup` folder in the `extern` root directory of the respective node.

Now if you look into the local folder you will notice `./cockroach-extern/cockroach-backup` contains some data.

## Restores

To run a restore of `defaultdb`, the database the app uses locally we have to run the following command

```sql
RESTORE DATABASE defaultdb FROM LATEST IN 'nodelocal://1/cockroach-backup' WITH new_db_name = 'new_defaultdb';
```

This command will look at the LATEST backup in the `cockroach-backup` folder and will restore database `defaultdb` and assign it a new name called `new_defaultdb`. Now you can access the restored version of the database by changing the connection string to point to `new_defaultdb`.