11.2 Backups

For performance, Couchbase mainly stores and retrieves information for clients using RAM. Eventually, it stores all data to disk to provide a higher level of reliability. If a node fails and the cached data is lost, you can still recover items from disk. This enables you to perform backup and restore operations.

The Couchbase Commandline interface for administration includes the cbbackup Tool for making backups, which creates a copy of data from an entire running cluster, an entire bucket, a single node, or a single bucket on a single functioning node.

To make a backup of Couchbase:

1. Enter the /bin/cbbackup directory of your Couchbase installation.
   
   

2. Run the following command:

   $ cbbackup [options] [source] [backup-dir] -u [admin] -p [password]

   The source is a URL to the cluster/node/ directory that you want to back up and the backup-dir is the directory where you want to store the data.

   Example - Couchbase Backup

   $ cbbackup http://HOST:8091 /backup-42 -u Administrator -p password
   $ cbbackup http://HOST:8091 /backup-42 -m diff -u Administrator -p password
   $ cbbackup http://HOST:8091 /backup-42 -m diff -u Administrator -p password

   The stated cluster/node/ directory will now be backed up. 

   There are also several other options you can use with this command, see https://developer.couchbase.com/documentation/server/5.1/backup-restore/backup-restore.html.